Danbury in the UK have been doing this for years, and a bit cheaper too: £24,999 (€29,214.89 $39,511.62) for a left hooker.

Losing excess kinetic energy by flying and spinning it off seems pretty effective to me, and all Smart car tests so far bear that out. As to the flying into oncoming traffic; a wee nudge can do that to something much bigger and heavier...

It is indeed a doozy.

Volvo 144

Yes, agreed on all counts.

This.

You beat me to it. And, brother, is there more where that came from ...

@11after9 Wow. Hokaayy. Glad to have been correct, even if almost no-one else is...

Fully agreed. In my experience, it is *even more* dangerous to cross a road when the pedestrian light is green then it is when it's red. I took to jaywalking far away from junctions in Shanghai for the simple reason that you can at least see the mayhem coming from a predictable direction.

As a furrener who occasionally drives in the US, I found 2.) most intriguing. Drive in drive lane, overtake in overtake lane has been drummed into me from before I could reach the pedals, and I observe it everywhere.

Very true. Following those inches last year, a colleague of mine swapped her fairly new 3 series coupé for an X3 on the spot. We told her that winter tyres were a lot more effective and a hell of a lot cheaper. Blank look. *sigh*

Yes dear, your overhangs do look rather big in this.

hmmm, that ruined my productivity for the day ;-)

I'm pretty sure they'll do de-contented, embiggened versions of the Tiguan and Polo (with a Touareg later?) for the US as soon as they can, but such re-engineering can't be cheap or easy. Also, if they want to have any chance of sustaining the expansion, they'll have to get the US/Mexican production quality to at…

Hmm. Those Occupy kids have a point, don't they?

You forgot the bit about the Princeton BA and Harvard Law School doctoral degrees.

Ah, thank you! I did briefly wonder about the Falcon (not many compacts in the US in those days...), but never knew any other version of that car existed.

Heh, here in the UK we can get them brand spanking new again for new Chevy Sonic type money [www.autocar.co.uk]

What is that little red compact in between the '57 Plymouth and the '55 Chevy?

That was a nice ice skating demonstration.