I was in Rome last week and pleasantly surprised to see how many tiny cars they use.
There were plenty of Smart cars, but also many other ultra minis like Citroën AMI, XEV Yo-Yo and Renault Twizy.
They’re not just concept cars or used as gimmicks like elsewhere. People actually use them for their daily business.
The traffic in Rome is insane though. The reason they use tiny cars isn’t that the roads are small, but due to congestion and parking. It makes very little sense to own a car there at all.
I mean why would that not be so? I no longer own a car but when I did, it was usually oversized for what I needed to transport (me and my backpack).
If you need to explain to Trump why many american cars do not sell well in Europe just show him this image. Chances that he’ll get it is higher than zero at least.
I cannot imaging driving around this hulk of a car all day. How would I even find parking space?
I mean these are also two different types of cars. But it is actually so weird to see even two cars of the same type made in different times next to each other. It’s like somebody unintentionally moved the scale slider of the level editor.
I miss mini-trucks. Compact size cab with full size bed, engine from a sedan and 4wd. Good economy, much cheaper, great utility, better handling, less dead children, and a lot more fun out on the trails.
Caustic masculinityfear of smol pp ruins everything.It’s just marketing. Australia shares a lot of American culture and we still have car based utes, though larger vehicles are also becoming popular here
Never knew we were body-shaming people & yet here we are.
Speaking of Mini-Trucks, I actually see them in use in my area a lot (usually the 3-wheeled variety)
Pp size matters not, big truck people are still afraid.
Emotional support truck vs. Sports car
I mean, a Miata is a good car, but a hatchback seats a family and gets the groceries.
I’ll just leave this here. Took this shot of my car a few years ago.
Ugh, that reminds me - just a few weeks ago, I ended up next to this monstrosity:
perfect working height for unscrewing part of the diff
With it being that high up off the ground, using the truck bed for any actual purpose is going to be difficult, unless you have an actual semitruck loading bay in your back yard.
That truck has not, and will not, experience a single second of actual work.
Why does it remind me of this two
I like your car
Thanks!
It literally looks like you could just drive under that fucking monstrosity lmao
just wait for the cars to get even bigger and you can just cut through traffic by driving under them
now a chart of how many kids each of these has killed in an accident
I get the argument, but it’s pretty obviously disingenuous.
The 250 is much less common than the 150. There are admittedly plenty of them. The 250 is bigger in every dimension.
And even my WRX towers over a Miata.
I just think Miata to 250 is a pointless comparison. And I say that agreeing that Miatas are fun and that the 250 (and even the 150) are way, way too big. I have a buddy with a 150, and it’s filled with his tools and lumber every day. I’d argue the 250 is totally unnecessary for 90% of trades, and I specify trades because your average Joe certainly doesn’t need one period.
The 250 (rather 3/4T trucks in general) have limited consumer purpose, outside of towing large campers or car haulers. It’s also the smallest class that is recommended for gooseneck/5th wheel towing.
Commercially, there are more applications for it like hauling fluids, or as a snow plow, as well as the same towing arguments for consumer use. However, once you get into that stuff, you’ll find a 3/4T lacking, which is why you’ll see more 1T (350/3500) commercial trucks. They really are a bit of a silly ‘in between’ size.
For trades however, I would argue that any standard pickup truck is not the appropriate tool, vans are far more suitable for their use. Large “indoor” storage, tall enough to walk upright in, low to the ground so easy to enter/exit with tools, and they can be outfitted to store stuff on the walls.
I had my windows replaced a few years ago, and the work crew rolled up in a cube van, and inside it was set up basically as a woodworking shop, pretty much ready to go. They didn’t have to unload tools, set up tables, etc., just un-fasten some safety clamps, plug in an extension cord, and off they went. Maybe 15 minutes from parking to starting work, and that’s including taking some time to chit-chat with me.
I appreciate that insight, as I have very little of my own. My buddy is kind of a jack of all trades, framing one day, sheetrock one day, finishing the next. I think he likes the idea of unloading the bed easily, moving from one site to the next. I seem to recall his complaint about the van being associated with needing to kinda rejig it depending on the tasks he was performing, and if he had one of those days where he’s visiting multiple sites, doing multiple jobs, the truck was just easier. But that’s my faulty memory and zero experience.
All I have is having driven ambulances. I started back on the van conversions, older F350s. The boxes were squat only, no standing room. I left for about 10 years, roughly, and upon my return the ambulances were now F450 Super Duties. Absolutely massive, couldn’t stand it. I’m a good driver, I’ll toot my own horn, but I’d ride with a bunch of people who just could not navigate the big rigs into tight driveways, but there was this desire for size, and so we had what we had. I won’t lie, they were comfortable, all air ride equipped. But they were big, and adults could get lost in front of them. They did have all around cameras, but it’s crazy to rely on them.
Since my departure (two young kids and my own business is hard to find time to volunteer at the moment), they’ve gone the way of the Sprinter-type vans, which I can appreciate. I’m sure there were some sacrifices, but I also feel like 90% of the equipment we carried was hardly used. We’re also in suburban New Jersey, so it’s not like we’re responding to places and being the only ones on scene, so someone else will show up with the gear that I’m sure they did away with.
In sum, big truck (generally) unnecessary.
They don’t even have my 2003 wrx to compare against. But it’s not much bigger. The WRX has gotten huge along with most of Subarus over the same time period since the Miata came out.
My Toyota is damn near identical though.https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/mazda-mx-5-1989-roadster-vs-toyota-mr2-1999-roadster/
The 150 ist just as stupid a car as the 250. If your buddy really needed a car to carry tools and lumber around, he’d drive something like this:
But that doesn’t help curing fragile masculinity. One of these cars is big enough for a family of nine and their luggage. The other one isn’t even big enough for one man and his ego:
Ha, he had a rape van prior to the F150. He thinks the access in the 150 is better, and who am I to judge, because I don’t live it day in and day out, so I’ll defer to him.
I ran into a guy driving a F650 as his daily commuter when he was going for coffee at Starbucks. He made sure to tell every person behind the counter how great of a vehicle it was.
He had to jockey it to get into the parking lot.
While the F250 is less common than the F150 we’re still faced with a plague of oversized, dangerous, and ecological driving disasters on our roads.
Completely agree with this. It would be interesting (and more valuable) to see the difference between mean or average car size over the years. Especially since (in Europe at least), there has been a rapid increase in SUVs, and, I am guessing, a decline in compact cars.
I thought my Veloster was pretty small… but it looks fat next to the Miata
The big one should not be legal.
The big one is a work truck and should not be driven as a commuter. It really shouldn’t be allowed on roads where cargo trucks aren’t allowed.
Even as a work truck it’s comically large. You can get the same amount of cargo space in a far smaller vehicle, this one’s only advantage would be the sheer horsepower which you only need for very specific work.
It is made for towing massive trailers.
It’s made for carrying tiny penisses. Cars that are actually made to tow massive weights look like this
or this
Those are impractically large or not highway ready for horse trailers and other comparably sized trailers that are used for working. The F250 and 350 sized trucks are for in between light loads and those loads.
Not everything needs to be at the extremes of tiny or semi trailer.
It should require a CDL
Agreed.
I’d much rather drive the Miata. There’s a reason that when I was forced to purchase a car after almost 20 years without one, I opted for a Miini Cooper. Sure, they’re cute, but I was ecstatic to look it up and find it was only about an inch larger than my first car, a 1983 Renault Alliance MT.
Small cars rule.
Smart car here :-D
I miss my mini. With the rear seats folded down, it had a surprising amount of cargo capacity.
I have a '73 Porsche 914 I restored. Same size as a Miata. Better mileage, too. I’ve owned one new car in my life. I’ll never buy another.
Say it with me folks!
Miata
Is
Always
The
Answer!except for the one I saw today with the wheels tilted so only the inner edge of the tire touches the ground
No no, Miata is always the answer. Clearly, Miata is in that case answering the question “how do I look like a bellend without spending too much money, and clearly communicate that while I understand mechanics, I probably shouldn’t”.
I would consider anything “slammed” no longer viable as a vehicle since they can’t clear a speed bump. I don’t even think they should be road legal because your reaction distance dramatically increases with those setups.
I live this image on the daily, in a Midwestern hell full of giant trucks. Probably 5% of those people also have lift kits, and far too many people have modified them to roll coal.
Back when I had my WRX, I had my infant son in the car. I get on the on ramp and enter the highway. Some asshole in the next lane decides to fuck with the little Subaru and blast thick black smoke all over the highway, so I gun it to get through and past and he does as well. I see the passenger sticking his dumb cunt fucking face out of the window and snickering and I just reacted and as I was flying past I whip and empty frappucino bottle at him, dude caught it with his forehead and I was gone.
I later regretted not just taking the license plate and just calling the cops but then… Hopefully that started a fight between the two.
Hopefully you don’t do this with your kids in the car anymore.
“It’s the only thing that makes me feel significant in a society that I struggle to understand” - Large truck owners (if they were literate)
Can you put a Beetle or Smart onto the back of the cancer?
