What do you think of these single person, "retiree" cars?

fuzzybuddy

fuzzybuddy

SF VIP
Location
The Sticks, Northeast PA.
There's a flood of tiny electric "retiree" cars. What do you think of these tiny electric cars, supposedly made for retired seniors.
A while ago, there was a tiny car parked next to me. It was a two seater. The problem was this was at the grocery store, and they didn't have any room for their grocery bags. I won't get into the gas vs electric war.
car.jpg
 

fuzzybuddy said:
There's a flood of tiny electric "retiree" cars. What do you think of these tiny electric cars, supposedly made for retired seniors.
A while ago, there was a tiny car parked next to me. It was a two seater. The problem was this was at the grocery store, and they didn't have any room for their grocery bags. I won't get into the gas vs electric war.
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how can they be a single person car if they have 2 seats ?
 

It looks funny but so do those two seater cars you just described. Iā€™d be scared of the battery catching fire. I wonder if theyā€™d make some single person tiny trailer so there would be room for groceries etc.
 
I was just thinking of getting a small car to run around in locally. But it would probably be an older(much older) little something like the Subaru Brat, or an older Nissan pickup...

Subaru Brat, like this one:

1978_Subaru_Brumby_Pickup.jpg

Older Nissan pickup, like this one:

1986-nissan-pickup-std-bed-deluxe-5-spd.jpeg

Edit: Yea, no electric car for me, don't want to even think about the cost...
 
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Nathan said:
I was just thinking of getting a small car to run around in locally. But it would probably be an older(much older) little something like the Subaru Brat, or an older Nissan pickup...

Subaru Brat, like this one:

View attachment 365758

Older Nissan pickup, like this one:



Edit: Yea, no electric car for me, don't want to even think about the cost...
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I had an almost identical car to this one..in the 80's.. except it was a Vauxhall Viva HA which had custom rear wheels..bit jacked up like a Starskey & Hutch car

Same as this but with White stripes

0b0cc7946a01.jpg
 
hollydolly said:
I had an almost identical car to this one..in the 80's.. except it was a Vauxhall Viva HA which had custom rear wheels..bit jacked up like a Starskey & Hutch car

Same as this but with White stripes

0b0cc7946a01.jpg
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That has a very similar body style to a 1970s Opel Kadett that I had, that was British oops German/American made.

Not my actual car:

opel-kadett-rallye_lfq1.jpg
 
There are already "small" cars that meet safety standards, last for hundreds of thousands of miles, are designed for all weather conditions, made to be repaired, etc.

They come in both sedan and hatchback body styles, and they are far cheaper than a gas guzzling SUV or jacked up pickup.

A couple of brands are quite reputable, though this market segment has its share of suckermobiles too.
 
hollydolly said:
i thought you said you used a little VW golf day to day ?:unsure:
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That's true, it's 27 years old and is well preserved due to sharing a heated garage with our vintage MG. The little MG in that post was known as a TD. It was the model that I had hoped to buy. The lady wasn't against the idea of a vintage car but did point out that open top cars, with all the dust and pollen in the air, wasn't conducive to her asthma, which is why we ended up buying the hard top version, which has four seats, although it gets very cosy when four are in the car. People were smaller and far more slender back then.
 
Reminds me of the Tata motors "Nano" car of 2008. An affordable car made in India that was just ahead of it's time. Look at it and then look around at things like the "Smart" car. Way ahead of the crowd, and priced right, ($2500) o_O you knew it was doomed for failure as other auto makers worked hard behind the scene to sink it.

Indian Tata Motors Unveils $2,500 or ā‚¬1,700 Nano Minicar | Carscoops


Tata Nano.jpg
 
hollydolly said:
I remember those Opel Kadett's horrible cars....
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Yes, my Opel was horrible, it was in the shop more than on the road. One night coming back home from Orange County, north on the 405 fwy the Opel's motor just stopped running. I coasted off the freeway at the next off-ramp, and into a Ford dealership parking lot. Traded the junky Opel in for a new '77 Ford Maverick, and continued on home.

...several months later, gave the Maverick to ex-wife #1 so she could have transportation for her job. She wrecked it, I took it back and bought her a used Dodge Charger. Oh, the memories! šŸ¤—
 
squatting dog said:
Reminds me of the Tata motors "Nano" car of 2008. An affordable car made in India that was just ahead of it's time. Look at it and then look around at things like the "Smart" car. Way ahead of the crowd, and priced right, ($2500) o_O you knew it was doomed for failure as other auto makers worked hard behind the scene to sink it.

Indian Tata Motors Unveils $2,500 or ā‚¬1,700 Nano Minicar | Carscoops


View attachment 365800
Click to expand...
we have these tiny cars here... they're really awful, there's no protection at the front at all if you were to crash...they're supposed to be for around town, but in reality they are more at risk around the busy town than out in the open..

c75cce099831be13e60dab3b2de330e7.jpg
smart-car-1.jpg
 
hollydolly said:
we have these tiny cars here... they're really awful, there's no protection at the front at all if you were to crash...they're supposed to be for around town, but in reality they are more at risk around the busy town than out in the open..

c75cce099831be13e60dab3b2de330e7.jpg
smart-car-1.jpg
Click to expand...
You're right about these tiny cars. It's the law of physics. They will always come out on the short end of an accident with a normal size vehicle. And, I would hate to see the end result of a meeting with a semi-truck.
 
hollydolly said:
we have these tiny cars here... they're really awful, there's no protection at the front at all if you were to crash...they're supposed to be for around town, but in reality they are more at risk around the busy town than out in the open..

c75cce099831be13e60dab3b2de330e7.jpg
smart-car-1.jpg
Click to expand...
That's my feeling also. I can hear my father now telling me I'd get killed if I ever had a collision in a flimsy thing like that. I don't need a huge vehicle but I do want a safe one. And electric cars can catch fire. No thanks. Those are practically toys.
 
Nathan said:
Edit: Yea, no electric car for me, don't want to even think about the cost...
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Nate, my oldest son bought a Rivian pick-up last year. He drives it two or three a year to and from Kentucky and Louisiana, and from Sacramento, CA, to wherever he's assigned to construction sites (thru the IWU) in the western states.

He's kept records, and confirmed for himself that charging is about 20% cheaper overall than fueling. And that's taking elevation climbs into account.

Two downsides that really pissed him off:
1) For a drive to Kentucky, he planned his route for charging stations he'd need to stop at (to be on the safe side, he decided to charge about every 280mi). Three times, he came across stations that were posted "unavailable".
2) He was forced to go back to a previous station once to uncouple from it...you can't charge if the pump says you're "still charging" at another station.

Fortunately, he had enough charge to go back bc he was only topping off for a long stretch that had no charging stations. He found out later that a customer service rep could have uncoupled him remotely, which pissed him off more bc that info wasn't in the ton of literature the Rivian came with.
 
chic said:
That's my feeling also. I can hear my father now telling me I'd get killed if I ever had a collision in a flimsy thing like that. I don't need a huge vehicle but I do want a safe one. And electric cars can catch fire. No thanks. Those are practically toys.
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My daughter drives a Toyota Rav4... and recently someone gave her a lift in one of those tiny Smart cars.. she said she's never felt so terrified in her life!
 
Murrmurr said:
I would drive one.

My son owned one of those Smart cars several years ago. He really liked it until a deer ran across the road and he accidentally hit it. The deer was fine. The Smart car was totaled.
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@hollydolly

My son was fine, and his son was with him; he was fine, too. The car was "totaled" bc he'd have had to replace the front end & get the frame aligned...very expensive repairs. So his insurance company just cut him a check for the value of the car.
 

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