micro cars

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VW made $600 car for China, but did world’s cheapest car vanish?

A new cheap single-seat car, introduced several years via a prototype, was scheduled for release recently China and would have made the Tata Nano, the not-too-long ago world’s cheapest car, seem expensive. Made in Hamburg, Germany, and shown only to Volkswagen stockholders in secrecy, the unnamed vehicle was said to 4,000 Yuan or the equivalent of $600. That’s about one-third of the cost of the original Tata Nano, the India-made vehicle that debuted via much publicity in 2009. (But has anyone heard anything further about arguably one of oddest-looking vehicles in history?) The new vehicle, built in Germany, was predicted to travel 100 kilometers (62 miles) on one liter (28 ounces) of fuel, also making it the world’s most economical

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Smallest production car ever made? It’s the real deal Peel

Forget the Smart ForTwo, Fiat 500 and Scion iQ. They’re only small cars. And the Mini? It’s really only small via its name. If you want a small car, how about the smallest car ever made — the Peel? Located on the Isle of Man, Peel primarily made fibreglass boats as well as fairings for motorcycles. But it was also the manufacturer of the Peel Manxcar, Peel P50 and Peel Trident microcars. The original Peel 50, for example, was 54 inches long (less than half the length of the new Scion iQ), 41 inches wide and weighed 130 pounds. And it was legal to drive on roads in Great Britain. The company halted manufacturing in1969, but the three-wheeled Peel P50 is

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Scion iQ, 2012: Brainy microcar with a lot of room to roam

Three years to the month after it made its debut in Japan, the Scion iQ arrived in the United States in October 2011 as the country's second "city car." And, of course, it's the immediate rival of the Smart ForTwo, the now nearly teenage microcar. Like its rival, the Scion iQ mini-car is innovative, controversial and immediately attracts attention with its petite presence. Like the Smart ForTwo, the Scion iQ also has an odd name. Toyota, the Scion parent company, explains the "i" means "individuality," "innovation," and "intelligence." And the "Q" stands for "quality." The Weekly Driver Test Drive During my test drive, several people stared at the car while it was parked in front of our house. One guy

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BMW microcar Isetta still around 55 years after heyday

It’s not the most unique vehicle in the world, but the Isetta micro-car built in several countries and once owned by BMW, still attracts plenty of attention because of its bubble shape and diminutive size. Design by an Italian company, the Isetta was conceived because of a need for cheap, short-distance city driving following World War II. The BMW Isetta became the world’s first mass-production 3-liter car in 1955. Its low-friction, one-cylinder engine and low weight resulted in superior gas mileage — as high as 71 mpg. It is the top-selling one cylinder car in the world, with 161,728 units sold, according to Wikipedia. Matt Walsh, a friend and publisher of the irreverent cycling blog Twisted Spoke spotted a stunning

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