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Thats not a car from the 90s.
Just ran the reg on the dvla website, this dirty old escort was first registered in October 1990. Considering the next gen ford escort started production a month prior, this has to be one of the last mk4 escorts built and registered for the UK market
My humble contribution
I hate them, I miss med-hatches and saloons. But they are hard to get hold of now, it feels like its the middle between tiny streetcars or ugly ute/wagons. I have even considered an estate car recently.
The days of flying around feeling like you were in a superpowered go cart so close to the ground
Is it possible to restrict communities geographically? This allergy to anything that fits more than two people is very US-focused. There are people with families that need more than just a coupe.
The small car has 5 seats, you can fit a family in it
Congratulations, you can read the brochure. Spoken like a true single person.
Ha I wish. Currently rocking a crying newborn’s pram with my foot. We don’t need a yank tank either
Same. I don’t mean tank. Just something that has three rows. When both kids are in the car - mom can’t fit in between them. And when the littelin starts crying - mom’s going crazy, cuz she can’t help him.
So. Four of us, front passenger seat is useless, mid rear seat is useless. Need a third row.
You are somehow doing this wrong. I have a small hatchback and can fit two Lida and two tall adults just fine. I think this is a matter or perspective. MOST of the world does not use giant SUVs.
I have the 3 door variant of the car in this picture and it was just fine using it when my son was born. My wife would always forget to turn the headlights off because there’s no audible alert when getting out so would get a flat battery often.
You need 3 rows of seating for 4 people?
Wild.
Did I stutter? Is something in my write up not clear?
Most people in the US hate each other and their children, so they need a huge house and a huge car to be “with” them while also staying as far apart as possible.
I do admit my house is huge by most standards but I run a basement studio/jam space out of it. My hobbies take up a lot of space…music recording, retro gaming etc
Some of my best memories of my siblings are from being crammed in the back seat of a car during a road trip with our Gameboys, trading pokemon and playing through Zelda : Legend of Time/Seasons and swapping catridges on the way back.
Again - this is not US. I really wish you stopped making shit up.
Maybe this is real, I’m no expert, but it does have a whiff of the photoshop to me.
If that is a 2013 nissan micra on the left it’d be smaller in all but height than what looks to be a 1990 ford escort.
“I’m no expert”
Opinion terminated.
Isn’t that a dualis on the left?
Thats no nissan micra, its a nissan quashquai
I hate the huge SUVs you see all over the roads, I have a 2021 Seat Leon FR PHEV hatchback, and around here the Kia EV9 is really popular.
While not as large as the stupid Ford F-150s, the EV9 is fucking huge.
The bonnet of an EV9 reaches almost up to my Leon’s roof:
https://www.carsized.com/en/cars/compare/seat-leon-2020-5-door-hatchback-vs-kia-ev9-2023-suv/
It should be illegal to have a car with the headlight at the eye level of a driver of a standard WV Golf type car.
I recently inherited an older Toyota Sienna and it’s made me realize the current crop of 3 row SUVs and gigantic trucks is mostly sold to people who would absolutely love a minivan but just don’t know it.
- I’ve got more cargo space than any truck I pass on the road made in this century
- I can fit my entire family plus drag along multiple friends and still have space for everyone’s bags
- I can stand and walk through the interior if desired, even climbing to the far back from the front seat
- the sliding doors mean you can get in and out of the vehicle from any parking spot without a door in the way
- it’s got a turn radius so short that I can do a full U-turn without reversing on any road or parking lot
- the high seat+low nose means I can nussle up within inches of a vehicle in front of me and still see the bumper
- the engine is has enough power to be comparable to some small locomotives.
I would never have bought a minivan on account of the gas milage (~20mpg just ain’t great, and filling up the 25 gallon tank every week hurts the pocket book way more than my crossover that I got before I knew snow tires were a thing) but holy crap having this much space for people/stuff is incredible and I thoroughly enjoy playing bus/truck with it for all of my friends and family. For anyone who’s considered a truck/3-row SUV to be a requirement, they need to do themselves a favor and try out a minivan
It’s exactly why I just don’t understand how these trucks are getting so fucking popular in Europe including in Germany! There’s been a culture for many decades of the multifunction vans, Volkswagen multivan but also mercedes Sprinter, that one fiat model etc. They are incredibly versatile yet manageable vehicles. You need a bed to go camping : sure. Need to move a couch: no problem. Need to go somewhere with up to 7 people: gotcha! Park in tight spot in underground garage: mostly no issue… Compare with the stupid RAM etc trucks any of those vans on anything except “coolness” and the vans will always come out on top! They need an extra trailer to move a bicycle for gods sake. RAM and similar are just an enormous waste of space and fuel by comparison. These damn trucks need to be forbidden in EU asap. Minimum bonnet height/angle/visibility would be a good way to get there.
…minivans are fantastic purpose-designed suburban utility vehicles; crossover SUVs are small-dick-energy rejection of suburban identity…
Like I said, I got the crossover before I understood what actually gets you safely across unplowed roads and unpaved farm driveways in the winter, but I at least knew just enough that I went for a crossover and not some disgusting oversized SUV or truck like plenty of other folks around me go for.
Now that it’s been totaled (cosmetically) by hail damage it’s simply not fiscally reasonable to replace it until it’s entirely worn out so that’s just a past decision that I’m going to have to live with for the next decade or so
…oh i’m not giving you a hard time, especially these days when most manufacturers have discontinued cars entirely to offer only crossovers or trucks; i’m just pointing out how stupidly the market evolved over the past three decades, largely in reaction to the success of the minivan…
…what’s particularly ironic is that the minivan’s whirlwind success was driven by a similar backlash against station wagons, and now modern crossovers have essentially evolved into overwrought bloated wagons…
Trouble is, trucks are considered cool. Vans aren’t.
my work have a Hilux, it’s horrible to drive, it’s like being on a boat.
The commercials I see for Ram trucks make me cringe so hard I want to escape my skin. The fact that that marketing strategy must work is absolutely bananas to me.
Have you got a link to the one you’re talking about?
WV
Ah, the Wolksvagen.
Bonnet height for private vehicles should be tightly regulated, they are a key contributer to lethality in car accidents yet increasing every year. I could imagine some steep increase in taxes (at least at purchase if nothing else) the further you deviate from a defined reasonable height. People do care about money, make lethal asocial choices more expensive.
I drive a 2001 Toyota MR2. My 7 yo step daughter is taller than the entire car. When I’m next to most vehicles, the top of my car is below their windows.
Even drive thrus I’m usually lower than the window.
I love my little car, it’s more capable than people think. I can easily get all the groceries I need, I’ve picked people up from the airport with their luggage in it. (I have a luggage rack on the back.) But I am concerned about people seeing me and am wary of it.
The solution to cars being shit isn’t old cars. It’s bicycles and trains. Lots and lots and lots of trains and bicycles.
bicycle cars! best of both worlds… oh wait///
Velomobiles!
Well that’s not going to work either. Am I going to take a train to the grocery store? I’m not going to ride a bicycle to the grocery store I have to go up and down no less than three hills to get there. And these aren’t small hills these are cardiac arrest inducing hills. So we do need cars we just need better ways to power them. And I don’t mean batteries or gas.
S-Pedelec, cargo bike, also, delivery services
I’m not doing a Costco run with a cargo bike and I’m not letting a delivery service pick out my produce.
Not everyone can ride a bicycle. I propose a shitton of tricycles, too, maybe some powered by solar-battery assist for those that have other physical issue with pedaling.
It can probably be assumed that by “bicycle”, they meant the full array of pedal-powered vehicles including variants with all the kinds of accessibility options.
Correct!
Not the 90s, return to most people not owning a car
Make cars a choice again. Not a necessity!
And watch car ownership rates plummet. Turns out most people would gladly save their car money for something else if they could.
Hell yeah, I want to have a horse and a wagon
I want rural people to have cars, and people who live in cities to not need one
Streetcars and tram lines everywhere!
Proper public transportation and maybe a bicycle would mostly do it
I agree completely, I forgot to add a “/j” to the my other comment XD
Imagine a wagon with suspensions, it would be so sick (and i wouldn’t get
carwagon sick!)
Ditch cars
Sell me a Station Wagon with third row seating, or damn-near-anything that seats three in the front row today. You can’t.
I have a company car that I drive privately too. It’s more of a lifted station than an SUV need the space for the kids.
It’s just weird to me how people that don’t need all of that actually buy huge cars. As soon as I am able I’ll go back to small and low. Range rovers per example are just crazy, and everyone where I come from drives one.
What if I want something I don’t have to squat down to get into? I like small trucks and small SUVs because I can just lift my leg and slide in. I’m getting older, my knees ain’t what they used to be, I don’t want to feel like I have to squat to get into a car and have to feel like my arse is dragging on the pavement like I’m in Mario Kart. But I don’t love the gas mileage of those bigger vehicles.
I’d prefer a bus (and I’d prefer it to be electric) if I lived in a city that supported either, and if public transportation went to my job (it doesn’t). Cars are necessary where I live, and I’m here because I dream of a better world, but, I also gotta pay bills, and wishes don’t do that.
Yeah, completely agree. For a lot of years I could never understand why people wanted such top-heavy vehicles, then my knees started getting bad. When my wife suggested looking at a Subaru forester, I was offended. Then I got in and out a few times, and the difference was huge. So much easier
I just got a newer car and I gotta say the height was up there in priority as my knees keep getting worse- yep, another suv. Minotaur monster sized but enough to be easy to get in and out and my adult kids to be comfortable if they’re in the back seat
I don’t love the gas mileage of those bigger vehicles
- When my forester was new, it hit near 30 mpg- not bad for such a big car
- my current suv is an EV, rated at 120 mpgE
suv’s where big in the 90’s so I don’t get this.
I mean this clearly shows how rectangular cars were back then, which is not great for collisions. They should at least stay round.
Also i read a discussion recently about how EVs are heavier due to their battery (and that’s supposedly bad for pedestrians when they get into a crash with the car), and i immediately had to think of how enormously overweight SUV vehicles are today, and people don’t complain enough about how enormously overweight SUVs are. In fact some people praise it and say that the heavy mass is good for the car-driver of the SUV because when they get into a crash, they’ll take less damage (while everyone around them takes more, btw).
Really shows how arguments are twisted and turned around when it’s the oil lobby that stands to profit from it.
In the case of SUVs, it’s not primarily the oil lobby, it’s car manufacturers. Put simply, they get to charge way more than the extra materials costs, for a “premium” vehicle. They’re making bank out of this shit.
Yeah, “cost plus” pricing strategy (link) means that you make a fixed percentage of profit. When you sell a vehicle for $200, you make $20 in profit (at a 10% markup rate); But if you sell a $400 vehicle, you can make $40 in profit. It’s crazy to me that they’re not just selling the same $200 vehicle for $220 to make $40 profit ($180 manufacturing cost), but that’s apparently the world we live in: People accept that companies can make more profit on higher-cost items.
It’s worse than that actually.
It’s not the same markup rate for a higher priced product. It’s a higher markup rate. Crossovers in particular aren’t much bigger than sedans and wagons. It’s only actual SUVs with off-road equipment (lockable diffs, 2 speed transfer case, etc) that cost significantly more to manufacture than regular cars.
Im in love with cars in Bud Spencer movies. Small, neat. The Beatle and Bully of VW. So cute and compact
And don’t forget Herbie, the love bug.
Not with those crash safety test results. I’ll take a modern sedan if I’m going to have a car
