Settle down everyone, I’m not going to try convince any of you that you’re driving way too much vehicle, and if you CARED about the EARTH you’d not only be driving the tiniest thing you could find, but you’d be fashioning your micro-machine out of bamboo, palm fronds, and coconuts. Nosirree, not me, not The Autopian. But as a thought exercise, just how small of a car do you think you could get by with, reasonably? Heck, maybe you already are driving the smallest thing you can get away with.
As for me, I quite enjoy a small car, as long as it has a reasonable amount of zip. The smallest road-legal thing I’ve driven is a Chevy Sonic, which I acquired as a loaner from Enterprise. While the family RAV4 was in the body shop getting de-dimpled after a hail storm made it look like a promotional vehicle for Titleist (or that Mythbusters experiment), I had a ball hooning the little hatchback.
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While hardly a hot hatch, the little machine was quick enough and nimble enough to have some fun with, and I even enjoyed the interior appointments, especially the motorcycle-like gauge-pod thing that took the place of a cowled instrument cluster. But more importantly for this Autopian Asks, I never found myself wanting for a larger car during the two weeks (had to wait on some parts) that the RAV4 was in the shop.
Mind you, I wouldn’t want to make a mulch run in it, but for all the times I actually need all the capacity of an SUV, even a small one like the RAV4, I could just as easily rent a Home Depot pickup and spend less than $200 a year doing so. Weighed against the savings of purchasing, maintaining, and fueling a larger vehicle, that $200 is nothing, really.
So, I could get by with a Sonic. How about you?
What’s The Smallest Car That Could Work For You?
Top graphic image: GM
Even with a wife, dog, kid and a house a Geo Metro could be made to work. But I drive a full size pickup cause its great at everything.
I already drive something the size of a Chevy Spark day to day, and it’s my largest vehicle: a 911. If I need to schlep something bigger than the inside of my car can handle I have a roof rack that clips on easily, and if it’s too large for that I know enough people with SUVs and pickups.
I love fitting in tiny parking spots, I love darting around traffic, and I love opening the throttle getting up to speed on the highway.
Our family has two adults, a toddler, and an infant. We need to fit two car seats and fit a larger baby stroller and a diaper bag. We make do with a 23 Toyota Corolla and 24 Subaru Impreza hatch. We probably could go a little smaller, but I think we are about as small as we could comfortably go right now.
2005 Mini Cooper S – I’m 6’3″ and 225 and it fits fine. When I bought it we made LA to Guatemala City in four days. Still works for most stuff – you can get a 40″ flat screen TV in the back! Of course, the other ride is a Jeep Wrangler 4-door!
Kei Suzuki Carry single cab… made it thousands of kilometres to the north-west of Australia. 0.6L of turbo charged ‘fury’, surprisingly ample cab, anything you don’t need access to goes in the tray.
And my other Dumb cars, as per my moniker, ’95 Nissan Micra… clearly, it’s small, it’s in the name! but very capacious once you remove the backseats… and an ’89 Nissan S-Cargo… small in the X- & Y-axes… ridiculously tall in the Z-axis.
I honestly don’t know. I’d have to be able to fit in it, first of all. Otherwise, I don’t have a problem with small vehicles…most vehicles ARE too big for what they’re used for.
Well I commute to work on a bicycle. So that’s the smallest vehicle that would work for me. But I used to drive a 3dr ’83 Civic. It was small but very refined and comfortable. The only downfall was the mechanical complication. I used to borrow my brother’s ’86 Chevy Sprint a lot, and was just a fun, revvy and tossable little car. That car was super versatile and regularly got mid 40’s mpg despite us driving it like a sports car.
An MG Midget (the lousy one with the Triumph 1500) was my only car for many years. You can go camping for a week (if you pack light), skiing (if you unzip the rear window and poke the skis through that), and haul bicycles (if you tuck the back wheel in the passenger seat and the front behind the driver). What more could you need?
Probably like a Honda Fit. Needs to be a hatch that can accommodate a couple of dogs with the back seat folded down and can fit adults in the back seats when up.
I think my username tells the tale, but it’s a classic Mini, not one of the big ones! It’s perfect for zipping around town, and while it doesn’t have cruise control or A/C, it’s pretty fun on a long back roads trip too! I’ve done runs from KC to Rushmore, Texas Hill Country, West Carolina, Milwaukee, Aspen and Sandy Eggo!
My gen 2 Prius is just about perfect. Large enough to fit my bike in the back where it’s out of the weather and somewhat protected from thieves with a bolt cutter, but small enough to be easy to park and gets great mileage. Eventually I’m going to have to replace it, and I’m not sure what exists today that is equivalent. The new Prius is too small inside for me, and even modern hybrid crossovers get slightly worse mileage than my old car, thanks to their much larger frontal area.
I had a Renault Twizy for 2 years. I would have it still if my wife wouldn’t have insisted that I should stop driving that little deathtrap with the kids so now I have a Fiat 500e instead… The Twizy worked for 80% of my driving needs, the Fiat 97%. Made me smile so much though.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1B2HcjmSr2/
I swapped my 2004 Mercedes Viano 3.0 gasoline 7-seater for that 2012 Renault Twizy without money in between (value of both at the time 2022 was about 6000€) best deal I done in my life.
I have a Ford Transit Connect passenger minivan with the rear seats removed. It is the perfect size. You can fit huge amounts of stuff inside and you can tow 2000 pounds of trailer. If only the transmission were a little better, it would be the perfect vehicle.
It also gets 22mpg around town.
New Renault Twingo EV I think.
I say this having never sat in one of course, and I probably never will. But it seems like enough, though I admit that I might be influenced a bit by how cute it is. 🙂
In my real life, my daily is a sunburnt 36-year-old Volvo 240 wagon (manual/AC) with the second and third row of seats always folded down. I don’t really need all that cargo space anymore given the poor state of my spine, but I like having it anyway. It gets very mediocre MPG though.
Did you know the Smart fourfour EQ is the same car as the Twingo EV, only more ugly and expensive? Both are slightly rare though…
Learn something every day here. 🙂