Society’s got priorities wrong.

  • most car travels are 1 person or sometimes 2 person

  • the majority of car travels are quite short, less than 40km.

  • many car travels are just to get some groceries or drop of a little package or just say “hi” to someone, carrying nothing but themselves.

  • cars are fucking expensive, to buy and to maintain

  • accidents become way worse with heavier vehicles

Microcar is a valid answer to all of these, while still being sheltered from weather.

How are urban places (i’m in Belgium) with almost permanent super heavy road traffic congestion, bad climate statistics, high polution values, very limited available space left, no self-sustaining energy production and high traffic accident statistics still pooring in billions and billions in subsidies year after year into “regular” big heavy SUV-like vehicles instead of these? It’s beyond my comprehension. The only real valid reason i somewhat get is the collective scare of being in a crash and not wanting to be in the smaller vehicle. We could save the climate, we choose not to.

  • MICROLINO: 17.990 €
  • OPEL ROCKS: 8.699 €
  • CITROEN AMI: 7.790 €
  • RENAULT TWIZY: 13.000 €
  • FIAT TOPOLINO: 9.890 €

A lot of people here casually spend more on a sunday racing bike every few years for fucks sake.

  • AlexWIWA@lemmy.mlEnglish
    296·
    5 months ago

    They’re also ugly as shit, which unfortunately will affect adoption more than people care to admit. But then again, the PT Cruiser and Nissan Cube sold, so maybe I’m wrong.

      • brokenlcd@feddit.itEnglish
        6·
        5 months ago

        I knew someone was eventually gonna name that monster; I didn’t know that people ouside of italy where aware of it. You know what’s the worst part? It’s actually very reliable, and drives decently; it’s just as ugly as the plague.

      • BastingChemina@slrpnk.netEnglish
        1·
        5 months ago

        My parents had one when I was a kid, the second version was not to ugly and the interior was crazy comfortable for a family car.

        It had 3 full front seat and 3 full seat in the back too.

    • Prandom_returns@lemm.eeEnglish
      44·
      5 months ago

      Christ, the arguments…

      “It not pretty. I liky BIIIG car, angry headlights, grrr”

      I can’t believe I still have to explain this to grown ups, people have different tastes. Especially when it comes to car design.

      If there was a “best looking car” there would be 1 design on the market.

      • AlexWIWA@lemmy.mlEnglish
        25·
        5 months ago

        Very few people in the US would buy this car. We can look at how unpopular EVs were until Tesla made them “cool.”

        Like or not, outside of car and anti-car communities, most people only want what’s trendy and these aren’t trendy. I appreciate that people in this community like the car, but we’re not exactly a majority in the US, and I live in the US so that’s the market I care about

        You’d have a much easier time funding mass transit here than getting the average American into one of these.

        • Prandom_returns@lemm.eeEnglish
          52·
          5 months ago

          Ah fuck, I keep foegetting that the world = US. My bad. Thanks for representing “the average american”.

          Saying “These are ugly, that’s why no one’s going to buy them” is rage-bating.

          The american fragile-masculinity-compensator-3000-supertruck enjoyers might hate these, but they’re just a minute subset of a subset of the drivers in the world.

          • AlexWIWA@lemmy.mlEnglish
            24·
            5 months ago

            Feel better? Any more strawmen you’d like to dress me up as?

            It’s very humorous that you think I’m talking about large trucks as the alternative to these micro cars when I’m talking four door sedans and wagons; 4dr wagons are the most popular body style in Europe btw. Seems I’m right about the US market and the European market too. Best to not act holier than thou when your market isn’t clamoring for these vehicles either.

            • Prandom_returns@lemm.eeEnglish
              23·
              5 months ago

              Hold up, you think a 5+seater monster is an alternative to a 2-seater microcar?

              And you think that because the 2-seaters “are ugly” , people buy 5-door wagons? You’re high, right?

              What is this logic, jfk…

              • AlexWIWA@lemmy.mlEnglish
                22·
                5 months ago

                Your logic is that people outside of the US will buy these. Yet they sell like shit in Europe. No, you brought up trucks. I and the person I responded to we talking about sedans and wagons. Fuck off troll