Having just watched the video… I can see the appeal. 70km would do us fine once we can get out and about again … pottering to the nearest village for general shopping and, of course, the pharmacy, the doctor, the dentist. None of those trips warrant a “proper” car…
I guess it takes a fellow car enthusiast to understand the sort of discussion I was trying to stimulate
Reminds me of that old joke, why men shouldn’t be agony aunts…
Dear Fred, I left the house yesterday and the car cut out at the end of our road. I walked back home and discovered my husband in bed with the au pair. What should I do? Yours etc. Sally.
Dear Sally, I’m sorry to hear of your predicament. There are many reasons a car can cut out, mainly fuel or spark related. I suggest you call your local garage for assistance. Sincerely… Fred.
I reckon our local “garage assistant” might be well able to solve the car problem and bring a smile to Madame’s face… too… (he is rather good looking…)
Given the stupid prices for rusting old VSPs they’re certainly worth a look - it even comes with doors compared to the weird little Renault thing - and batteries are included rather than a monthly rentai or several grand extra
Range is awful - but would you want to pootle more than 20km in it.
The toy car look is its appeal really - so childlike its quite cute. Think its still a tad over priced but I’m vaguely tempted - perfect for the 4km trip for bread/milk - and if I’m going to keep working away then it fixes a lot of problems - given its 30-40 euro to do 10km (2 x 5km) by cab round here …
It seems to me that being able to maintain the legal limit is an important safety feature. Slow vehicles tend to make other drivers angry and I would be very nervous being tail-gated while driving something so fragile looking.
Exactly! I have a friend who, years ago, was an early adopter of a Smart car and she found it terrifying as large lorries tailgated her. She never felt safe in it and that is a really robust car compared with the Ami
One of the ‘driving mistakes’ one can make when taking the UK bus driver test (one’s only allowed 3) is ‘not keeping up with the traffic flow’. I was asked what the speed limit is on a bit of urban dual and encouraged to speed up a bit (I was terrified of speeding which is an instant fail, of course).
Young’s brewery in Wandsworth continued to use horse drawn drays because it was economically sound, for local deliveries round Wandsworth, until the Ram brewery closed in 2011.
Many times have I got off a bus at the Marble Arch end of Oxford St because I could see a red column of buses - stationary - up to Oxford Circus and beyond. Since the ban on cars in Oxford St, the congestion with buses got so bad it was debated they would be banned as well!
It isn’t for ‘proper’ driving though is it? It is for pootling about doing a bit of shopping and getting to work and back in a city. Not actually going anywhere. I’d happily go around in one of those in a big city. For real driving I’d stick to my present car, especially as I have people to ferry around.
Then we should have designated “pootling areas” where everyone is limited to the same speed.
The most dangerous manoeuvre is overtaking and more of that will happen when some vehicles are unable to achieve the legal limit.
Do you live in a big city Mike? Because not much of that happens in a city-centre really and often the limit is 30. Even when the limit is 50 you generally don’t drive at 50. Too much traffic quite apart from anything else. If these vehicles reduce pollution and noise and congestion so much the better.
Twats will always drive like twats, of course.