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Fairfield, New York, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Bert Hoff for the hookup!
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Now, dear readers, you know how much I love the Smart Fortwo. After all, I own four of them. So it’s going to surprise you to read what I’m about to say.
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The iQ drives better than a second-generation Fortwo.
I got to drive the iQ when it hit the streets in the U.S. in 2011 and honestly, it made my 2012 Fortwo feel like a tractor.
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Where my Fortwo’s hard front suspension would break your teeth on Chicago potholes, the iQ felt like a normal car. Where my Fortwo’s clunky transmission polarized drivers, the iQ’s CVT is smooth. And where my Fortwo’s 70 HP 1.0-liter inline three requires 91 octane or better, the iQ’s 94 HP 1.3-liter inline four is fueled with regular.
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The iQ’s handling is even sharper than a stock second-generation Fortwo.
My only real complaint about the iQ is that the fourth seat is pretty useless at being a seat for adults. I still prefer the go kart feel and striking looks of my Smart, but the iQ does just about everything better.
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I expected — just like Fifth Gear did — for the iQ to take off in sales. But it didn’t. Positive reviews and being good on paper didn’t translate to great sales in the U.S. or Europe. In 2012, Scion sold 8,879 iQs in the U.S. where Smart moved 9,264 Fortwos.
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A problem was the iQ’s $16,000 price. While the Fortwo was the cheapest way to get under the Mercedes-Benz umbrella, the iQ had a larger sibling that cost less money.
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A 2012 Toyota Yaris had a base price of around $14,000 and its fuel economy figures weren’t much worse than the iQ. It was a similar story in Europe, where the larger Toyota Aygo was cheaper.
Toyota axed the iQ in 2015, ending its experiment to build a better city car. Even if it didn’t sell, the iQ is a brilliant little car. It’s as if Toyota saw what Smart did and decided that they could do even more.
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Nowadays an iQ can be had for cheap. So if you’re looking for a tiny runabout and a Smart isn’t for you, give the iQ a chance, it might hit the spot.
Tesla is having a hell of a time with the whole car business this week. First Elon announced that the Plaid + model was cancelled because the standard Plaid was too good. Then earlier on Thursday Tesla announced it was raising the price of the standard Plaid, set to launch Thursday night, by $10,000. And now the company has been forced to walk back performance claims of the new high-speed Model S. Apparently that 200 mile per hour claim is only true if your car is equipped with optional wheels that don’t yet exist.
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Tesla has recently added a note to its configurator page informing potential customers that “The indicated Plaid top speed requires proper wheels and tires which will be available in Fall 2021.” Allegedly, at least according to a display at tonight’s Plaid Event, the new facelifted Model S is now capable of a drag coefficient of 0.208, which beats the already impressive Mercedes EQS and Lucid Air by 0.001 and 0.002 Cd respectively. That will certainly help the car to achieve a high top speed, but apparently without the right wheels and tires, it’s still out of reach.
When the Plaid was announced last year, Daddy Elon promised it would run 0-60 in under 2 seconds, run the quarter mile in “sub-9 seconds”, go 200 miles per hour, and run on the company’s new more-efficient 4860 battery cells. As we get closer to the Plaid actually delivering, it’s failing ever more of those claims. Not only have the 4860 cells been dropped, but it’s only been able to run a 9.2-second quarter (which is truly bonkers, but not a sub-9). Range has been reduced, the price has been increased, and now the top speed has been pushed back. Just once it would be awesome if Tesla under-promised and over-delivered.
Hitting 200 miles per hour is not an easy thing to do, and it’s pretty much useless on any street car, but the fact that it’s now within reach for a relatively mainstream car is quite an accomplishment. I’m sure that several people will order this 200+ MPH wheel and tire package just for bragging rights, but how many will actually take their Tesla to 200? A dozen? Fewer? It’s a little funny that the fancy new Tesla continues the trend of Tesla failing to deliver on its claims, but if/when this wheel package is released to the public, it’ll make the Model S faster than pretty much anything in that price range. Will that be the electric car’s 959/F40 moment?
I’m guessing that this top speed has less to do with the wheels, but more the tire on which the car rides. Getting an extremely heavy machine like the Model S (already nearly 5,000 pounds in dual-motor guise) to go 200 miles per hour is going to put a lot of stress on those Michelins. Maybe this is a brand new tire that the French tire maker had to develop specifically for the Plaid. I guess I’d rather Tesla err on the side of safety and caution for once than allow people to go two bills in their car without the proper tire for it.
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In any case, the tri-motor superfast Tesla is officially launching on Thursday night at 11PM Eastern, and the Tesla website still promises deliveries beginning in June. There are twenty days left in the month to make that true. We’ll see.
The company has been taking deposits for the Plaid since last September. I wonder if anyone who placed a deposit on their Plaid will be backing out of the deal. Either way, it’s a great way for Tesla to get interest free $1,000 loans from hundreds of customers. Man, what a great idea for some free capital injection for your car company!
Rejoice, car lovers, because it’s New Škoda Day! The Czech carmaker has debuted the fourth-generation of the Fabia, which is based off the MQB-A0 platform from Škoda’s parent company, Volkswagen.
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That’s the same platform that underpins the current VW Polo and T-Cross, which means the new Fabia has actually grown up a bit. Its new engine options are more efficient, to comply with Euro 6d. The standard engine is a 1.5-liter turbo four making about 148 horsepower, but there’s also a 1.0-liter turbo inline 3 that makes about 109 HP. The standard transmission for the new Fabia is a seven speed DSG automatic from VW, but there are also some configurations with either a five- or six-speed manual.
It’s become a little heavier, a little longer, a little wider. Just bigger overall, but it’s gained cargo capacity in the process. Even though I would normally complain about this kind of thing — I hate when great small cars become average medium cars — I won’t complain about it now, because Škoda knows how to use that extra space in genuinely clever ways.
The first thing to note, though, is how alike the new Fabia looks to something from BMW. If you split the single grille into two and over-styled the car’s profile, maybe added a Hoffmeister kink, this new Fabia (along with some other late model Škodas) could fool a lot of people into thinking it’s a BMW. All you would need to do is slap a roundel over it’s winged arrow badge.
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The interior, however, could teach BMW a thing or two about simplicity. It’s a clean dashboard, and somewhat like that of the new Hondas. The large touchscreen at its center may not be ideal, but the Fabia does not overload its driver with more touch inputs, and the climate controls are dead simple.
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Once again, Škoda has shown how thoughtful its designers are. The Fabia is full of useful extras throughout its cabin. For example, there is an umbrella near the door sill. There are smartphone pockets on the pockets of the backrests. A card and coin holder lives in the glove compartment. The sunroof screen folds and stores under the hatch shelf, and there’s even a folding basket back there.
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My favorite, though, is the USB-C socket on the rear-view mirror. It’s perfect for connecting a dash cam, and eliminating unsightly, long power cables for any windshield mounted electronics. That mirror USB connector is genius. The USB ports below that in the center console are backlit, too. Oh, bless you, Škoda!
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Overall, the interior design of the new Fabia puts a bunch of expensive cars to shame, all because the carmaker takes a little time to think about its drivers.
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There’s never been a better time to get out and go camping somewhere than right now. It’s a chance to be socially distant somewhere that isn’t your house. For some, camping means buying a trailer, motorhome or a whole school bus. What if you could slide a camper into the back of your family sedan? That’s exactly what Toppola campers did for some Saabs.
The Toppola campers were a bit like the campers that you slide into the beds of pickup trucks, but meant for cars instead.
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According to Toppola’s website written by one of its founders, the camper is the brainchild of Arwo Pullola. In the early 1980s, Pullola wanted to build a car camper. In 1982 he met Matts Mollestam and Peter Malmberg. The duo bought the camper project from Pullola and created EMICO. The two would bring their strengths together to build a car-based camper. Malmberg and Mollestam sold boat accessories and built boats, respectively, so they wanted their campers to be built and feel like boats. Check out this tour of one!
The team got right to work making their ideas a reality and they even managed to get 10 campers delivered in the same year, too. In case you were wondering, Toppola does have an explanation for its name:
The word Toppola came from “Topp” – on top and “ola” is a refinement of the ending as Arwo originates from Finland.
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Eventually Saab got involved in the EMICO Toppola camper project and changes to the campers came along with it. The Toppola site says that Saab wanted the campers to look as good and have a similar fit and finish as Saab cars. The Toppola camper was changed from top to bottom with updates to materials and design. A combination stove and heater was added to make cooking and winter camping possible. Saab helped the EMICO team with brochures and marketing.
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The partnership between Saab and Toppola was definitely two-way. As the Toppola site says, the EMICO team was involved in the development of the Saab 9000 to make sure that the camper could slide in without issues. Toppola-equipped Saabs even appeared at dealerships during the release of the Saab 9000.
Unfortunately, the partnership between EMICO and Saab ended because, as Malmberg says in the Toppola site, Saab and EMICO were too different in size and culture. EMICO itself also closed down. Sadly, misfortune became a norm for Toppola in the following years. Not only did Toppola have delays due to getting approvals from the German TÜV vehicle inspection but its shop suffered from a destructive fire.
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But between the bad news came a new idea: Make the Toppola camper compatible for any car. The unit would be separated into two pieces. The upper unit was the main living space while the lower unit would be built to fit into specific cars. Such would make the Toppola modular. Imagine being able to shove a camper into any car. It also made the Toppola campers able to be fit on pickup trucks, too.
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The Toppola campers were pretty roomy and lightweight. Check out these specs from Do It Yourself RV:
Exterior length: 10.8′
Interior height: 6.5′
Roof height when mounted: 8.2′
Weight: 330 lbs (once the hatchback was removed from the Saab, it only added 253 lbs to the vehicle’s weight).
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They appeared to be pretty durable, too. We wrote about some Swedes that took one from Sweden to Vietnam and back!
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Unfortunately, that future didn’t happen for Toppola. While Toppola got off campers for the Saab 9000, 900, and 9-3, its greater dreams never materialized. Some were also used in Ford Scorpios and Sierras. Sweden’s recession hit Toppola hard and it closed its doors in 2006. Saab didn’t last much longer.
It’s a shame because given the meteoric RV sales of today I bet something like this would be a smashing hit. Car design has also changed quite a bit since those days, but I bet a crafty engineer could get around modern car limitations.
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H/T – Austin Little!
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There’s a lot of fascinating things happening in the strangely made-up world of the stock market lately, and there’s a lot going on politically. Also, cars, specifically, electric cars. Lots going on everywhere, really, which is why I think it’s worth taking a moment to talk about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s purchase of a lot of “call options” of Tesla stock, and how we feel about it.
So, here’s what’s going on: a disclosure filing has revealed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) purchased “25 call options with a stake price of $500 and an expiration date of 3/18/2022.”
What this means (to be clear, I’m not a financial expert here by any means—my idea of a good investment is putting the case of beer on the bottom shelf of the shopping cart and hoping nobody notices it) is that Pelosi has a contract where she can buy, with no obligation, shares of Tesla stock at a set price before the expiration date, and these options cost her between $500,000 and one million dollars.
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It’s enough to say it’s potentially an awful lot of stock in Tesla, a company that makes electric cars.
This is worth mentioning because the Biden administration has announced plans to dramatically increase adoption of EVs, including plans for 500,000 new charging stations by 2030 and other EV-encouraging legislation. There’s even plans for more electric school buses, something I think is particularly smart.
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Now, anyone could see the lightning writing on the walls here and realize that there’s likely to be a lot of growth for EVs coming up in the immediate future. Smart people with resources may very well choose to buy stocks in companies that build electric cars, like Tesla.
Nancy Pelosi is smart and has money, so it’s not shocking she made this decision. But, she’s also part of the government that makes the bigger decisions that make her stock-buying decision smart, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
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While Pelosi’s purchase isn’t particularly sinister, there have been recent cases of senators buying and selling stocks that feel much worse, like the four that sold a bunch of stock just after learning about the scale of the COVID-19 epidemic, but before most mainstream Americans understood it.
That feels a lot shadier, but there’s still something about this Tesla stock options purchase that feels wrong. The increased EV adoption is good in general, and I’m not against people making money, but if you’re part of the organization that makes laws that can affect, say, how many EVs get sold, I don’t think you should also get to profit from that, since the possibility for abuse is, unsurprisingly, huge.
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We have far bigger political problems going on right now, no question, but at some point this feels like something that should be addressed. All of these fuckers are rich enough. If you’re in the business of making laws and regulations that affect industries, how about you don’t get to buy stock in any of the industries your decisions may actually affect.
They can buy those savings bonds or whatever those useless-seeming things grandparents give graduating grandkids are. I don’t care if they can’t get as rich as they want—if you want that public service job so bad, well, this should just be one of the tradeoffs. If you want to buy stocks more, then get a job where your decisions aren’t potentially altering the fate of the companies you buy stock in.
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As we’ve seen now more than ever, the stock market is really just a big game for rich people, anyway. I don’t see why we should let players in who can change the rules of the whole game.
This is hardly a new opinion, but with this recent reveal, it can’t hurt to be brought up again.
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