New sub-compacts

Lol in general I personally like driving "small" cars. Very good handling, mileage and designed to absorb impacts. Minis remind me too much of a neon for some reason. Only touched one that was post 1972.

 
I'd drive one before you compare it to a neon.

or maybe drive an old neon ACR if you can find one in perfect shape. That thing was an SCCA cheater back in the day.

 
x123456 on the Minis. I had a few go thru my stringent used car inspection process when I was at Patriot. Even the non super charged ones are fun as hell. Simple layout under the hood, crisp suspension, great tranny. AND 40mpg!!!!

Nigel, I might have to pay a visit to the TO compound in the future for some helpful hints on the Fiesta's stability trickery. My son now works for Ford and has fallen in love with the little snappy carts.

So yes, inski is eyeballing other stuff than Subarus. Big deal. I love little cars. I used to own a ton of FWD and RWD runts. My fav so far was my Golf. I could sling that little tractor around all day long with a hefty dose of abuse and if was fun as heck. I was getting 35mpg on good tanks, 33 on bad tanks. It autocrossed, it Rallycrossed, it brought kids to soccer, it brought the coach to soccer(me!). It is time...again.
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inski said:
Nigel, I might have to pay a visit to the TO compound in the future for some helpful hints on the Fiesta's stability trickery. My son now works for Ford and has fallen in love with the little snappy carts.
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give Ed McNelly a ring at the school, he's building R2 #1 and working out many bugs en route

 
Take 2 late model top rated cars for safety 1 2500 lbs. and the other 3500 lbs. In an accident the one with more mass is going to do more damage tom the lighter car. I know you could assume the lighter car is more agile and can avoid accidents better than a heavier car. but if you do get hit
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Funny enough, it doesn't always work that way. In real life (not crash tests against immovable barriers) the lighter car will change direction more easily than the heavier car. So in a rear end collision, it may not suffer as badly as you might think. Head on crashes are a crap shoot as always depending on speed. In offset headon crashes the smaller cars have been designed with extra strength in the passenger "capsule" and seem to actually fair really well. sometimes even better than the larger cars.

 
There are no Mini dealers because the parent BMW dealer has to meet certain customer satisfaction marks and certain employee training marks and none of that has happened in Maine. Same thing with Acura. The sales market is here, but the company owners don't want to make it happen.

For some reason the American markets has curved towards bigger is better and more luxury. that's what Subaru is doing, that's what Saturn did (then died), that's why the Acura RSX was killed. I am pleasantly surprised the other guys are hitting us with these performance orientated Go-Karts. 90% of the time 90% of us are driving to and from work with less than 3 people in the car. For me $3.15/gallon is a lot and a sporty car with 40mpg that will fit 4 peeps is very attractive.

I've been secretly watching this go on since the intro of the Yaris, the Fit, Versa, and Mini. The Civic and Fit and Mini have been the only true sporty ones. I liked the Fit because you could get all kinds of sporty add-ons right from Honda, and theres already aftermarket support from the Jazz over seas. The Yaris was close but the suspension was a little mushy for me and the trans and/or shifter was vague. The Mini takes the cake is all categories but was pretty pricey. These days I'll gladly test drive a Fiesta, Fiat, Mini. But not the new Minis. Not the Clubman, not the AWD bigger boat. Its beyond what I want and need.

So, now you know what I would like in the near future. Right now I like Subaru. The Impreza. We're hitting 29-30mpg easily. Why not make a itty-bitty coupe with a NA 1.8L or 1.6L AWD that's light weight and under $16,000? They have the technology to hit 35mpg and maybe even 40mpg with AWD. I'd even consider an R1 or R2 Subaru in FWD if they bring it. Heck I'd even consider the electric eR2 if the boss would let me plug it in at work to recharge. Imagine not spending any more money on gas. that's $200 a month back into my pocket.

 
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inski said:
There are no Mini dealers because the parent BMW dealer has to meet certain customer satisfaction marks and certain employee training marks and none of that has happened in Maine. Same thing with Acura. The sales market is here, but the company owners don't want to make it happen.

For some reason the American markets has curved towards bigger is better and more luxury. that's what Subaru is doing, that's what Saturn did (then died), that's why the Acura RSX was killed. I am pleasantly surprised the other guys are hitting us with these performance orientated Go-Karts. 90% of the time 90% of us are driving to and from work with less than 3 people in the car. For me $3.15/gallon is a lot and a sporty car with 40mpg that will fit 4 peeps is very attractive.

I've been secretly watching this go on since the intro of the Yaris, the Fit, Versa, and Mini. The Civic and Fit and Mini have been the only true sporty ones. I liked the Fit because you could get all kinds of sporty add-ons right from Honda, and theres already aftermarket support from the Jazz over seas. The Yaris was close but the suspension was a little mushy for me and the trans and/or shifter was vague. The Mini takes the cake is all categories but was pretty pricey. These days I'll gladly test drive a Fiesta, Fiat, Mini. But not the new Minis. Not the Clubman, not the AWD bigger boat. Its beyond what I want and need.

So, now you know what I would like in the near future. Right now I like Subaru. The Impreza. We're hitting 29-30mpg easily. Why not make a itty-bitty coupe with a NA 1.8L or 1.6L AWD that's light weight and under $16,000? They have the technology to hit 35mpg and maybe even 40mpg with AWD. I'd even consider an R1 or R2 Subaru in FWD if they bring it. Heck I'd even consider the electric eR2 if the boss would let me plug it in at work to recharge. Imagine not spending any more money on gas. that's $200 a month back into my pocket.
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any chance in hell of bringing a FWD platform? if fhi's new relationship with toyota stands maybe they can take something from them instead of dropping a bunch of dime on R&D

 
There was a whole truckload of Fiat 500's heading north on 95 this morning. I passed them at around Wells. So they should be available for test drive in a day or so. I am definitely interested.

 
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