Small cars making a big splash
They are Lilliput-putts, skittering low in a Brobdingnagian world of towering SUVs.
Their plight will not change. No amount of social ostracism, environmental concern, or increases in gasoline prices below $4 per gallon will dim the shadows of the swaggering SUVs and pickup trucks that help make up more than half of all vehicle sales in the United States.
Yet the small car -- once consigned to the rental fleet and the driveways of those who want only basic, cheap transportation -- is in the midst of a return to America's highways. It comes back proving that small does not have to mean plodding, that compact doesn't have to mean Spartan.
Audi has just entered the market; Volvo is on the way; a Mercedes-Benz offshoot is being offered by an independent importer; Honda and Nissan, already the makers of efficient small cars, will get smaller; and Chevrolet, where a top official told me not all that long ago that his company had ceded small cars to the Koreans, is getting back into this potentially huge small arena. Here's a sample of what's on the road and soon to be on the road:
Here today: small but funky
DODGE SRT-4
A secret little pocket-rocket, ready to rumble with all the Asian tuner cars out there. Five-speed tranny mated to a 230-horsepower, turbocharged, inline 4-cylinder engine. From hood snout to tail fin, a shark in fast waters.
SCION xB
Yes, it's a box. And yes, it is selling better on the West Coast than the East. But this offering in the youth-aimed Scion branch is a boom-box full of funk. It has stablemates called the tC coupe (one hot ride) and the xA in hatch or sedan form.
SMART CAR
Mercedes-Benz could not find a way to get its micro-car from Europe to here, despite apparent demand. So SmartZAP, a pioneer in alternative transportation, has launched a dealer network for this and other efficient cars. They won federal approval for the Smart this year. They began shipping Smart Cars out to dealers this summer, anticipating them to sell for $15,000 to $25,000.
MINI COOPER S
The pure driver's car in this entire lineup. A Go-Kart that is street legal. Go for the six-speed manual transmission and find out just how much fun a low-slung 168-horsepower car can be.
AUDI A3
Drove it, loved it. And what's not to love about 200 horsepower, a ground-sucking and distinctive Audi nose, four doors, and a hatchback? It's small, but it's an Audi.
CHEVROLET
An overlooked car, perhaps poorly marketed. Bearing the SS badge, it's more than 200 horsepower, has a nice tuner look about it, and is the car Chevrolet should have built five years ago.
On the horizon
VOLVO
''We're coming with a small car," vows spokesman Dan Johnston, referring to the C30, which will probably be an amalgam of concept cars dubbed 3CC and SCC (Safety Car Concept). It's a good bet elements of each will wind up in the C30; Volvo does not do concepts and leave its ideas to flap in the wind. Some reports have it offering 2.4- and 2.5-liter engines ranging from about 170 to 220 horsepower, and a distinctive Volvo snout and a no-overhang rear.
The right Fit or the sound of Jazz? That was Honda's choice when deciding which of its identical small cars bearing the same name -- Fit in Japan, Jazz in Europe -- it would bring to the United States. Honda went for the Fit, and this four-door with a hatchback will be appearing at dealers by spring.
Korea: Never mind, you can't have this market to yourselves. GM is developing small cars for Chevrolet and Saturn, and they will include sport wagons, which could be ready to run up against five-door hatchbacks and small imports masquerading as SUVs.
NISSAN
According to the trade journal Automotive News, Nissan will offer us a three-door hatchback by next summer, and follow that up with a small sedan in 2007.
BMW
Nothing official here, but look for the 1 Series, though not in current five-door/hatchback form, to come here soon. 