Saturday, July 22, 2006

Small cars are big business again

So there are some interesting small cars on the market again, and I even see a few of them on the road here in Pickup Land. I'm interested to see who'll win the race on this one, the $14k Yaris or the $24k Prius. It seems to me that the winner for affordable transportation should be the Yaris, and it's easy to park!

The sales of these cars in the last half of the year will be something to watch, since Toyota has sold enough hybrids to reach the point at which tax incentives on the cars start to taper off. Some people will of course say the cars are not competitive, since the Prius is high-tech, camry-sized on the inside, yadda yadda yadda. To a car geek, they're the same car. Slow, economical, weird-looking. Every time I put $40 worth of Super into the tank I wonder if I should have a commuterMobile, even if they do leave me a little cold. Of course, every time I put my foot in it I'm reminded of why I bought the Legacy GT Wagon, so the balance is in favor of 250 lb. ft. of torque so far. We'll see what gas costs next month.

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