Skytrooper
1SG (Ret.)
Dodge Omni, porsche 944, Suzuki samurai, pinto wagon, Honda crx, etc
What is the smallest car you have owned?
- Thread starter themechanic
- Start date
maxwedgechar
Well-Known Member
@Ray70Chrg I had the '68 1100 wagon version. In '73 I was working at a VW dealer and the family traded it on a new Bus. I paid $300 for it. What a riot. The original owner had a tach in it! 60 HP at 6,000 RPM. I would shift it at 6600 or 6700! 4th gear was only good for 5000 RPM because there wasn't enough horsepower at top end to push it through the air! 600 x 12 white wall Continentals, I drove the car so hard I would wear a pair out in 2 or 3 months! I drove the pee out of it for 3 years and sold it for $500!
Drove a 1984 Honda CRX 1.3 with 125,000 miles with great fuel mileage. That little car only had two seats.
How was it? I would love to have one of these to drive around the city. Very practical for parking in the city.
Personally i never owned any small cars but I grew up and learned driving on my mothers rabbit mk1 and drove that a lot in my first few years of driving.
It’s a crappy car in general but very practical in the city so i miss it for this application.
I think it's almost a tie. But my older sister actually owned the 70 Honda. Bought it new at Nalley Chevrolet on Stewart Ave. (Both either renamed or defunct.)
We took it over the mountains to Tenn to visit an older sister. Mom in front with sis driving and me occupying the whole back seat.
We went through rain on the way over the mountains and it got to 17 degrees overnight. The next morning the car would not start. So I tried pushing it up and down the street till I figured out it might be a frozen fuel pump (under) the car and had our older sister start boiling pans of water to place under the car to thaw it out.
That worked. Hope I find the picture I took of the trip someday.
My wife bought this exact 79 car and sometime after we married I started using it as my commuter. Wore out the 1200 cc engine twice.
Simplicity at it's finest. Basic 2 barrel and a 4 speed. HONEST 40MPG. I always said with some modern tech added there is no reason everyone couldn't drive something as efficient. It also used the 12 inch tires we always so the lowest price ads on.
Car never let me down though except for a cracked dist. cap.
I bought one when it was about 19-20 years old and I kept it for only 6 months, so that tells you something right there. Back when they were new, I’m sure it was a cool little car for what it was, but it’s still a pos Omni.
68_661charger
Well-Known Member
04 Accord coupe. Drove it for 20 years until the trans went out. Great little commuter car.
WOW, cool car. It reminds me of a German Opel.
I had a 1985 CRX Si. Fun little car, great gas mileage. It looked just like this one:
Triplegreen500
Well-Known Member
- Local time
- 2:26 PM
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2020
- Messages
- 11,338
- Reaction score
- 28,590
- Location
- western Maryland
I had a 68 bug.
Ex mother in law had a nash metropolitan. TINY. Like, "pick it up and scootch it" if your parallel park job isn't tight enough.
I've had any number of k-based turbo cars over the years, along with a couple L bodies (Omni/charger). Still have my 91 Daytona turbo...but don't really consider them "tiny", just low-slung. At 6'4", it's a real drop into them!
Ex mother in law had a nash metropolitan. TINY. Like, "pick it up and scootch it" if your parallel park job isn't tight enough.
I've had any number of k-based turbo cars over the years, along with a couple L bodies (Omni/charger). Still have my 91 Daytona turbo...but don't really consider them "tiny", just low-slung. At 6'4", it's a real drop into them!
- Local time
- 2:26 PM
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2008
- Messages
- 24,238
- Reaction score
- 72,527
- Location
- South Jersey USA
thanks^^^^^^^^^
I forgot one....... VW beetle.......I rolled it over on a Sunday morning, lowering the roof about a foot
bought a fender and pounded the roof out with a sledge hammer....
I forgot one....... VW beetle.......I rolled it over on a Sunday morning, lowering the roof about a foot
bought a fender and pounded the roof out with a sledge hammer....
Detective D
Well-Known Member
1988 Mercury Tracer Wagon. Had the same engine/5 speed combo the Miata did that year. Was basically a Mazda 323, but done up for American market. Little meep meep horn, no AC on it, but had cruise with the 5 speed and tilt wheel etc. Topped out at about 90mph, but was very snappy up to 60! I am not small, but this car never bothered me. Japan had a way of making little cars with a surprising amount of interior room in the late 80's and 90's.
Pic(not mine, just like it though)
I think it was maybe 85HP, but the car only weighed something like 2200lbs and a 5 speed geared to top out at 90 made it move out surprisingly well for the power it had. 30MPG or better. 13" wheels. I bought it for $500 with 165k miles on it, ran it for 4 years up to about 200k miles, and sold it for $500. I put a set of tires on it that cost me under $150 for 70k mile warranty tires(lol 13"!) and 3 alternator belts. Everything was original on the car. The alternator pulley was so worn out it would eat a belt about every 7-8K miles. I kept one in the car. The belt, shorter then my forearm and narrower then my pinky finger, cost like $6 at fleet farm.
The wagon back was very handy. It also was a nice place for the speakers I added, I used a couple of those "behind the seat" pick up truck speaker boxes behind the back seat pointing back for a pair of 8"+2" speakers and stuck a crappy AIWA CD player in it. I took it all out when I sold it.
I did end up removing the passenger windshield wiper arm when the splines stripped out. Not exactly an issue when the windshield was so narrow, and 1980's cars didn;t have the 3 foot deep dashboards newer cars have now.
The car handled snow well, but was defeated by snow deeper then 10" as it would get hung up underneath.
The radio antenna(on roof) could be pushed down into the pillar for clearance if needed.
I don't like tiny cars, but this one never felt tiny or underpowered and was probably one of the best designed little cars made at the end of an era before American safety standards started requiring more and more weight. I was the third owner, and sold it in 2004, so it did not get that 200k miles doing interstate trips. Nothing ever broke on this car(besides door speakers and the wiper arm) and it just always started and went, everything was original. i will probably add another Japanese car from the era to my collection before I am dead, I am leaning towards a vtech prelude but a toyota or mazda from this era would also fit the bill. My son and I have been talking about getting a MR2 and a JDM Celica GT-4 motor from the mid 90's and combining the 2. Torn between that and a Fiero with a gen 3 supercharged 3800 swap, but I think the Japanese car would have some significant market value as it gets older vs a pontiac, but up front costs are a factor.
Pic(not mine, just like it though)
I think it was maybe 85HP, but the car only weighed something like 2200lbs and a 5 speed geared to top out at 90 made it move out surprisingly well for the power it had. 30MPG or better. 13" wheels. I bought it for $500 with 165k miles on it, ran it for 4 years up to about 200k miles, and sold it for $500. I put a set of tires on it that cost me under $150 for 70k mile warranty tires(lol 13"!) and 3 alternator belts. Everything was original on the car. The alternator pulley was so worn out it would eat a belt about every 7-8K miles. I kept one in the car. The belt, shorter then my forearm and narrower then my pinky finger, cost like $6 at fleet farm.
The wagon back was very handy. It also was a nice place for the speakers I added, I used a couple of those "behind the seat" pick up truck speaker boxes behind the back seat pointing back for a pair of 8"+2" speakers and stuck a crappy AIWA CD player in it. I took it all out when I sold it.
I did end up removing the passenger windshield wiper arm when the splines stripped out. Not exactly an issue when the windshield was so narrow, and 1980's cars didn;t have the 3 foot deep dashboards newer cars have now.
The car handled snow well, but was defeated by snow deeper then 10" as it would get hung up underneath.
The radio antenna(on roof) could be pushed down into the pillar for clearance if needed.
I don't like tiny cars, but this one never felt tiny or underpowered and was probably one of the best designed little cars made at the end of an era before American safety standards started requiring more and more weight. I was the third owner, and sold it in 2004, so it did not get that 200k miles doing interstate trips. Nothing ever broke on this car(besides door speakers and the wiper arm) and it just always started and went, everything was original. i will probably add another Japanese car from the era to my collection before I am dead, I am leaning towards a vtech prelude but a toyota or mazda from this era would also fit the bill. My son and I have been talking about getting a MR2 and a JDM Celica GT-4 motor from the mid 90's and combining the 2. Torn between that and a Fiero with a gen 3 supercharged 3800 swap, but I think the Japanese car would have some significant market value as it gets older vs a pontiac, but up front costs are a factor.
- Local time
- 7:26 PM
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2021
- Messages
- 1,305
- Reaction score
- 5,804
- Location
- Principality of Sealand
You had a Healey Fiesta?!?!?
1 Wild R/T
Well-Known Member
I had a Ford Fiesta... That was the only green Fiesta picture I saw, mine was dark green....
1960 VW Bug. Put a 1500cc engine with a cam, headers a Holley 2 barrel and heads cut .050 for more compression. Got bored with that,on to a 62 Dodge with a race Hemi.
- Local time
- 7:26 PM
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2021
- Messages
- 1,305
- Reaction score
- 5,804
- Location
- Principality of Sealand
Interesting - never saw a dark green "plain" Fiesta.
Wanted one of those Healey modified units so bad I could taste it bitd...still do actually!
Roadcuda
Well-Known Member
I had a '79 Dodge Colt I bought new. It was a decent car. The only problem I had was the carb float went bad and was letting in too much gas.
Similar threads
