What is your other car?

2011 F150 crew cab, ecoboost, with heavy tow package.

 

A folding bike.

 

My wife's Lexus 330. She'd now looking for a new car also but nothing is striking her fancy.

 

Yay! That's the spirit.

 

Here's my 1988 Pontiac Fiero GT. Owned her for 26 years....

 

To be more accurate, I'll be putting the Firebird body complete onto a Prius floorpan and running gear. However, I am looking for an HS250H for the rear suspension and dash, although the larger engine is enticing. The Gen III and HS250H are the same body in the mid section and cowl, so the transition should be good. The wheelbase is within 1-1/2" between the Firebird and the Prius/HS, and the tire diameter is the same (I measured.) With adapter plates for the Pontiac Rally II Wheels, the tread width will be the same. Depending on which salvage cars I am able to find first in my search, the conversion will be either more Prius or more HS. (I'm praying to find both a wrecked PIP and a wrecked HS.) The finished car is planned to look showroom stock for a Firebird, but have all of the benefits of Prius/HS (including the air conditioning.) I have drawn the basic dimensions of each cars from the cars I own. The Firebird engine compartment swallows the Prius/HS whole, and the firewall of the Prius/HS is a foot further forward, so I'll fabricate bridge pieces between them.



Stay tuned...

Bill the Engineer

 

Nicely done! I'm a Pontiac man from way back. Now I own 3 P cars. (2 Prii and a Pontiac.)

 

Nice plates, Burna J. I'm not sure that one would make it past the censors here.

 

nice fiero, I had a 2.8 SE with the whale tail electric blue. and leather. but auto trans. fun car, a few years ahead of its time when the two person sports cars began to take off. Of course the fires in the 2.5 didn't help any.

 

13 Prius Gen3 (my daily driver, 10k miles)
00 BMW Z3 (perfect weather weekend driver-put away in the winter, 45K miles)
02 BMW E46 Wagon (daughter's daily driver, 46K miles)
10 Acura MDX (wife's daily driver, 5?k miles)

 

2004 Monte Carlo SS supercharged. Not exactly the greatest fuel economy but nice having some power when you put the pedal down.

 

Thanks... makes me laugh every time I see it.

 

I just don't get it. Am I missing something?

 

I've seen these on TV, but they don't sell them in Australia. They look good. Are they good cars to own?

Surely a few dents in the bumpers just make the car even shorter and easier to park.

I suspect it's a drug reference.

 

If you're after a small, easy to park city car with a bit of zip, then yes they're ok. They're much bigger inside than they appear - for two. You can get 3 people in or 3 and a kid, but you wouldnt want to do that often, but it's the flexibility that sells. We uses ours as a 2 seater with small luggage for shopping. Once in a while we'll take 3 in the car.

The turning circle is amazing. Like a London taxi or the old Triumph Heralds (if you remember those!).

Whether they'd work in Australia or not is another matter. They work in Europe with old narrow streets and parking and Japan where parking can be a significant issue. It's a weird looking car but kind of cute too. The gf was a little undecided at first and had buyers remorse, but now she loves it and laughs every time she just nips on the end of a space where someone has selfishly parked. Think of all those 3/4 car length spaces you see busy streets; well they're massive to us. Can't park nose in though as that's ticketable.

Dents and scrapes are just collateral damage in the daily parking war. The bumpers are cheap to replace and actually do often clip back on. The paint marks easily though, but we've just replaced the bumpers when they've become too nasty.

It's a city car.

This pic shows the car when fairly new squeezed on the end of a tight space.

 

Smoke a joint?

 

It looks like a lovely car. (And a lovely pub.)

I'd imagine it'd be brilliant in town. The part of Sydney we live in has lots of narrow streets, and it would be perfect round here (although it'd be useless for travelling round with two kids.) And a good turning circle is always a nice thing: even the Prius is good for that in comparison to a lot of cars.

And it must be a joy to park.

 

It's a second car. We use my car when I have the kids. The turning circle marks the Prius look like a barge. The IQ almost seems to turn round on itself! It really has to be experienced to believe. You can be in a narrow UK street in traffic, put the car on full lock and do a U turn into the next lane to the amazement of other drivers. It's almost like a bumper car! Infact, stick a pole on the back and you're not far off.

It would be ideal for the school run, weaving in and out of the double parked cars.

What are the rules on importing a car to Oz? You'd have a real fun, head turning car. It will do mid 50's to the gallon and more on a run and I think the manual gets more.

You know you want one

 

It's interesting the iQ is marketed as Toyota across the pond. Here in the US, it's sold by Toyota's Scion brand. Just checked Wikipedia, though, and it looks like Scion is only a US/Canada brand.

Anyway, I have seen a bunch of iQs on the Toyota lots here, but none actually on the road. Seems like a much nicer car than the Smart Fortwo, and about the same size. I think a lot of people go for the Yaris over the iQ, though, even here in a city with challenging parking.