Learn me Microcars, and near-micro cars (Scion IQ, Smart fortwo, Honda Insight, etc.)

Are any of the microcars (IQ and fortwo) any good? Not interested in driving dynamics so much as safety and reliability.

How are the original insights doing for safety and reliability (batteries)?

Any others that should be included in this stream of thought? My wife pointed them out and how it would make sense for her, and I actually kind of agree. I'd just never considered any of these before really seriously; the one exception being a Mitsubishi iMiev which can just be thrown out of the conversation entirely.

Never owned one, but from a safety perspective, cars like the Smart have done very well in crash testing, and it holds up with what I see in real life. Their unibody is incredibly strong and they protect occupants well.

However, for the money, I'd rather have a 4 or 5 year old Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, Corolla, Yaris, etc...

Klayfish wrote: Never owned one, but from a safety perspective, cars like the Smart have done very well in crash testing, and it holds up with what I see in real life. Their unibody is incredibly strong and they protect occupants well. However, for the money, I'd rather have a 4 or 5 year old Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, Corolla, Yaris, etc...

I'm seeing fortwos for $3000 in my area. Seems like I'd rather have that than the Corolla, honestly.

Damn, typed a response and it vanished. Brief try again.

What is the intended use cycle? For pure in city I like Smart cars despite their penchant for premium gas. For out of town and frequent highway I'd look for a longer wheelbase car. I like Mini's but with 15" non run flat tires on them. The different from 17" run flats to 15" normal tires is night and day on ride quality.

I would go with the Toyota iQ over the ones you listed. I owned an Insight but it was so loud that I would pass on another for anything other than a stripped racer. Being a Toyota, it is likely more reliable and comfortable than the Smart. I am sure that it is much pricier at the moment though.

Honda Beat is the answer. No, seriously!

mtn wrote:

Klayfish wrote: Never owned one, but from a safety perspective, cars like the Smart have done very well in crash testing, and it holds up with what I see in real life. Their unibody is incredibly strong and they protect occupants well. However, for the money, I'd rather have a 4 or 5 year old Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, Corolla, Yaris, etc...

I'm seeing fortwos for $3000 in my area. Seems like I'd rather have that than the Corolla, honestly.

Didn't realize they had come down that far, thought they were still in the $5-$6k range. At $3k, if you truly just need a two seater and are doing mostly city use, I could see a case for it. But on the highways or open roads, don't think I'd want it.

Appleseed wrote: Honda Beat is the answer. No, seriously!

If this was in Chicago, I would have bought this yesterday.

Adrian and Klayfish, this would be the wife's commuter. Mostly stop and go. I think the setup would be

Smart, 4Runner, and Miata. Eventually they'd be traded out for some combination of Minivan/Other crossover and a 3 series or WRX, but right now its just the two of us and our dogs (hence the 4Runner).

Oh, and one other thing: if we can fit it all in a 2.5 car garage, even better.

The intelligent solution here is a PriusV instead of the smart and the 4Runner, but we test drove one last night and were just astounded at how boring it really is.

In reply to mtn:

20 odd years ago I DD'd an NA Miata and loved it. Today I would never DD an NA Miata partly because of the roads, partly because of the NVH but mainly due to the fact that 5,000 SUV's used to be fairly common, but now 5,000 SUV's are ubiquitous and 99% of them have a coffee sipping, facepaging, texting, email reading occupant. Yuur city and roads may be different or it may be my age, but I'd rather DD a Smart in the City than an NA Miata

Early Versa's seem kind of decent and I think there are some happy owners here on this forum. They're not really that small, though. Fit's all seem decent and I would probably look at these first. First-gen Yaris three door seems like it should be good but I don't think it's all that engaging to drive right out of the box AND the mpg's aren't shockingly great for the small size. Might be some good mods to make it a big more fun to drive as well as cheat the air a bit better.

Early-90's Mazda 323's for some reason seem appealing as well.

mtn wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Honda Beat is the answer. No, seriously!

If this was in Chicago, I would have bought this yesterday.

Fly'n' drive. I would seriously go with you on a cheap one way flight to do it.

Appleseed wrote:

mtn wrote:

Appleseed wrote: Honda Beat is the answer. No, seriously!

If this was in Chicago, I would have bought this yesterday.

Fly'n' drive. I would seriously go with you on a cheap one way flight to do it.

Not quite as far as Seattle and you get a back seat: Honda City

Then again, if you really like that idea, I bet you could find a JDM importer in your area....

-Rob

Now you've got me looking (probably because I love Kei cars):

These seem crazy cheap and Virginia is even closer....

A rough Nissan Figaro for $3900

One of several Honda Beats $4900

If you really want to fall down the rabbit hole....
JDM Importer

I'm actually scared that (according to the site) I could import a scruffy 1992 Suzuki Alto Works to the Galveston port for just under $3200.....

What am I missing?

-Rob

In reply to mtn:

Have you considered a Honda Fit? They're damn good cars, reliable as gravity, surprisingly aren't rust-prone, and are extremely functional too.

I am 6'5" and fit very comfortably in the smart, FWIW

I really wanted to like the IQ. Where I live is so full of parking spaces that are too small for anything much larger than a Smart Car. It's a shame that there's so much bad said about it.

What is the best short - but kinda upscale one? I have a friend who's making nice tech industry money and wants to move up from her New Beetle. She had her eye on an IQ but didn't like it.

What, Miata doesn't count as a micro car???

WildScotsRacing wrote: What, Miata doesn't count as a micro car???

This would be her DD. She can't drive stick very well, and in stop and go I wouldn't want to either.

I am about 13k miles into a '07 Prius (Gen 2 Prius). I really like as the right tool for the job. I am not so turned off by the dynamics as others but previous to this I have been in LeSabre, Taurus, Impala, Satun Vue, Ford Focus automatic. Non are really what you would call, dynamic.
It's not like you going to find magical "dynamics" out of a Versa Automatic or a Scion IQ either.

Where the Gen2 Prius seems to hold a price premium over comparable cars, I notice that the Gen1 Prius seems to not hold this same price premium. The Gen1 (the trunk version Prius) seems completely forgotten about. Given that is roughtly the size of a Toyota Echo it is probably a better "city car" than it is a "hyw car" but that may meet your needs.

Real Example: '02 with 108k asking $2,750 in Chicago.

Also a '01 Echo w/ 98k asking $2,350

For some reason, I'm thinking the Smart has a fatal engine flaw (you know, the kind where the fix costs as much as getting another car)

markwemple wrote: For some reason, I'm thinking the Smart has a fatal engine flaw (you know, the kind where the fix costs as much as getting another car)

Probably does.

I had a Gen1 Prius. It would be a decent city car, but its no micro car. At 169.6" long its way longer than the iQ, Smart, etc. Agreed on the handling. Its not hateful any more than most other basic automatic appliance cars are.