Car Lust

Suzuki Aerio

Some time ago, a co-worker mentioned to me that Car Lust, while intermittently entertaining, isn't particularly useful in helping everyday drivers find good, inexpensive modern cars. I nearly recoiled in shock. After all, the Fiat X1/9 and AMC Eagle are perfect cars for today's families.

Of course, he's right. I drone on a great deal about old cars and expensive new cars, but of the recent crop of inexpensive cars only the Kia Spectra5 has received any love--and that was tepid love at best. "Well, fair enough," I told my co-worker. "How about the Suzuki Aerio?" At this point, he gave me a look of sickened disbelief and walked rapidly in the other direction. I get that a lot.

Nobody who has paid attention to this blog in the last 18 months should be at all surprised that I like the Aerio. It's an inexpensive and useful family hauler, and the very characteristics that caused it to fizzle in the American market cause me to love it. America hates hatchbacks; I love them, and if they are hunchbacked, all-wheel-drive, and quirky, so much the better.

Daihatsu Naked

Today's topic of interest is one of those fascinating little kei cars found in the Japanese home market. A kei car cannot exceed certain exterior dimensions, and is limited to a 660cc motor of no more than 64 HP. A car which observes these limitations is easier to register under Japanese law and qualifies for favorable tax and insurance treatment.

Our subject was produced by Toyota subsidiary Daihatsu from 2000 to 2004, and is a variation on the 5th-generation Mira 5-door hatchback. It has a squared-off shape, and the many "industrial" details like the chiseled character lines on the doors, the "bolt heads" on the bumper and nosepiece, and the exposed door hinges, give it a "techno" or "futuristic" feeling. If they'd had four-passenger economy cars in Blade Runner, they might've looked like this little fella.

The name of this delightful little car? We'll get to that in a minute.

The End of an Era

As of last Friday, the Zastava automotive plant in Serbia closed its doors and ceased production; the Zastava plant was best-known for producing the Yugo, which went out of production earlier this month.

The Yugo is best-known as one of the great automotive punch lines of all time, the subject of innumerable jokes, and one of the last truly awful cars available in America. Perhaps others are better-informed than me, but I was shocked to discover it was still in production.

Some will cackle at this news, but I'm a bit saddened. Whether you consider the Yugo an object of lust or disgust, all can agree that it was a unique little car that spiced up our lives with its very presence. I think it was a sharp-looking little car, and a throwback to simple, blunt-object cars like the Citroen 2CV and Volkswagen Bug.

And, if nothing else, the Yugo was useful for purposes of context--it made everything else look just a little bit better.

--Chris H.

Nissan Cube

UPDATE: the U.S.-spec 2010 Cube has been unveiled--and it's the mirror image of the Japanese version.  Pictures here.

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Japan seems to be producing a lot of adorably quirky rectangles on wheels these days. Some, like the Honda Element and Scion xB, have become familiar here in the U.S., while others, such as the Suzuki Alto Works, are unknown to these shores.

The most interesting of all is the appropriately-named Nissan Cube. I first learned of the Cube by reading about it in Robert Cumberford's "By Design" column in Automobile magazine. That article focused on the Cube's styling, of course. But while the Cube is interesting for how it looks, that's not the only thing that makes it interesting.

Suzuki Alto Works

It has been some time since we last featured a Kei car, so why not go with a definitive example of the breed? Boxy, tall, and tiny, the Alto Works boasts surprising interior space despite its minuscule footprint. Yet, like the most interesting Kei cars, the Alto Works makes its biggest splash with its glitzy high-performance hardware and tempest-in-a-teapot aggressiveness.

Like all Kei cars--not to be confused with the ubiquitous Chrysler K-cars of the 1980s--the Alto Works was limited to its tiny exterior dimensions, a 660cc engine, and a maximum of 64 horsepower. On the surface, perhaps, this doesn't sound like a formula for a particularly interesting performance car--until you work light weight into the formula.

Yugo GV

Let's just get one thing out of the way right here and now:  This is a Car Lust. This isn't some halfhearted, tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic, acerbic attempt at humor or irony (Chris Hafner: Already done!). I really, truly, honestly, and completely would drive a Yugo GV with pride if it were presented to me. Oh, and yes, I also know where the mental asylum is in my home town, but that's entirely unrelated.

In 1985, under the auspices of Malcolm Bricklin, the first Yugo GV ("Great Value") was imported into California at the low price of $3,990; according to the official CPI calculator, that works out to $8,124.10 in today's dollars. This puts it a full $2,000 less than a Chevy Aveo or even the most stripped out Kia. Buyers who picked up a Yugo were treated to a Fiat 127 redone with VW Rabbit-inspired styling, all built under the careful eye of the best, most talented workers that Zastava could muster. Thus, buyers were treated to an affordable, modern, stylish twist of an old tried-and-true design. This formula would be used again 10 years later to bring the Daewoo Lanos to our shores.

Ford Tempo

Full disclosure here--I don't like the Ford Tempo, or its Mercury Topaz twin. Based on some of the other awful cars I like, including its Fairmont predecessor, I really should like the Tempo. I keep moaning on about how depressing it is that Detroit can't make a simple, inexpensive, reliable small car, but yet I don't give the Tempo--a car that filled that niche from 1984 to 1994--any of the respect it deserves. Mea culpa, Tempo lovers. Mea maxima culpa.

The Ford Tempo was a first-car staple in my generation--Tempos were ubiquitous in high-school parking lots back in my day, and two of my friends had Tempos as their first cars. Cookie the Dog's Owner already wrote two excellent posts on the phenomenon of first cars (Challenge, Results), and one of the most agreed-upon points was the fact that kids will love their first car regardless of what it is. I was one of the commenters agreeing fervently with that point, and yet the Tempo makes me question that assertion.

Can there be a more conflicted feeling than having a Tempo as your first car? On the one hand, you're excited that you own your first car; you want to race around in it, customize it, show it off to your friends, and take advantage of your new mobility. On the other hand, well, it's a Tempo. Small, ugly, and relentlessly slow, the Tempo married an agricultural driving experience with a lack of pretension and luxury that bordered on the Amish.

Ford Ka

In the last few weeks we've featured quite a few big domestic cars; so what better subject than a featherweight European hatchback with a domestic nameplate? I've always found European Fords somewhat jarring; it's this incredibly familiar nameplate on generally unfamiliar cars. GM at least differentiates their unique European-market offering with Opel and Vauxhall nameplates, and Chrysler tends to just import the same cars it sells in America. Meanwhile, European Fords, with their air of Continental sophistication and mystery, seem like the intoxicating and sultry cousins of the girl next door.

Anyway, modern, mass-produced cars don't get much more featherweight than the Ford Ka--either in terms of mass or its name. Its minimalist, two-letter, one-syllable name actually sounds a bit like an Australian pronunciation of "car" (Nicole Kidman to Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder: Let me out of the Ka, Cole, let me out of the Ka!").

Kia Spectra5

When I first drove the Kia Spectra, I hated it. Hated it. At the time I was getting new test cars every week to evaluate, and most of the cars were expensive, flashy, powerful, luxurious, and alluring. The Spectra had none of these qualities. After the intoxication of sophisticated iron, the gawky four-door Spectra was a huge let-down--like drinking brackish water after developing a taste for fine Chardonnay. Even my wife's aunt, not exactly an automotive snob, said about the Spectra, "But it's a piece of crap!"

At the time I agreed. My tester was a gawky and awkward four-door sedan, not the subtly attractive five-door hatch/wagon, and the interior was nice but spartan. I had just turned in a Mini Cooper S Convertible that seduced me with its eagerness to run; the Spectra, on the other hand, kept me at arm's length with a truly heinous clutch with an absurdly high release point.

Once I dislike a car, I rarely change my mind; if novelty doesn't make a car interesting, familiarity rarely does. Strangely enough, the Spectra was the exception to that rule. After a few days, I had cleared my palatte from the Mini, adjusted to the odd clutch, and accepted the Spectra for what it was.

Great Commercials--VW Fastback

Before he landed his breakout role in The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman appeared in a 1966 television spot as a highly caffeinated spokesman for the Volkswagen Type 3 Fastback: