CONSUMER DESK: As our city streets become ever more congested there is a growing market for the around-town runabout. Angela Long measures up some of the city cars
Small is beautiful, and in a world of no parking, clamping, towaway, and big petrol bills, the less space your car occupies the better.
When the Good Samaritan nuns educated me some decades ago, they used to like to speculate about the future, a future in which, they told us, we would all be going to school in our own little cars which would collapse into briefcases when we arrived at the school gates. (Actually I think Sister Anselm pinched that idea from The Jetsons.)
Whatever its origin, it has always appealed. We might not be quite there yet, but minimisation in cars has wide appeal, especially to those of us who also put small price at the top of our preferences.
Choosing a small runabout can, for a man, also show he is liberated from the idea that personal transport must carry phallic symbolism, an idea even older than Chaucer and his pilgrims' horses.
There are scads of these efficient tiddlers available now . . . Toyota's Yaris, the Peugeot 106, Suzuki's Ignis, the Ford Ka, the list is ever lengthening (unlike the cars themselves). I tried out a few portable-looking vehicles.
First was the pocket-sized Citroën Saxo, the latest model of which I tested out.
Size matters to me, and while some might be more interested in the engine (1.5 litres) its compact 3.72 metres headlights to rear, 1.5 metres width and 1.4 metres height were the statistics I wanted.
The one I drove wasn't the prettiest, with the dealer's advertisement written all over it, and five doors. It did have a somewhat lightweight and plastic feel to it, but compared with my test drive of a 2CV around Clapham Common in London in the late 1980s, this felt as safe as a tank. (I still wake up sweating from time to time dreaming I am back in that red and white Deux Chevaux wrestling with its stick-like controls.)
The Saxo's brakes felt a bit spongy. However on the acid test, parking on a crowded slope just up from the West Pier in Dún Laoghaire, it manoeuvred very well and fitted snugly into a slice of road.
Seeking more glamour, the next on the list - though it is more in the supermini category than city car - was the famous 1960s babycar redux, the new MINI. Maxwells of Blackrock says business has been booming in the cleverly restyled MINIs, now made by BMW.
Tim McQuaid, a human version of a stylish compact vehicle himself, says they were hoping to sell in total 200 this year, but by mid-April had already reached the 100 mark. "And everyone is buying them. It's not just young people, or men or girls, or older people who are nostalgic for the old Minis."
The MINI I drove, under Tim McQuaid's watchful eye, was a Cooper, the speedier model, in mean black. This is quite a different proposition from the Saxo, as is reflected in the price - around €30,000 as opposed to €17,100 on-the-road. It has a much more solid quality feel to it and the interior, a mixture of the futuristic and the classic, is very appealing, in silver grey heavy duty plastic with groovy dial clocks.
It vrooms along, but the suspension is not for the faint-hearted: nipping along the Rock Road in Blackrock was a roller-coaster, but good for the digestion.
It reminded me of the early claims for horseless carriages, when criticised for the lack of exercise they brought, that they were excellent for digestion because of the external aid to peristalsis (and that you should get out and run for five minutes after every few miles travelled).
The ordinary MINI is apparently not quite so spare on the suspension, but the Cooper is built for maximum speed.
The MINI measures 3.6 metres - surprising, because it seems much bigger than the Saxo. With rearvision mirrors extended its total width is 1.9 metres, so it's fatter than a Saxo, and height is the same at 1.4 metres.
The engine is 1,5900 ccs. I didn't dare to make Tim McQuaid nervous by trying to slide it in to a teeny urban parking space, so docilely slipped into an ordinary parking bay. Incidentally, the bumf that comes with the MINI is quite awe-inspiring, including the claim that "it sticks to the road like a gecko to the ceiling". Excuse me?
Next up for inspection was the Honda Jazz, smallest of their range at the moment, and priced competitively with the Saxo at just over €17,100. I liked this car, which felt solid, handled well, tucked into modest parking and also has a neat feature of foldaway rear seats, should you be transporting large objects. It was slightly the longest, at a tad over 3.8 metres, and 1.67 metres wide with a height of 1.5 metres.
The smallest of this selection on the other hand was the Daewoo Matiz, an increasing sight on Irish roads, a five-door 800 cc job which stretches to just under 3.5 metres long, width 1.5 metres and height 1.48 metres. The latest model has those smart flat bug-eyes and comes in an arresting range of colours.
To drive, it is road-friendly, with great panoramic visibility, a slightly stick-like clutch and good manoeuvrability. The lanky dealer who loaned it to me said he and three six-footer mates had tried out the company's claims that big blokes - such as themselves - could fit comfortably in to the Matiz, and it was indeed so. The trim and finish is nothing fancy, although power steering and airbags are standard.
I had also wanted to try out the Smart car, which can occasionally be seen on Irish roads, although Mercedes has not released it on to the market here. However, industry sources tell me any I have seen around belong to visitors from the Continent or privately imported, so the cute bug-eyed half-car is not for natives yet.
The wee wonders are not just for pragmatists like me, but must have appeal across the board. Research done in 1999 saw a mini-buying boom, which we are now in the middle of, representing a nearly 40 per cent rise in the very little car market.
The definition, of a car with an engine of less than 1,000 cc, is more motor-wise than my simplistic length and width definition, but it adds up to the same thing. Japan and India have been big growth markets for the small cars, but Ireland and Britain are catching on. Some of this has to be due to more and more vehicles competing for the precious resource of less and less parking.