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November 5, 2008
SEMA Top Ten Trends: Small Cars? What Small Cars?
With gas prices and the economy being what they are, we reckoned this year’s SEMA would be pretty much overrun with microbots. Sure, there’s more smarts than you can shake a stick at, and since this is the first year the smart has been available in North America, SEMA builders have been having a field day with it. Still, the smart is after all one of those cars that pretty much is its own punchline, and since a lot of the goofier treatments (like Batmobile and John Deere) are drawing almost entirely on the novelty factor for their effect, we’re guessing the car will seem stale by the time next year’s show rolls around. So where are all the microcars, then? One issue is really that there are no small cars, and while we’ve certainly seen a smattering of Fits and Yarii, even subcompacts these days are decidedly blimpy. I guess we’ll have to wait for the new Fiat 500, Chevy Beat, and Ford Fiesta to drop before we see a true micro-mini invasion at SEMA. Stay tuned!
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Chris J in da house
Nov 9, 2008 at 10:09 pm
did that one guy (i think his name was ben, idk) ever put those lambo doors on his smart? i wanna see pics if he did
OZZY
Nov 6, 2008 at 3:52 am
OKAY IF YOU LIKE THIS CAR YOU MUST BE A BITCH, OR A FAG!!!
GTwildfire
Nov 5, 2008 at 5:30 am
As I’ve said before, the smart cars and all these super-efficient concepts are all short in length, tall and narrow.It’s pretty obvious to me that a more normally proportioned car or even one more streamlined and sporty could yield better performance AND mileage because there’s less height thus wind resistance.
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They’re using lightweight composites and other materials which could also be incorporated into more normal-looking cars.
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I get the whole urban convenience thing about having a short car, but if auto makers want to make super efficient future models to sell in greater numbers, they better produce more than caricatures.
79cord
Nov 5, 2008 at 5:19 am
Totally agree. With Honda’s huge new 1200kg(!) Jazz/Fit as their “smallest” product in many markets I have to wonder what is so wrong with making a “small” car small.
Quite aside from non “MINI” Mini