With more people apparently opting for smaller more fuel efficient cars I wonder if we are going to begin to see more super-minis type cars - Jazzs, Micras, Yaris, the small Citroens, etc - on our motorways doing the commute?
I haven't travelled on motorways for over a year so, perhaps, you guys are already seeing this? Are you noticing more or are the motorway commuting cars still by and large the bigger Focus and above sized cars?
From my own POV I find it bad enough being in a Focus sized car on the motorway when lorries and coaches are over-taking so can't imagine what it would be like in a Jazz or a Citroen C1, 2 or 3.
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Ever been overtaken by a Smart doing 80+? That does scare me.
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Ever been overtaken by a Smart doing 80+? That does scare me.
Is that a dream or reality - either way it is scary.
Smarts scare me when they are parked up. They just do not seem safe to me and remind me of those 3 wheeled Robins from back in the 70s.
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"Is that a dream or reality"
Reality - 90+ mph not a problem after a £150 remap. A friend managed 115mph in their heavily tweaked one on a track day. Fact is if you crash almost any car at 70mph you won't be in a good condition afterwards.
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This has been happening for some time now. Small cars are a common sight in the outside lane of motorways. Scary yes, especially Smart cars as stated doing 80+, and loads of others going even faster.
Does not upset me, but the fact that these cars must be flat out does worry me.
Always interesting to watch when something much bigger and more powerful comes up behind them. I keep well out of it all, adopting the principle that it is better to cruise within the capability of the car (and driver), than to push to the limits.
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I drive on the M1 twice a day so difficult to spot a gradual increase, even so there are more of them than, say, 3 years ago.
Ive not so much registered the numbers of cars but have noticed the type of drivers; definitely now notice more superminis being driven by 30s - 50s men and women in business attire, as opposed to them being driven by people in casual dress in their 20s or 60+.
I assume that they cant all be courtesy cars, or just using the spouses car for the day!
Ford Ka's used to stand out to me as a model that was often seen thrashing along at a higher speed than expected..
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 18/09/2008 at 12:25
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My Smart 4-2 Brabus was capable of 90. Now that WAS scary!
Edited by boxsterboy on 18/09/2008 at 15:34
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Are you noticing more or are the motorway commuting cars still by and large the bigger Focus and above sized cars?
There are loads of cars of all descriptions on motorways, as usual. I don't think that anyone with a "small" car would automatically think "ooh-err, a motorway, I don't want to go on *that* 'cos I've only got a little one!". I should think that the mixture of makes/models of cars on motorways reflects the general mixture of makes/models to a very large extent!
From my own POV I find it bad enough being in a Focus sized car on the motorway when lorries and coaches are over-taking so can't imagine what it would be like in a Jazz or a Citroen C1 2 or 3.
You could always go a little bit faster, to keep up - virtually all modern-ish cars are capable of cruising at motorway speeds.
As for being overtaken, what's the problem? People legitimately drive on motorbikes, for instance, Morris Travellers, and all sorts of other old stuff. They get overtaken, too, and the motorways aren't littered with wreckage from such.
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The Ka is a brilliant motorway car for its size. Stable, fairly quiet, and with a tall enough fifth that you're not screaming the wotsits out of it at 80 mph, but with an engine torquey enough not to struggle with it.
My first experience with a Ka was for a 200 mile round trip to Coventry, and I was very pleasantly surprised. My sister regularly takes hers on the motorway, and reckons it copes well.
Very funny if you turn the aircon on when going uphill though... ;-)
Cheers
DP
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As we (well Mrs BP) have owned a Jazz for 5yrs I probably notice them more than other superminis but I've always been surprised by how many I see on the motorway - it's not a recent thing.
On the odd occasion that I've driven ours on the motorway I have to say that it wasn't a pleasant experience. I'm used to reasonably powerful 2L+ diesels and the Jazz obviously don't have that "blink of an eye" surge when needed for fast lane changing. It's also pretty disturbed by slipstreams when passing trucks. A very tiring drive.
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Most small cars are perfectly capable of maintaining speed on motorways. In fact, most of them are quite fine till 100 mph.
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I was quite surprised how ably my missus' 1.2 3 cylinder Polo chugs along on the motorway. Long hills can slow it down but the 70-80mph cruise is quite easy.
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Yeah I agree, my missus' Corsa C 1.0 litre is a right little motorway blaster. You could lose your licence with it. It has low wind noise, stable and relatively quiet. We did Mousehole to Bradford, 402 miles door to door with no sweat at all in a let me tell you very acceptable time. It was bizarre, calmly drinking a cup of tea at home having blasted all that way and thinking I shouldnt be here yet!! I did a similar trip in my old 2.6 Omega, yes it was quieter and smoother etc etc than the Corsa but I expected it to be - I was genuinely impressed with the abilty of the corsa as a modern small car.
My own two cars, well, one does 4000rpm at 60mph and the other lollops along in 6th doing 2000 rpm at 70mph.
Years ago, car manufacturers built cars to either stay in the city, or pound the motorways. Today, small cars can do either - very clever things. You dont get the economy specials anymore like the 1.3 Montego or the 1100 Allegro.
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I've taken SWMBO 1.4l Getz on the motorway a few times and it will do the usual cruise speeds . I get nervous above an indicated 80 or so as it does not feel quite as stable as a larger car. And some people seem to resent being passed by a 'super mini' and will re-pass.
SWMBO gets very nervous on motorways, drives at varying speeds, and gets passed by HGVs regularly.
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Yaris diesel is great up to about 77mph .. then it gets noisy.
Stable up to that and more.... but sidewinds affect it a lot...
The brakes are very effective as welll from those speeds...
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