Gremlins Everywhere

Growing up in the late 70's and early 80's I remember the automobile revolution that was the 'compact car'.  As many of you recall, but my classes of undergraduates born after 1985 have no recolllection, auto manufacturers responded to high oil and gas prices of the early 70's by producing smaller, more lightweight, more fuel efficient cars:  The Chevy Chevette, the Ford Escort, the Dodge Omni--the car I took my drivers test in but later caught on fire for no apparant reason--, the Ford Pinto and who could forget the classic car that started it all, the AMC Gremlin (seen below). 

Well, here we go again...

From CNN.com

While America's long love affair with enormous SUVs may be waning, a new market is being discovered at the other end of the scale.

Very small cars are making a comeback.

Last week, Toyota unveiled the Yaris, which has been sold in other countries, including Japan, for some time. The Yaris is smaller and less expensive than the popular Toyota Corolla.

In addition, Honda will soon be introducing the Fit and Nissan plans to roll out the Versa. Like the Toyota Yaris, these are also versions of cars those companies currently sell in other countries.

Here are some pictures.  Why are these cars becoming more popular?  The easy answer is high gas prices.  But there's more:

More than fuel prices, the increasing quality of cars at these low prices is driving the market,

[..]

Not that [these are] great car[s]. Cars at these prices don't need to be great. They just have to be better than you expect, automotive marketing experts say.

In this market segment, cars have two major selling points. They're dirt-cheap and they're fuel-efficient. Prices for the Aveo, for example, start at less than $10,000 and the car gets an EPA-estimated 35 miles per gallon on the highway and 27 in city driving. Prices for most cars in this low-end segment start at about $12,000 or so.

Will these cars become the saviors of the environment, or the punchline for a whole new generation?

"How do you double the value of a Ford Pinto?  Fill the gas tank!"

Comments

[pete]

Thanks for taking me down memory lane. I was driving a VW Rabbit back in the days of leisure suits. My friends drove Chevy Vegas and Honda Civics.

Gas prices do cause us to respond. (Although who could be fully rational wearing a leisure suit :) I notice even the Hummer has downsized to a H3.

Pete

[M1EK]

My dad (who at the time wouldn't buy anything but US) owned TWO Vegas. One after the other. The first one died, and he got ANOTHER one.

Then we owned a Chevette. Then an Omni. It was like a strange patriotic masochism. (I learned to drive in the Omni).

Kind of like today - the US car companies seemed intent on just humoring the consumer, assuming they'd come to their senses and go back to a big car once they found out how crappy the small ones were.

[Robert Schwartz]

Those were some truly bad cars. When the 1974 gas crisis broke, I had a VW Beetle. Despite the Boomer nostalgia, it was a bad car (not as bad as the Gremlin, but bad enough) -- It did not have air-conditioning, it didn't have heat either. It had a top speed of 62 mph Imagine driving on a 70mph freeway in that thing, and when the truckers blasted past you, the wake of their slipstream could blow you off the road. I am not exaggerating, the things were aerodynamically unstable and were notoriously affected by high winds and passing trucks. Safety, what safety? There were no airbags. The only thing between you and death in the event of a head-on collision was the spare tire.

I am sure that these new little cars compare to those old bugs, the way a computer compares to a chalkboard. You kids are very lucky.

[John Whitehead]

2 things:

1. I can't join in with the small car nostalgia. I drove the hand-me-down chevy sedans my parents stopped driving (one a '67 Bel Air).

2. Tim figured out how to insert a picture in a post!

[FishEpid]

The AMC Rambler car company had long focused on fuel economy, smaller, functional cars and lower price. They advertised that their engines had less piston travel per mile than did their competition. Hence, the Gremlin was a natural evolution for them. The Javelin was their attempt to grab a segement of the muscle car market. The Hornet was cheaper than anything else in its class but I can testify that it was pretty well wore out at 60K.

[Eric H]

Volkswagen - the company that blows every lead! The Microbus, the first SUV, discontinued before SUVs became popular. The Beetle, the first economy car, followed by the Rabbit. VW decided to price themselves in the middle of the pack with an entry level car. In the late 80s, I saw that VW was experimenting with a gas/electric hybrid; discontinued because of lack of interest. Now, the TDI, the most economical car around that doesn't rely on a trunkful of batteries, and they still can't get off of the starting line.

But the other observations here about kids being lucky because they can get high quality, safety, and good efficiency are spot-on. My daughter bought a Neon for her first car - it was fast enough to get her ticketed, the A/C worked, and it had airbags. Even Commodore Vanderbilt couldn't get those features, no matter how much money he had. And her carriage doesn't require a fly-breeding paddock, someone to dispose of tons of manure, constant repair, nor does it emit The Black Cloud like my brother's Vega.

[Jim Coomes]

Back in 1964 my grandfather bought a Buick Skylark. It was a 4 door, 4 cylinder engin car. It sort of looked like the Datsun 510.

In 1973/4/5/6 why, did not Buick just change the body a little and re-produce this nice, economical, fuel eficient car?

No research and development cost needed just retool the factory and order the parts. This, basicly would have been pulling an Iaccoca. They could have had it online and in the show rooms in, What? 10-12 months.