While American automakers struggle to find something small and profitable to sell, the UK has been forcing people into teeny tiny passenger cars for decades. As a result of high gas prices, speed camera fines, insurance, VAT, insane repair and maintenance rates and motoring taxes that would make an American drive his car straight into Boston harbor, British motorists can choose from a huge range of really small, really slow, really frugal cars. AutoExpress, which never met a car it didn’t want to take home to mother, offers a run-down on its top five four-wheeled “penny pinchers.” Despite the fact that some American pistonheads [claim to long] for small, cheap, fun, Euro-style cars, the chances of these glacial yet parsimonious machines making it In The Land of the Free are somewhere between “not on your Nelly” and “only when U.S. gas prices triple.” Still, it’s nice to know they’re out there, somewhere.
Find Reviews by Make:
Read all comments
I rented a Citroen C2 while I was in Spain. While not blazingly fast I found it to be an enjoyable car to drive. I’d buy one.
I really wouldn’t mind being “forced” to drive a smaller car…especially if others are as well. Most of these cars do have some excellent dynamics and are made to be a little fun while being light on their feet.
It’s a new style of driving that Americans would have trouble adapting too, as we’ve grown to enjoy wafting about from stop light to stop light on our grand (and straight) boulevards.
I guess that’s why I enjoy my Mazda3 wagon so much. It’s considered mid-size in much of Europe but small here. For 3 of us on a long trip, it holds everything just fine. Granted, we have to borrow someone else’s kitchen sink upon arrival. But even with a 4th little one, we’d do just fine in it (however, the wife may disagree). Same with the old 760…which really isn’t much bigger than the Mazda but has a sense of more room for obvious reason (boxy).
We’ve got people complaining that the 8-9 second range is “slow” in the Rondo/5 review–what are the chances that Americans would be able to put up with 12, 15 or even 20 seconds to sixty?
After all, if you can’t lay a patch (in your Camry) from the stoplight, you’re not a Real Man.
Except the interstate or a limited-access highway…how often is the speed limit 60mph and of course, you’re always limited by the person in front you.
Granted, sometimes I’ll get on it while entering the interstate (if it’s clear) and enjoy a little run up the tach. But it’s by no means fast.
I guess I’m one of those few people that find it much more enjoyable to work a “adequately” powered car often than hardly ever have the opportunity to use all 260hp in my FWD midsize sedan.
After all, if you can’t lay a patch (in your Camry) from the stoplight, you’re not a Real Man.
So very true! Thanks for the laugh!!!
I guess I’m one of those few people that find it much more enjoyable to work a “adequately” powered car often than hardly ever have the opportunity to use all 260hp in my FWD midsize sedan.
Word.
When in Rome! The VW diesel is no slouch and I’ll take you on in your Chrysler300 over the one lane roads in the Lake District in a 1 litre, 3 cylinder Astra and leave you wallowing about, way behind. And then we’ll go down the M1 and you STILL won’t be able to leave ME behind, speed cameras not withstanding. Horses for courses, fellas.
Yes, it is possible to drive these cars on the highway.
Even on the German autobahns. All of these cars car run at 80mph or more. Most can hit 100mph.
Big engines make people bad at driving. I’ve driven some incredibly underpowered cars (geo metro anyone? And a 5 door at that, and it never ran quite right. 49hp, baby), and I’ve never, ever had a problem merging in tight traffic or getting out of anyone’s way. Driving a low powered car teaches you to conserve your momentum and drive much more smoothly. My 130hp corolla and 130hp focus were downright powerful when I needed them to be, thanks to an efficiant driving style. My 240-something horsepower Kia Sedona has more power than I know what to do with. I swear I could crack out a high 15 second quarter mile in that thing, and it’s the base model. There’s no reason I need that much power in a minivan. However, since I have it, I find that I drive much worse, and I don’t conserve momentum as much.
I have quit taking the betlway in Houston. Ya, it might save me 15 min of commuting for $3, but I don’t like having to pay to sit in traffic.
I think auto trannies are partly to blame…they tend to require more power in order to be usable, and since most Americans want autos, the engines have to grow to maintain that sense of speed and power (even if the car never breaks 4k RPM).
People have lost the sense of how to make the engine revs meet their needs. This is something that every manual tranny driver has to know and use, but few strictly-slushbox drivers think much about.
Our European friends need to realize the fragile state of the average American male’s sexual identity. Our average redneck equates small cars with small….well, you get the picture.
In such an environment, it’s necessary to continually work on your “tough-guy” image so others won’t know you’re not really exceptional.
I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that some of these “he-men” still urinate on rock and mark trees with their anal glands.
I’d say autos have gotten quite a bit more efficient and with so many have a manual-mode they are you driven a bit more aggressively or the engines are revved a bit more.
even in blighty, the bloat is huge. some of the kei cars from japan are available in europe; guess they don’t count. some of them would be fun in america, at least in some of the urban areas.
I think auto trannies are partly to blame…they tend to require more power in order to be usable, and since most Americans want autos, the engines have to grow to maintain that sense of speed and power (even if the car never breaks 4k RPM).
My parents had a Toyota Van (1988, aka the box the Previa came in). One hundred horses, four-speed automatic, not terribly light. In the city, fine. On the highway, sucktastic, but that was to do with a car that was 70 inches tall, 180 inches long with an 88 inch wheelbase, not the speed.
I think that we got spoiled for power, and you can lay the blame on two cars: the 3.9L GM W-Bodies and the Nissan Altima 3.5SE. Both cars upped the power ante significantly–and more importantly, as their raison d’etre–and consumers bought it lock, stock and barrel. Perfectly good cars like the Mazda6 and Ford Fusion suddenly seemed outclassed, despite having enough power for the class maybe a year or two earlier.
And thus began an arms race that has given us a Toyota-friggin’-Camry that can kiss six seconds to sixty. There were Ferraris that would have had trouble with that time not but ten or fifteen years earlier. Why, in the name of god, do you need a Camry that can do that? If your highways are so bad that merging requires near-supercar levels of power, then I think we need to get police out on the onramps busting unsafe drivers.
austinseven – When in Rome! The VW diesel is no slouch and I’ll take you on in your Chrysler300 over the one lane roads in the Lake District in a 1 litre, 3 cylinder Astra and leave you wallowing about, way behind.
Make mine an SRT-8 and you’re on.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/chrysler-300c-srt-8/
We all know that power isn’t everything, but it’s a lot. It’s a childish, amusement park, instant gratification kind of reward when you mash the go pedal and the car responds RIGHT NOW. It’s great for selling cars, not so good for your gasoline bill.
It takes more work, more attention, and more skill to get that kind of enjoyment out of an underpowered (for today) car. Sometimes it’s worth it, sometimes it isn’t. In the case of the 1-liter 3-cylinder Astra vs. 6-liter SRT-8, I’ll take the double bacon cheeseburger with extra mayo.
We all know that power isn’t everything, but it’s a lot. It’s a childish, amusement park, instant gratification kind of reward when you mash the go pedal and the car responds RIGHT NOW.
I think the problem isn’t the existing og big engines, but the paucity of small ones. We don’t have the option to buy more economical, smaller-engined vehicles even if we wanted to, and the reason we don’t is because it messes with the artificial cost/price structure that the manufacturers have maintained.
Again, it’s like the “wagon vacuum:” you cannot sell a Camry wagon for five to ten thousand more than a Camry sedan, but you can sell a Venza or Highlander for that kind of money. Similarly, you cannot get a 1.0L Honda Fit, or a 1.8L Camry because Honda and Toyota would have trouble making margin on them (if they undercut the current base models) or couldn’t move the expensive ones (if they just boosted the price of the bigger-engined cars accordingly).
And no manufacturer is going to be the first to blink. Well, maybe Kia might…
At the same time manufacturers seem to spend a little extra time leaving out an extra bumper cover crease or finding the plainest hubcaps to put on their cheapest cars to penalize the consumer who buys one. The only truly beautiful cars are the most expensive ones.
No folks, I have seen alot of really nice looking cheap cars – just not in America. Cheap does not have to equal plain and boring.
I motivate around with 115HP in a 2800 lb car. I wish it was a 2000 lb car but I’ll deal with it. 90 HP and 2000 lbs used to do just fine right up to 125 mph on the autostradas of Italy. My 900cc Autobianchi A112E would run about 80-85 if I dared.
Am hoping that one of these days the American male insecurity about the size of your male parts as related to the size of your engine or vehicle will passs. Hopefully smarter people will be born. No wait – to have “sophsisticated tastes” is to be a pansy too isn’t it? There is truly no hope…
Seriously what really worries me are the women who are buying into this. Do we really need the other sex to buy into this nonsense too?