The Carchat

I know I'm fickle - just the other day I was loving the Juke, but this little baby has got me all excited. Aside from the back end looking like the design chaps got bored, went home and left the work experience kid to tidy everything up, it's a pretty smart little car.

And you could even close your eyes (possibly not whilst driving) and imagine you're in a McLaren F1, what with that 3-seat layout and fancy cockpit.

Unfortunately, I doubt anyone will buy one - why look like a twat in an unknown brand's car when you can spend £60,000 and look like a twat in an Aston Martin Cygnet? Or why not get a MINI, or a Smart, or a Toyota iQ? And legitimate concerns have been raised already about opening the door in the rain. But I don't even leave the house in the rain, so that's OK.

As the proud owner of a well-used Mini, I feel compelled to weigh in on Ryan Avent's proposal for single-passenger vehicles that don't guzzle so much gas, or use so many materials.  He makes a pleasingly contrarian argument that a lot of the problem is government safety regulations, which naturally appeals to me.

All that said, it won't work.  First, because you'd be surprised how much room you need for groceries--a full run for the two of us can pack the mini's back pretty easily.  And second, it's too dangerous.

Both Ryan Avent's proposal and McArdle's complete response are interesting. I do not agree that an "inability to accelerate quickly" is a major cause of accidents, however. It's just not.

Both Avent and McArdle are looking, as they are wont to do in a Capitalist society, at the products themselves as being responsible for problems. Arguments by cell phone companies that the Apple iPhone and other smart phones use up too much network bandwidth are true, just as modern cars use too much fuel and take up too much space.

But isn't changing user habits — bandwidth hogs and bad drivers — a remedy to the problem, no matter what products we use?

That said, there's an interesting comment on McArdle's post, by "RobM1981," on the Smart Car, ending with:

At some point all of the fun things will be illegal, and we can all go on to live dreary Orwellian lives, free of fear…

He's right. If we do not take responsibility for our actions behind the wheel, the vehicles themselves will be legislated to be responsible for us. And who wants that?