When will we see micro cars in North America ?

[mikeyb]

Now that gas prices here in North America are getting on par with the rest of the world, when will suitable cars be imported for sale in North American ?

VW Lupo, Polo, Ford Ka, Fiesta, Nissan Micra, etc, etc, etc....

In my opinion it should be done immediately... But due to lobbying from not only the gas corporations crying of "Safety concerns", but also due to self imposed regulations withing our own gov't, it will never happen.....

 

[Leppy]

Honda's bringing the Fit over next year

 

[RyanJayG]

I've seen a bunch of them over here.. by far in my opinion the Nissan Micra is the best looking choice.

 

[Roywhitep5]

i need a smart roadster now!

 

[redwagon02]

i need some air in the tires of my bicycle.

 

[eting_pro5]

Honda Fit and Toyota Vitz (with a different name) next year. Does the xA count? It's pretty damn tiny.

 

[mazdaspeedpower]

we have the Smart car in Canada...but it never got sold in the US for some reason...they are 2 seaters, ugly, but very fuel effecient.

 

[mountjonas]

isn't the vitz a three door echo?

 

[c0nfus3d]

i've always loved the roadster drove two of them in sweden, i have family there. but yeah its an awesome car though. not as small as you think and im a big round spanish marshmellow

 

[Prodigy]

my rents are about to buy a vitz/06 echo from canada this month/next month..
It'll be cool to have something original to the area.. for the time being.

 

[c0nfus3d]

how do you go about buying from canada and bringing it here? is it costly? any idea guys on the steps?

 

[Prodigy]

how do you go about buying from canada and bringing it here? is it costly? any idea guys on the steps?

I'll make a bigass thread with details when the time comes.
It's relatively cheap...

 

[uclap5]

i need a smart roadster now!

i saw one going down malibu canyon a couple weeks ago.

did a double take, since from far away i took it for a lotus (actually pretty common around my parts)

 

[CanMP5]

I'll make a bigass thread with details when the time comes.
It's relatively cheap...

Actually I don't think buying an import car from Canada, and taking it to US will be cheap. I may be wrong if anyone has experience with it. Mainly because we tax the s*** out of anything here. Take this for example, my brother just purchased an 06 WRX and it retails here $35495 CDN before 15% tax and PDI and gas/air tax. so after taxes was just over $40K CDN. Meanwhile, you guys can get the same car for about $25K US. The currency exchange right now between us is only $1.25CDN per $1 US. on avg. (Ya I know it's totally unfair for us)

If I can find it, there was an article in the Toronto Star about how Canadians are getting wiser to the fact an buying luxury cars and import cars that aren't built in NA in the states. The example they had was purchasing an 05 Porsche Carrera. Apparently we have higher bumber standards here (reason why we don't have the EVO) so a conversion was necessary before being delivered here. But in the end the guy saved $20K CDN in the process after all taxes and conversions, in comparison to buying it here.

Hope that helps.

 

[romecandleboy]

I think the new Vitz/Yaris which replaces the Toyota Echo will pave the way for the microcar market when it's released in early 2007.

 

[xelderx]

If the tiny cars finally get legal in America I'm importign an AZ-1.

 

[tonkabui]

i want this one:

 

[RODSCALIP5]

i want this one:

Me Too. This is the perfect time to bring this over.