I Have An Hour To Kill At The Bermuda Airport So Let’s See What’s In The Parking Lot

As you may recall from my kvetching in the past couple Cold Starts, I’m attempting to go to the United Kingdom for the Goodwood Festival of Speed (can’t wait – I’ve heard great things about amphetamines!) and it’s proving to be a much bigger hassle than I’d have guessed. Yesterday, I couldn’t get on my direct flight because the airline’s check-in system was not working and they had too few humans to help, so they re-scheduled me for a flight this morning through JFK, but when I showed up that flight was cancelled due to weather or lack of interest or something and instead I got routed through Bermuda.

Yes, Bermuda.

I didn’t realize that the closest non-Bermudan land to Bermuda was my home state of North Carolina! It’s just 643 miles away! How about that! Anyway, I’m here in Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport, which is strangely empty and quiet right now. I mean, look:

So, I had about an hour to kill, so I decided to see what the Bermudan carscape was like, and took a quick stroll through the relatively empty parking lot, which seems to be known as Muster Station 2:

Don’t confuse it with Mustard Station 2, my upcoming rom-com about teens who work the condiment counter at a food court in a Midwestern mall in the 1980s.

Okay, what do we have? Mostly, it’s not anything all that exciting, but, look, if you can find a better of-the-moment survey of random cars in a Bermuda parking lot, then go read that. There was one fun car that caught my eye first:

A Renault Twizzy! These little electric quadracycles are pretty fun, and I bet are a good choice for happily trundling down this lovely, um, archipelago. I’ve not yet had a chance to drive one, but I’m curious; it seems much more robust and substantial than, say, my Changli.

The rear reminds me of Kang and Kodos, for some reason.

I think these are a good design, but I wonder why they decided to have such minimal weather protection? Would side windows have been so hard? What else do we have?

After about 75 straight hours of driving our NV200 ex-NYC taxi, I was actually kind of excited to see this very clean RHD example. It’s not much different than the cab-spec, though it has a rear hatch instead of split doors.

These Kia Picanto are kind of appealing little cars – 1-liter three-banger engine, four doors, and a decent design. These would go for about $20 grand in US freedom-bucks, which isn’t bad; we don’t really have anything that cheap here anymore.

These are also appealing small cars: Suzuki Swifts. The red one is an older-gen one (2004 to 2010 or so?) and the gray one seems like a third-gen one (2016-2023). I always liked the sort-of Kammback styling of these. They’re appealing little cars.

More Suzukis! This APV van is interestingly narrow, but looks practical.

We haven’t gotten Suzukis in America since about 2013, but their new SUVs look quite handsome and I don’t see why they couldn’t sell them here?

Also, look at those tiny 5-digit license plates!

Okay, what else do we have here?

We don’t get these Hyundai I20s in America, but I do like their rear end design; that blacked-out rear window and the sharp C-pillar are interesting choices. It’s not boring!

There were some familiar faces in the crowd, too:

Have I seen a right-hand-drive Jeep Patriot before? I don’t think I have. Hot damn.

A Caliber? I’m kind of surprised to see this out here. I never really thought of these as the kinds of cars that would be exported out of the US. This is likely the only RHD version of one of these I’ve seen, too.

All these cars are pretty much day-to-day commuters and workers. Is there anything fun around? Well, I did see this:

Someone is having as much fun as possible with their Suzuki Swift. Look at that wing! And that’s a lovely shade of Smurfskin Indigo.

Also, I’m curious about these:

What is this? Is it a European quadracycle like a Ligier or Axiam or something? Is it Chinese? I feel like it’s on the tip of my brain, but I’m too exhausted to figure it out right now, and I need to board here in a few minutes.

I hope I’ve sated your powerful urge to know what everyday cars are like in Bermuda, at least for one day! You’re welcome!