I rather like small cars. Compact, functional, economical on purchase cost and fuel. They’re a bit hard to find now. Sure, you could get a Smart, which seats two, but the price in the US is about two to three times more than the original European cost. How about a Mini? Well, they aren’t nearly as mini as the originals and the prices are pretty steep.

Seems that it wasn’t long ago that compact cars were much more common.

Spotted this over on some blog that I read — oddly, its name escapes me:

The red one above is called the Clipper. “A family car with the lowest running cost.”

Yup: compact, economical, functional yet with a bit of flare in that it’s a convertible.

Interesting how we’ve gone completely the opposite way over time. Cars, now, it seem are nothing more than the biggest, costliest, most fuel-hungry machines on the road.*

Today, I think the Kia Soul and the Suzuki SX4 Crossover are about the most functional cars in current production. One is a larger version of a hatchback, the other a part time all wheel drive hatchback.

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* Yes, I have a truck with a 350 in it that gets 11 MPG. It’s my cargo hauler and my work truck when I need to move servers around.  I also have a motorcycle on which I get about 60 MPG.  Guess which one gets more use.