Chevy Wants You to Vote On Your Favorite Mini-Car Concept
Chevy this week is asking the public to vote for their favorite new mini-car concept from a group of three introduced at the New York Auto Show.
From AutoBlog:
The Beat (green) is by far the most sporty of the trio, with its slicked back styling and comparatively large 1.2L turbo engine. Technically described as a “tuner” car, the Beat is meant to be customized much like a Scion to an owner’s own individual tastes. The Beat is a front-wheel drive, three-door hatch with an automatic tranny to divvy up the tiny motor’s available power.
The Groove concept (black) is much like a mini HHR, a five-door wagon with a tall roof and flat sides. It’s extremely short hood, big wheel arches and nonexistent overhangs mean that every square inch of the platform is utilized. Consider this the most practical concept of the three. Also a front-driver, the Groove is powered by a 1L diesel engine.
Finally there’s the Trax (orange), which we’ve met before. The Trax concept is the mini ute of the bunch, doing its best to feign even the slightest ability to venture off the beaten path. We wouldn’t suggest it however, as those tires lack any meaningful tread and the ride height, while high compared to the other two concepts, could hardly clear a curb (if that). It’s the only one of the three that features round headlights, though its four-door, upright, box-like packaging mimics that of the Groove concept. It’s powered by a 1L gas engine.Â
I personally voted for the “Groove” concept — I like the 1L diesel engine and the overall shape. Cast your vote at www.vote4chevrolet.com.
But this is not a car blog. My point of posting about this is to get your thoughts on the marketability of micro vehicles such as these or the 2nd generation smart fortwo, which will be on sale during the 1st quarter of 2008.  Will we see the public go for more cars in the sub-$15K range offering fuel mileage in the same territory as hybrids? For me, I see myself purchasing a very small car with no more than a 1-litre engine. For the occassional road trip out of town I’d just rent something a bit larger and more powerful.
As gas prices naturally rise we will hopefully see people giving up their 2-ton living rooms on wheels in exchange for something less comfortable. Yes, less comfortable! Sky roofs, wood & leather, and other items make our cars so comfortable we can’t imagine giving them up for something more practical such as a basic car, a scooter, a bike or mass transit. Case in point, I went from having auto-down on all four windows and auto-up on the front windows on my former Audi. In switching to the Scion it took me a while to get used to having only auto-down on the driver’s window. I’ve completely forgotten what it is like to have manual windows and locking/unlocking a car with a key. We are so spoiled, how can other forms of transit or even a more basic car compete?
What will gas prices have to reach before buying & driving habits change? $4/gallon? $5/gallon? More?
I like how they tell you what to think about each one “Consider this the most practical concept of the threeâ€â€¦well, okay.
It’s pretty obvious which one they’re pushing, and therefore which one will win. Look which one is in the foreground with the lights shining on it. The one with the biggest engine and most horsepower. My feeling is that they’re targeting this to the custom “after market†crowd that likes to soup up their vehicles into little road racers. Nothing wrong with that I guess, but I’d rather see them make a meaningful contribution to the micro-car market, something the average consumer might find attractive. American auto companies still don’t get it.
I like smaller cars, but my wife hates ’em (even though she has a Miata). With the average weight on the road continuing to go up (crew-cab pickups have replaced SUV’s as the macho family vehicle of choice), she worries, probably validly, about me getting squished.
There are already great small cars out there, the Honda Fit and the Mini are two that come to mind immediately. Chevy has two big challenges making this idea fly. One is their history of less than stellar quality (see their current Aveo, and their past options, the unsafe-at-any-speed Corvair, the Vega and the Cadavelier). Two is their (and the industry’s) continuing focus on Japanese anime styling. If these cars are to be taken seriously, they need to appeal to more than a high-school student in study hall. Mini does this through good styling and high-quality materials. I assume M-B is doing the same thing with the Smart.
Still, I wish ’em luck. But I still think the only thing that will change American perspectives will be much higher gas prices (which I support). I’d much rather see higher gas taxes than a lot of other ideas being floated, including tolls and congestion pricing . . .
Cars are not the answer, especially these. Yes the American car buyers are hooked on horsepower. For a family that wants to feel safe, most buy a overweight SUV since in accidents thay are “perceived” to be the least vulnerable. Solutions?:1. Require SUV owners to have a truck driver’s license, 2. Initiate a $1/gallon federal tax on gas (it is a national security issue), 3. Quit subsidizing parking lots, and 4. Provide a pedestrian-bike friendly environment. And my security word?: “bicycle”, you got that right!
By the way, on the supply side, the Cantarel oil field in Mexico is loosing output much faster than expected. Last year the well was generating 2 million barrels per day and is now only producing 1.6 million. By some measures, Mexico may go from being an oil exporter to importer in eight years!
As far a design goes, I think they all are pretty crude. It is a good example of how subtlety is completely lost on the designers at GM. These cars all look like ideas that have been “chevy-ized†to look more like existing product – versus looking at the car as an pure object.
In terms of the overall concept, and discussion here – there is no doubt that we need better ideas for personal transportation – but the ideas that relate to the organization of our environment and better options for transport (walking, bicycles, mass transit) will have much more impact on our quality of life, and the quality of the planet than another car design.
My gosh, those cars are damn ugly. Looks like another money looser for GM.
Why don’t they just bring cars that sell well in Europe into the US? In London and Paris I recently saw dozens of great vehicles I would consider buying for under $15k if available here. Chrysler is owned by Daimler and they sell a full line of vehicles in the EU. Ford owns European and Asian interests as does GM. They already have a good idea of what sells in markets where size and fuel efficiency are top motivators. I find it very strange that US car makers have to adjust working models for US tastes. Cell phone makers have models that generally vary only by chipset (CDMA or GSM) and don’t invent an SUV model for the US market. IKEA seems to sell plenty of European inspired furniture in the US and especially in urban areas without the step down living room and three car garage. With their marketing budgets the “Big Three” can mold American tastes as long as it doesn’t run counter to reality (aka. selling Hummers at $4/gal).
Speaking of going to manual windows, locking your car with a key, etc…. I have to say that I believe the “luxury” of new cars is largely a North-Amerikan market thing. Nothing illustrates this better than 2 friends in New Mexico who have matching year/model Mercedes diesel station wagons – except one was a European model, and the other is a American export model. The American model has power everything, seats, sunroof, locks, etc, stereo, cup holders, you name it. The European model has manual transmission, crank windows, crank sunroof, AM radio only, manual seats, the works. And guess which one has held up better? The Export model has been plagued with electrical problems and failures since day one… the European model however? It will probably reach 1-million miles with 90% of it’s original equipment intact.
And so, with that in mind I present to you the golden solution to removing huge, wasteful, SUV-style fasion statement vehicles from the road – simply mandate that they MUST have a manual transmission! The benefits are two-fold – 1) manual transmissions get better mileage, and 2) since it’s so damned hard to even FIND a vehicle with a manual in the states to begin with, it is obvious to me that fat, lazy ass Americans can’t be bothered to ever learn how to really DRIVE a car, rather than sitting back in big puffy Lay-Z-Boy recliners and pointing them in the general direction of travel (and with the proliferation of GPS navigation even that seems increasingly difficult. Tomorrows generation won’t even know how to use paper maps, I’m sure of it).
I laugh whenever people describe a new Mini or Beetle as a “small car”. These things are HUGE compared to the originals. Stand next to a Mk1 Mini or a Fiat Cinquecento and you’ll know what a “small car” is for real. And the fuel economy they attain are utterly pathetic (with the rare exception of the manual-shift TDI). mid-30’s fuel economy out of a MINI!!? Gasser Beetles getting under 20mpg??! That’s just a cruel joke on the fasion-lemming American sheeple.
$5/gal gasoline? bring it on, baby! I can’t wait to see the crying faces of the sheep filling up their picup-trucks they paid $30,000 too much for because it has a Lincoln or Cadillac badge on it, on the 6-o’clock evening news.
Steve, what is that monstrosity you linked my Fiat comment to?? BARF!! 😉
THIS is the Fiat Cinquecento (500) I had in mind (the ORIGINAL, accept no substitues): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_500
I saw quite a few of them in Italy & Paris this past fall. You could probably park 2 of them in the space 1 new “mini” would fit.
I’d LOVE to have one here. I saw one driving through the Boeing campus a couple years ago but I was never able to track down the owner.
50+mpg on regular gasoline and a 500cc 2-cylinder air cooled engine. Perfect city car or commuter to your downtown/inner-ring ‘burb job.
=42 brings up a good point about Detroit’s marketing. They’ll use marketing to create “demand†for SUV’s and lux-sedans with 400 horsepower, but then complain there’s no demand out there for fuel-efficient or electric vehicles. With little marketing generated demand for their smaller vehicles and with folks turning away from their bigger ones, it’s not surprising to see American auto companies in the position they’re in. I’ll give chevy some half-hearted applause for making an attempt with the models above, but as has been mentioned already they could use a more sophisticated design if they want to appeal to US urbanites. The models above just look like smaller versions of the cars they’ve been selling to the suburban market for years (“Look, it’s an SUV! See? It’s got round headlights and some sort of rack on the top! You can put your miniature kayak up there.â€)
I often wonder what part safety regulations–and specifically the legal requirement of child seats for all kids under 8–play in the trend towards larger and larger cars. Before we had kids, we had several smaller cars, but it’s really uncomfortable now.
We had a standard transmission Chevy Tracker (not really a small car) for a couple of years: the passenger seat was permanently all the way forward to allow space for the infant seat, and if my not-quite-6′-0″ husband was driving, our (then) two-year-old had not an inch of leg room. Not a pretty sight, particularly on those 5+ hour trips to the rural areas our families call home. We gave up and bought a mid-size sedan–my first car with power windows and remote locking. But it is still a stick-shift.
When I was a kid, our family once went out for ice cream with the family next door in their Volkswagen Bug–the moms up front in the buckets, all four of us in the back seat. Ah, those dangerous days.
Ahh… VW Bugs. My Mom used to give rides to school for the kids down the street occasionally. We were three kids and there were three extra kids to fit on those occasions. There was an extra storage space behind the back bench for groceries or such that we used for extra kids. A 2-4-(1) formation that is definately not legal these days. I used to ask for the front of the very back so it wasn’t a bad spot. Heck, when it was cold you got a free butt warmer from the engine underneath! Don’t even remind me of how many of us used to wrestle in the back of my friend’s family station wagon with no seat belts.
My wife and I own one car (2003 BMW 325i) which is quite small in the rear. We fit my 16 month old son in a car seat in the back just fine. The rear-facing infant seat was a problem in that it only really fit when placed in the middle position. I’m over 6’3″ so I’m pushing the seat all the way back and he survives with a little room.
A lot of the safety measures are predicated on large cars colliding at high speed. You won’t see that type of accident in a highly compact urban area where speeds are generally 35mph and below. As long as people keep commuting 15-40 miles a day on high speed roadways, the whole system is designed to continue the paradigm we have now. It must be a large car with 8 year olds in bulky seats to safely withstand the type of driving Americans routinely do.