My previous car is a Yaris.
When I got the Yaris I heard people make snide comments like “Anyone see that big guy get out of that tiny car?” then gas prices went up and they became “Hey, what kind of MPG does that thing get?”
I like hatchbacks. Bigger is fine but nothing huge.
My current car is an '07 Yaris. It’s totally bare bones, but everyone who has been in it comments on how spacious the interior is.
I’ve always driven small cars, because they’re economical and I’ve never needed anything larger. I hate that small hatchbacks are so scarce in the US and that our roads are overrun with ludicrously huge pickups and SUVs. We transitioned from land yachts to small cars in the late 1970’s and 1980’s, we could do it again with the right incentives.
My current car is an ‘07 Yaris too. It’s also totally bare bones including manual windows and locks and no cruise control (the only feature I sometimes wish it had). It’s economical and much funner to try drive than most bigger cars, trucks, and SUVs. And on multiple occasions I have been able to parallel park it in tight spots that cars in front of me had to pass on.
I can’t even remember what year mine was. It was the first year it was in the US. Was a decent car. Good milage. But it chewed through water pumps so bad. It was either loud squealing belt or too night and killed the pump. Never could get it “just right”
That’s too bad. I have 189,000 miles on mine (304,000 km) and it’s never let me down. I haven’t had to do anything but regular maintenance on it. I wanted to replace it with something a bit newer and nicer, but had to replace the car my wife and daughter share, instead. Fortuately, I don’t drive very much so it will probably hold out for a few more years.
I drive an Auris station wagon Hybrid (aka, the US Corolla iM with bigger boot). I had a chance to drive multiple Yaris generations and honestly I am always surprised by how roomy it is inside. They made a perfect use of space - way better than VW did with Polo (smaller Golf), that’s for sure…
I have a Yaris and think it’s too big. It’s 20cm longer than my previous car (2005 Clio) but somehow has less interior space, it feels cramped.
Yaris gang rise up!
Want to trade my 09 in for a more recent model, hatchback would be ideal
The actual model is beautiful, and it has Apple Car/Android auto and also a HUD.
The ease of driving and parking in a car that small is insane. I thought my little Outlander Sport was a big difference from my last car, then I saw my buddy’s Yaris easily make a U turn on a narrow 2 lane road.
I have a 2017 Hybrid Yaris in blue like this one:
That I affectionately call “Blue thunder” 🤣
My Yaris is actually older than me. so old in fact, that it was called “vitz” and/or “echo” in some countries. i am the 4th owner. had to replace the starter, all the fluids and the clutch (cuz old people). best car ever. it has around 100.000 km on it and runs like it rolled out of the factory just yesterday. considering we euros pay up to 7€ per gallon it’s good i still get around 40mpg out of it. love that thing.
As a taller woman my wife was against us getting a subcompact until I took her to test drive it thinking I wouldn’t fit. Between seeing how comfortable and efficient it was she was entirely on board
Just got a ford focus hatchback last year after a 95 suburban. Love it. Fits everywhere and fun to drive
americans will embrace small cars like they embrace gun control
We embraced the shit out of them during the oil crisis in the '70’s. Then when gasoline got cheap again we snapped right back.
“But my SUV makes me feel so ‘safe’ and gives me a commanding view of the road!!!”
I am of the opinion that everyone ought to just get a motorcycle.
Have you ever seen Americans drive? Or the ones that ride motorcycles?
Give everyone a motorcycle and half the country would be dead in a week
Well, that’ll keep 'em off my damn roads, won’t it?
Yeah that’s a net win
Honestly, fuck motorcycle drivers. I know there’s plenty of them out there who operate your machines properly, but there SO MANY absolute asshats on motorcycles, always making the highway way more dangerous for everyone around them.
If I could remove one vehicle from the earth it would be motorcycles. Idgaf how fun they are for you, people can’t be trusted with them in general.
Like most drivers you probably just don’t notice the ones that aren’t loud / ridden by asshats.
Many bikes have basically the same performance as a civic, you are painting with far too broad a brush here.
In a decade running a motorcycle as my only transport, I’ve never been remotely a threat to the 5,000 pound tanks I’m forced to share the road with, but almost been taken out by left turning stop sign and red light runners more times than is reasonable.
Yep couple assholes ruin it for everyone, I recognized that already,but also, it’s a particular type of danger that isn’t posed by anything else, and I dont think your pleasure is worth my stress tbh.
To be clear when I’m talking about danger I’m talking about the motorcyclist turning into an unrecognizable pink streak on the asphalt, not “hurting my car”…
If you pull some stupid shit and die on the road next to me that affects me more than you, since youre fucking dead then, so therefore: I should get more say in it than you.
Wrap it in whatever guise you want, you’ll never convince me that riding a motorcycle is anything other than selfish.
I don’t use it for pleasure, I use it to get around. If car drivers are stressing about rider safety (I don’t get that impression) they can show it by putting their phones down and paying better attention to the world around them.
I’d love to have a motorcycle that would replace my current vehicle, but it would need to be capable of keeping me warm while handling well in heavy snow. Afaik, there aren’t any enclosed bikes out there
I think there should be a separate license to drive SUVs and Trucks over a certain size. And that maintaining that license should be a bit of a hassle - like a required in-person written and practical test every 2 years. If people want that commanding view of the road and “safe” feeling that comes from endangering everyone else on the road, then they should have to put in some extra effort - not enough extra effort that it’s unattainable for those who actually have a need for a vehicle of that size, but enough effort that it would discourage the widespread use we have currently.
Also, during your SUV probationary period you have to drive a Suzuki Samurai for two years or so.
I am of the opinion that everyone ought to just get a motorcycle.
But only if it’s a dual sport, right? ;)
Well I mean preferably.
With their face?!?
some reasons for the raise of vehicle size on the last decades are personal taste, but others are policy driven, we could look into that, as utility vehicles are treated differently in terms of emission requirements
Yup - in the US, pick-ups and SUVs are categorized as “light trucks,” which have different fuel efficiency and emission standards and are therefore more profitable to produce.
Add to that some clever marketing to the effect of “big car = more manly/safe” and boom, now you see these big, stupid, fuel-ineffecient, dangerous vehicles everywhere.
Good job 👍
Not just that but the standards are also more lenient if the car is larger for its class which is part of why even small cars are bigger now.
Americans need to embrace public transit. We need trains that don’t completely suck in both speed and schedule reliability.
We’re never going to convince a lot of folks to leave their lifted F-150 or massive Suburban behind for a small car. But quality, affordable public transit that is not only efficient but saves money over owning a car would actually make a difference. We’re more likely to be able to get people to just leave the F-150 in the driveway and eventually move away from it.
Much better for the environment, too, and reduces traffic / congestion, etc. I agree smaller cars would be good, but the goalpost should be getting away from the automobile.
Americans need to embrace public transit.
Bad framing.
Instead of asking Americans to just embrace our absolutely shit public transit (which they won’t do and will become more angry and obstinate about in its current condition), we need to push representatives into office that are far more left-leaning and not fucking autocrats who will MANDATE massive increases in taxes on billionaires and legislate much more significant subsidization of public transit to the point that it is MASSIVELY expanded and improved to a degree that it starts to look like what we see in actual 1st world countries like Japan, Europe, and pretty much all the Nordic countries. See “Not Just Bikes” for countless great examples of how other countries do this to a degree that it should be embarrassing for the US.
They didn’t get the public to “embrace public transit.” They made it good enough to the point that even the rich use it. It’s the same for anything. You have to show how good it can be. Then people will “embrace it” and guard it from dismantling by the rich looking to line their pockets. It’s why even ghoulish Republicans won’t touch Medicare. It was made GOOD by FDR’s administration, and now it is political suicide to do anything to water it down.
We need some bold leftist president to yell from the bully pulpit about high-speed bullet trains and advocate for it like Kennedy did for the Moon race.
Fixing things here means not only having lots of trains that stick to schedules, but regulating it very strongly and mandating adequate staffing, paying those staff well enough to live a dignified life, and providing proper training for every employee.
But the real sad fact is, there are so many other problems stacked on top of each other that all need addressing that are not only not being addressed, but directly worsened year over year - things like mass homelessness, housing unavailability, rising cost of living, zoning making nothing everyone needs to access (like grocery stores) within a public transit-friendly distance, that this will probably not happen ever…
I mean, I think this is what they’re saying, but yeah.
Yeah. I probably should have been more detailed in my comment, but I did not mean embrace it as it is. I mean investing in it and making it competitive. I don’t think it’s embraceable in its current form.
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Make it good and people will use it. It’s really that simple.
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My dude what do you think OP is talking about. That’s what embracing public transit means ya dingus.
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My dream car is a Nash Metropolitan converted to an EV.
That would be fucking dope. I’d love for retrofuturist cars like this to appear
That’s a pretty sweet ride.
I wish we got the Honda E. Would buy that up in a heartbeat.
Definitely would love a Honda E, got a Chevy Bolt EV as it seemed like the next best option here.
I’m usually not a hatch fan but that little car looked awesome. I got my last new gas powered manual transmission car before EVs are the main thing. Since I work from home and don’t drive a bunch my plan is to keep it as long as I can and get an EV in 4-5 years when hopefully infrastructure catches up a bit and more manufacturers have an option and work out small kinks.
Bro if you could get a used leaf gen one (they run around 4k), you could take that thing to a drag strip and absolutely turn some heads.
I have a friend who wants to take my gen one leaf and do a conversion. He just went to an EV mechanics course on it.
Lovely car! Btw: how do you put a picture in a comment? What sorcery is this?
I’m on desktop, so how I do it is right-click, copy image, then just paste into the post. Not sure how to do it on mobile.
Got it! it just needs the
markdown formatting. Thanks a lot. Cheers!Oh! Ok. I don’t know if that possible in Mlem (iOS app). Thanks!
Same with a 1959 Panhard PL 17. Some of those little old cars are just beautiful.
Nash Metropolitan
That thing is fucking gorgeous!! and it has a trailer!!
I have never swooned over old car designs from before my time but that thing I really like.
You’d chop up a nash, and put an ev motor in it? I do not have kind words for you.
When I was in high school back in the late 70s you’d still see a few of those around. My friend had one, but not for long. Someone had put in a more powerful motor and if she wasn’t careful accelerating she would snap the drive shaft.
That is barely even the start of what we need. It would do us better to embrace public transit and densification. If we all just switched to small cars instead it wouldn’t solve the underlying issues with car dependent infrastructure. We’d still have wide swaths of useful land buried under miles of concrete and asphalt. We’d still have urban spaces that are hostile to anyone not in a automobile (admittedly somewhat less so). My commute time is nearly doubled simply because all of the parking lots I have to walk through. There’s no need (outside of accommodating drivers) for everything to be separated by so much empty space.
Yeah, changing up cars seems like scratching at a symptom rather than the problem. If there are thousands of cars all headed in the same direction every day… It seems like offering a train would be pretty obvious win.
Cars would still be needed in some situations though, in which case it would be better if they were small
For sure, I’m not saying we have to entirely ban cars. And small cars are much better than large cars. But neither should be everyone’s first thought for “how do I get around town?”
Americans will embrace small cars when we don’t need to drive 1+hours every single day.
You dont need a large car for that…
You just need a comfortable car for that.
For some people, bigger is more comfortable. Different strokes for different folks. Others don’t want to deal with playing Tetris with baggage and family every time they need to go on a trip. For others, it’s a safety issue or at least they feel safer in a bigger car.
But yes. I generally agree with you.
Especially for an obese country.
It isn’t even that. America, Germany, and the UK are all very similar. And those numbers are only becoming more similar over time.
Europeans need to remember that American states are often larger than European countries.
And that generations of neglect or intentional sabotage has rendered public transport completely useless outside of outlier scenarios.
People want to handwave it away, but there are legitimate safety concerns with driving smaller vehicles in the US. Not only are they less comfortable (in a country where you have to drive everywhere, for long periods of time, even for incidental items). They will get destroyed by our obnoxiously huge SUVs and trucks. Happens all the time.
Same thing needs to be remembered when people who don’t live here insist everyone should just be biking everywhere. I agree in spirit, but the reality is that biking in the US is a gamble every time someone does it. And you can’t convince a populace to do it when a normal American is 10+ miles away from a grocery store, and when most of our states experience both extreme heat and extreme cold.
The problem is truly systemic. We have a majority of civil planning intentionally implementing hostile engineering to incentivize vehicles.
So actually there are many cars that are nearly or just as safe as SUVs and have similar storage capacity. These arguments are often used by industry but don’t really hold any weight
https://youtu.be/jN7mSXMruEo https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rollover/unsafe/theme.html
As someone who goes to Italy yearly with a family of 4 and a dog often the smaller car storage notes are bullshit.
We rent to drive to our home here and then use bikes when or borrow the inlaws car but they often say 5 or 6 seater with room for 3 luggages but it often means at the expense of seats. I often travel with my daughter’s stroller beneath the kids feet and a luggage or several backpacks on the floor or in the middle seat and for a several hours drive it’s not comfy. Meanwhile my traverse in the states I can fit all of them plus the luggages etc on way to anywhere and we’re all comfy for hours.
Not that that’s a justification for larger cars but it’s definitely not on par and you totally need to play Tetris or sacrifice comfort to make it work.
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Well, when a County drops nearly a million dollars on a bus stop, it’s not hard to understand why.
You kind of hit on the biggest problem with lack of public transit investments, and I don’t think you even realize it.
On I-66, they added an additional travel lane for 4 miles and it cost $85million. That’s more than $20million PER MILE. And it is only ONE travel lane, not an entire highway. And yet, we accept this as the norm, but god forbid we spend money on public transit. Everyone is up in arms on how our taxes are wasted only when it is public transit. I’m not saying that $1 million bus stop was money well spent, I honestly don’t know. But it still sounds like a better deal than $1 million for 264 feet of travel lane.
http://inside.transform66.org/about_the_project/i-66_eastbound_widening.asp
The US should really just directly employ regional workers to handle these projects. Corruption and nepotism are rampant in public construction projects, and the profit motive requires an inefficient use of tax dollars since we must pay a completely useless margin just so somebody can become richer for doing zero work.
We also need to stop expanding highways since additional lanes have been proven to not help congestion, and actually worsens it because it encourages more driving.
I drive a, for American standards, small Peugeot 308. It’s the 2018 model. Does about 45-50 MPG (the diesel does even better) and has all the luxuries I can imagine. I drive the station which means I have plenty of space for everything I could need. I drive it for 2,5-3 hours a day. It drives like a dream. You don’t need a massive SUV for that.
I drive a Crosstrek and have a small truck. I’m about as small as it gets before going to clown cars. I don’t why everyone here thinks they are going to persuade me how wrong I am…I was making a statement that’s isn’t wrong. You want people to move to smaller vehicles, build better infrastructure.
A cross trek isn’t a small vehicle. It’s larger than almost all sedans. I drive a WRX which is significantly smaller and far from a ‘clown car’. I wouldn’t say that yours are large vehicles, but your statement about going smaller absolutely is wrong. I don’t have to persuade you, you’re just categorically wrong.
That doesn’t make any sense. What does duration of transit have to do woth how large your vehicle is? The article didn’t say clown cars.
I’m 6’2" (188cm) and I drive a tiny little '05 Mazda 3s, for 1.5 hours each way to work/home. It’s not an issue at all. If anything, I’m honestly LESS comfortable in larger vehicles.
Would I like to drive less? Definitely. Working from home during Corona was fantastic and I was so much more productive.
You have kids? Pets? Long work commute? A small car makes having to balance any of these (especially together) difficult. Sprawling suburbia makes commutes and driving anywhere suck, you want Americans to get smaller cars? Build better city infrastructure so that I don’t need to use the car 98% of the time I need to leave the house. If I don’t need to use it as much I can deal with less comfort and a smaller car.
Make sense now?
Also a Mazda 3 is not that small, neither is a Corolla.
Not anymore they’re not. Not in the U.S., at least.
Neither of which will be big enough to travel with. A family with kids and a dog is a crammed vehicle. If I can’t afford a larger car, I’m going to get something that’s less cramped and uncomfortable when theres a full load like that.
Uhh nope. None of those are good reasons to have a massive vehicle. Especially long work commute…thats completely irrelevant.
How many Americans do you think are going to be able to afford two or three vehicles?
If you have a family and any pets , it’s very difficult to travel around anywhere. At most, people are going to get a car that can fulfill as many needs as possible. Just because YOU can get around comfortably in a smaller car, doesn’t mean someone else will be. Different families have different needs.
No it doesn’t make sense but thanks for patronizing me.
All I see here is you barking back the truck industry’s talking points to me. I know plenty of people with kids and pets and small cars and guess what? They are used to it and don’t hate it.
Your entitlement is the difference, let’s not make any mistake about this.
Entitlement over what? I drive a crosstrek mate. I can’t get into a smaller car otherwise I’m leaving the kids behind. Your arguing with a single person. The reality of PEOPLE is that they won’t change unless they don’t need cars as much… it’s only logical mate.
Right because all these small vehicles only have two seats, I keep forgetting the only small car options are old mr2, fiero, and rx-7’s. SILLY ME
Motherfucker, 15% of American males don’t even have friends, 95% of you don’t need an SUV. You think people in other countries don’t have jobs and families and cities? Christ, pull your head out of your ass and look out a window once in a while.
Getting in and out of a higher-riding vehicle with an upright seating position is more natural and comfortable, particularly for the elderly and/or infirm. Furthermore, we have engineered away most of the drawbacks of crossovers and SUVs.
Based on the numbers of SUV’s and large trucks on US roads I’m going to assume 90% of your population is elderly or infirm.
Vast majority are obese, close enough to infirm.
I agree that most people don’t need SUVs. And even more don’t need a truck. But few others are forced to drive as much nor as far as Americans on a daily basis, so we don’t give a shit if people in other countries with robust public transport sometimes have to drive places in their (comparatively) small countries with their families.
TIL that a dubious 15% is also === 95%.
Edit: that is to say, this isn’t as simple as “LOL Americans fat, Americans dumb.” The same old Euro arguments don’t work on this one. Civil planning is completely fucked here. It isn’t just bad, it is actively hostile to non-drivers.
And SUVs in particular can get these massive tax advantages that cars don’t get. Same with some models of truck. Plus, marketing is highly effective and nearly totally unregulated like so much else over here.
You have morons giving themselves brain damage for the right to own gas stoves, and we have similar morons suffocating themselves and everyone else by insisting they need huge vehicles. And the government actively encourages it.
Aww. Someone got angry lol.
Don’t be so disingenuous as to assume that just because I enjoy cursing that I’m angry, you just make yourself sound like a fucking idiot. Especially when you don’t respond to the message with anything of substance, like a belligerent child.
I’m not responding to an insufferable little bitch. Either learn to talk like an adult and, you know, be somewhat respectable, or get use to being treated like a child. Byeeeeee
The stick is so far up your ass it’s pushing shit out of your mouth, careful there.
If self awareness was a disease you’d be the healthiest person alive. How much of a coward do you have to be to run away from mean words? It’s a bullshit excuse, you can’t attack my message so you try to disingenuously dismiss it without consideration. Pathetic.
Just buy a station car? It’s hot more space than I’ll ever need and I have all of the things you mention. Small does not equal clown car you know.
I commuted 2 1/2 hours a day, mostly highway driving. In a Yaris, with a passenger. For 8 years. I was driving, not stretching out to take a nap.
TBH, I would have preferred a car that was quieter and had a bit more comfortable ride. But a Corolla, Civic, Mazda 3 or Elantra would have been just fine.
The trend in truck size is, well, yeah.
I want a small truck. Not the new small ones that are the size of 20yr old full-size trucks.
I miss the old rangers, the new ones might as well be f150s.
I wish you could get newer kei trucks in the states.
I’d kill for an 81 Rabbit pickup.
Forget small cars, we should be embracing non-motorized ways of transit. Make things human-sized again and allow us to walk and/or bike to destinations rather than having to have a motorized vehicle to get around.
Public transit is obviously a good thing to have, but I think it’s also important to have alternate forms of transit as well.
That’s all fun and games until weather happens…and weather is going to happen a lot going forward.
Does a wagon count as a small car? Because I fucking love my wagon. It’s always convenient to carry a bunch of shit and I have a roof rack for bigger loads. 6 speed automatic gets 30mpg on the highway.
It does, these days.
Just sold my Model 3 for a long time want, Fiat 500 Abarth. Couldn’t be happier.
I wonder how many people are doing something like this. My plan is to sell my model 3 as well and get a cheap 5speed hatchback, whatever seems most fun when the time comes.
If you don’t mind me asking, what made you want to switch to gas and what do you like about the fiat 500? I’ve never been in one!
Everyone along the way asked the same thing. Everyone thinks I’m crazy going EV to gas or they try to make it political. I loved my Model 3, one of the best cars I’ve had. EV & Gas had nothing to do with my decision at all.
I personally am a big fan of hatchbacks, and I especially prefer smaller cars. Coming from an 01 CLK, the Model 3 always felt a bit big to me. It’s really nice to be back in a smaller car.
I love the Fiat for its size and it’s look. It’s a little guy with a lot of personality. The Abarth especially. Some may not like how loud it is, but it really sounds like a big sports car, and that’s with factory exhaust. There’s a lot of aftermarket support so you can really make it your own as well.
Mine is a five speed manual. And after just shy of four years with one pedal driving, it’s been a huge adjustment. It’s my first manual car, but I like the challenge and have been working super hard at learning all the tricks with it.
That’s really great, I’m glad your enjoy it! Super cool it’s your first stick shift. You and I think alike in the model 3 feeling a little large. I really like the hatchback aesthetic and I came from a 6 speed manual to the model 3. While I like the instant power and speed, the fun of rowing gears is something I miss.
The acceleration was wonderful! But even going slow, the Abarth sounds like you’re going fast. It’s really enjoyable.
I went the opposite route and instead of selling my 3 I bought a Y as well. Despite elon and all the negative press, it’s hard to beat an electric car.
The only trouble is that the super charger network pretty much makes the choice of EV for you if you don’t want any gas cars in the garage.
Supercharger is exactly why I didn’t own a different brand. I love to drive and often put plenty of miles on it, so not having that reliability wasn’t an option for me.
As for the Elon business, I ignore that best I can.
It’s the 70s all over again.
Yep. All it will take is one oil shock and we’ll have GM and Ford scrambling to build small cars, fail miserably, get bailed out, and then start building giant cars again.
My husbands 2009 Corolla finally needed replacing (couldn’t pass inspection due to rusted frame) and he had the WORST time finding a car anywhere at the nearby dealerships. Everything was trucks and SUVs, finally he found one that had 3 cars and 1 mostly fit the price/criteria he wanted.
We’re in the rural north east and the number of big ass trucks is insane, it’s getting harder and harder to park between them all and I hate trying to get out of parking spaces when I can’t see for shit around them.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Heavier vehicles also wear out roads faster, though the difference between a small sedan and a large electric SUV amounts to very little when compared to the effect of a garbage truck rolling by each morning.
Just this week, Automotive News reported that the Mitsubishi Mirage is on the way out, joining the choir invisible alongside cars like the Chevrolet Sonic, Honda Fit, and Toyota Yaris, all of which were once sold in the US.
The Bolt’s biggest problem, from a bean counter’s point of view at least, was a battery that cost a lot more per kWh than one made with General Motors’ new Ultium cells.
News of the Bolt’s cancellation was met with much dismay, and GM recently decided to bring the nameplate back at some unspecified time on a new Ultium-based platform.
But GM CEO Mary Barra has also warned that even with the lower cost of Ultium cells, the company won’t make any profit on sub-$40,000 EVs until late in the decade.
In addition to the ever-escalating safety arms race that entices American car buyers, a misplaced obsession with having as much range as possible also factors in here.
The original article contains 493 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Let me buy a kei truck. Let me revel in its smallness.
I really really wanna get a Honda Acty van. The trucks are cool, but that little van (or really any Kei van) is just the best thing to me. Pretty rare in the US though, so finding one nearby is a challenge!
