A Lotus Exige beats almost all of them around a track (because of its vastly superior handling), and has the fuel consumption of a ‘compact’. That, in my opinion, is an ‘atom car’ too. It doesn’t need to be electric per se. It’s about not using more than you need. About clever design as opposed to brute force. And basically anything is better than gasoline.

I find it funny how Americans call cars that seat four in comfort and have a big enough trunk for their stuff a ‘compact’. That to me is proof of a skewed view of what a car should be, and typical of a country that has 5% of the world’s population, yet uses 24% of its resources.

Now, should they mass market a Natural Gas car out-of-the-box (like Honda did) at the $13K,-18K level it will do nicely.

I’ll buy a locally assembled, tiny, efficient, way more realiable, japaneese car, thank you!

Let me share my observations on motorcycles

speedbike is more a chick’s boyfriend and children magnet than a real, actual chick-magnet… Hey baby, wanna ride my moped, we could go to the farmer’s market, cook and have some sex afterward? I’m pretty sure both the success rate and MPG would be better with a moped than a hayabusa.

But I gotta admit it’s extremely metrosexual, for rednecks and guys with sexual identity insecurities it probably would not work

Look, my dick is kinda big, I don’t need every objects in my life to reflect that… I dont mind the contrast, as I am pretty sure you don’t either, -muted laughs-, mustang owner

First of all, these small cars have much less room in the way of trunk space, towing capacity and number of passengers. Even my Mustang can drive 4 (I put the girls in the back since they fit no problem in my ’06 Mustang), and has enough trunk space for a hockey bag, set of golf clubs and luggage. If that isn’t enough, you can fold down the top half of the rear seats and obtain more storage room. Lets see you do that with an “atom” car.

Also, lets take into account here that these smart cars have a huge deal of plastic. Plastic is a far greater hazard to the environment than the use and production of metals. Much more energy is lost in the creation of plastics than metals. It’s like those folks who somehow think plastic Christmas trees are better for the environment than planting and clear cutting trees specifically for Christmas tree use – excuse me, are you retarded or just slow?

Sure these little sissy cars are great for women – single women with a single income. But what good are they otherwise? I’d also like to point out the fact that though some might do well in crash tests, slamming a wall at 40 – 60 is all fine and dandy but you’re not as likely to be hitting a cement wall as you are that large car coming at you with another 40 – 60mph of force in the opposite direction. Yes okay, so that;’s only an issue as long as everyone continues to drive larger vehicles – though the larger much more heavily built family vehicles will have to follow. Also, these tiny vehicles have horrible reliability just due to the sheer “tinyness” of the components vs. the amount of force exerted on a car.

These smart cars, like “going green” or “eating local” (yes I eat local, at my local restaurant) are just a fad set out by sissies. Unfortunately people are retarded and don’t really think things through.

Would you rather have 1 powerful system capable of running ALL your software, or a few simple purpose computers? I would aregue once you add things up – the amount of materials to create the extra systems, the power used to run multiple systems and the space and manufacturing and everything else needed to allow you to have these extra little “environmentally friendly” devices it is all a big crock of shit that helps companies make more money off of uninformed bandwagoners.

Really – people need to look at the reality.