Or we could just emulate Japanese petrol stations.

That is a very nice yellow, but Fiat’s verde moschino of that era is properly, properly... 🥺

The New Beetle is just a Golf in a very impractical party frock. It wasn’t particularly cheap either.

The Versa is an Altima downscaled by an accountant. A major financial achievement, but an automotive failure.

The category the US misses at the moment is cheap ‘n cheerful. The niche filled by proper Beetles, and VW Ups or Fiat Pandas in Europe.

The local truck rental companies should commission some ‘Durham special’ box trucks that are 11 foot 7 inches high.

That would make sense. A lot of these scootmobiles came with either three or four wheels. BMW says it produced three wheel Isettas mostly for Austria, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK and the Scandinavian countries, all for tax and insurance purposes.

I was thinking that it allowed you to get away with not fitting a differential, while still having more grip and a little bit more stability than a single skinny scooter wheel.

Yup, and this is not your grandfather`s Ford Galaxy

Maybe I’m silly, but doesn’t the 2019 maybe have too much power, and too stiff a suspension, if you start leaning on it?

And from what I heard, getting a new old stock one - which is unicorn droppings territory, with a price to match - isn’t necessarily going to solve the problem. Unfortunately the materials are just as old, and they’ve been known to crack just as badly pretty quickly.

2CV resilience is something else. Citroën detuned that engine by a wide margin, almost as if they knew their customers would drive them pied a plancher (foot to the floor) at all times.

My mind immediately went to the Lada Niva. Surely not?

Every 2CV had it, right until the end in 1990. Just stick the crank from the wheel jack straight into the provided hole in the fan cage, and off you go.

Right. So we now have Hispano Hispano Suiza, and Suiza Hispano Suiza?

High water longroof.

Over to you, Citroën.

I was wondering whether anyone actually made a production straight twelve car, and other than a mention of some French car from 1920, and this experimental Packard from 1929, there don’t seem to be any.

TBH, I’m swithering between either the gearbox or the clutch being lunched first, but it's an interesting empirical question.

Fortunately, you can't buy a Citroën C5 Aircross in the US anyway...