Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Minicars

One in every three [Japanese] cars now a minivehicle
One official said the number of minivehicles soared in 2006 "because automakers took the wraps off a slew of new models and unleashed fully restyled models."

[...]

Industry officials said the minivehicle category has been popular particularly with women and the elderly because they are easy to drive.

Such cars also benefited from fuel efficiency and low maintenance costs after the asset-inflated bubble burst in the early 1990s, they said.
Here's Shiba, reporter for Pro Tennis magazine in the anime Prince of Tennis, in her awesome minicar. I want one!

6 comments:

Brooke said...

Cute!! :)

I absolutely LOVE Smart cars, and have been a smart fortwo fan for a while, now. Now that I'm taking driving lessons, and half way to my UK driver's license, I think about cars a LOT. Even more than I USUALLY do, and you knows how I likes mah cars, Heather. ;)

I've narrowed down my future car to three possibilities: A Mini, a Lotus, or a Smart fortwo. All are very small cars compared to average. At least to what USED to be "average."

I'm just mesmerized by the "tiny-ness" of the fortwo. I LOVE it!

Not to mention you can get it in pink and grey. ;) It's SO extraordinarily me.. ALSO, another good thing about the smart fortwo, it's small looking even next to other small cars; that'll be GREAT for me when I'm out driving on those narrow country roads here, I won't feel like I'm going to be wiped off the road by one of those HUGE LORRIES!! Plus, I've seen some smart owners employ some rather ingenious parking moves.. ;)

YEY for minivehicles!!

Heather Meadows said...

Plus, when you get out of a tiny vehicle, it'll look like a magic trick because you're so freaking tall ;D

Brooke said...

Hmmmmm, added bonus?

I might not want to leave the house, if I'm having a less than confident day, then, if I'm going to look like THAT getting out of a tiny car!!

I already feel like a giant here, as I'm taller than majority of people I might pass on the street in an average day...

Heather Meadows said...

Really? I didn't realize there was a height difference between us and the UK.

Brooke said...

Yeah, there is. It's strange. FROM WHAT I'VE NOTICED, I'm taller than 98% of the guys I pass on the street daily. Girls seem to be marginally taller overall, so I'm probably taller than, let's say 96% of them, for sake of a number.

David's mom told me (and other people from here have said the same thing to me) that with WWII and rationing, and stuff, that a lot of people just didn't have enough nutrition growing up during that time, and that that essentially "stunted" for lack of a better word, their growth. The older generations are smaller, i.e., the "Baby Boomer" generation, whereas the last couple of generations are starting to catch up with "our" height. WWII did a total NUMBER on this country, whereas the US had casualties and rationing as well, we didn't have it nearly as bad as England, by ANY stretch of the imagination.

So, basically, what it ALL means is that I feel like the tallest girl in her Kindergarten class --again..

;)

Heather Meadows said...

That makes sense. Japanese grandmothers are tiny but the current younger generation has pretty much caught up to our height, too, for similar reasons.