The solution to muppets in SUVs...

[RideWithStyles]

 

https://www.theverge.com/24083014/microlino-lite-microcar-moped-license-price-specs

 

Edited May 15, 2024 by RideWithStyles

[Capt Sisko]

That's no good. Where am I going to chuck the couples bails and bags of sheep feed? And I bet you can't hose it out.

[RideWithStyles]

 

[Fozzie]

America has a real issue with their trucks, I was there twice last year and you see the old cars, which are still big drive up alongside the newer variants and the size difference is huge. They'd have no chance on UK roads. 

 

The UK is under the grips of the "SUV Crossover" phase, which as far as I've seen so far, just involves taking a hatchback, putting it on stilts, and whacking a lot of chunky bodywork on it. They usually stretch the car's boot space to make it seem bigger, but nothing else is meaningfully sized up. Think of cars like the Nissan Juke or Ford Puma, supermini underpinnings with a bigger body (and price tag) plopped on top. 

[S-Westerly]

I rented a SUV in the US for 4 adults 2 boys and a load of ski gear. It was huge but great fun to drive in the sense of feeding our egos a bit. Son in law and I were convinced it was defective as there was an occasional strange vibration in the seat and wheel. Women folk who'd read the abbreviated instruction manual were able to inform us it was the lane change alert things. Oh the shame.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

1 hour ago, Fozzie said:

America has a real issue with their trucks, I was there twice last year and you see the old cars, which are still big drive up alongside the newer variants and the size difference is huge. They'd have no chance on UK roads. 

 

The UK is under the grips of the "SUV Crossover" phase, which as far as I've seen so far, just involves taking a hatchback, putting it on stilts, and whacking a lot of chunky bodywork on it. They usually stretch the car's boot space to make it seem bigger, but nothing else is meaningfully sized up. Think of cars like the Nissan Juke or Ford Puma, supermini underpinnings with a bigger body (and price tag) plopped on top. 

Things seem to have gone to the next stage. Vauxhall used to design their small SUV Crossover on the Astra platform, now it's the other way round. Since sails of SUV/Crossovers are high the new Astra is built on the SUV platform rather than the other way round. The outcome is that the internal layout of the new Astra is very cramped because they've had to use a SUV base and build a normal car out of it.

 

Our daughter runs a Skoda Fabia which she can get the pram into the boot no problem. Someone went into the back of her recently so she had a VW T-Roc as a courtesy car. It was very nice and much bigger but the pram wouldn't fit in the boot. Give me an old fashoned estate if you want more space.

[Tiggie]

Boot space on a Juke is shockingly small for the size of the car. My friend used to struggle getting pram in hers.

 

Speaking of boot space, my wife is currently leasing a Renault Kadjar. One nice little feature is the back seats are all on rails so you can slide them backwards or forwards like you can with front seats. Useful as she doesn't usually have anyone sat in back so we keep the seats fully forward to maximise boot space. Probably on a lot of cars nowadays but first time I've seen it 

[onesea]

On 05/03/2024 at 15:10, S-Westerly said:

It was huge but great fun to drive in the sense of feeding our egos a bit. 

Round here the big egos and trucks are becoming far too common.

 

Apparent you need one of these:

https://www.automobiledimension.com/model/ford/ranger-raptor

 

To navigate the NewForest lanes / roads these days:

 

Given the size they have to be driven in the middle of the road. All other cars have to get out of the way.

 

Then with your Cockney accent you must say that you own a house here, then complain about the tourists parking on the verges.

 

I hate to quote the daily mail:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6140681/amp/Average-width-Britains-20-vehicles-expanded-nearly-1ft-20-years.html

 

So cars are nearly 1 foot wider and growing.

 

As for the Original post, if they would do 40-45mph with decent size boot (2 dogs and an outboard) I would have one.

 

They are similar to the Citroen Ami.

https://www.citroen.co.uk/ami?

 

[S-Westerly]

Another trans Atlantic import we could do without. If our roads were American sized fine but they're not. There's roads around me that I'll ride on the bike with caution but never take a normal car on let alone a monster.