Last Saturday afternoon, I spotted an Alfa Romeo 147 on my approx. 10 km walk. Then I thought, I might as well take a picture of the whole parking lot collection. And one snapshot leads to another, so here we go.
A 2020 Tesla Model Charger, next to a 2022 Toyota Model Yaris, the carmaker’s B-segment hatchback. All the way on the left, a first gen Yaris (introduced in 1999).
The Bimmer/Beamer/Beemer/BMW wagon is the only one that stands out here, as far as I’m concerned.
Oh look, a two-tone paint job!
In the background, a butcher shop, next to a bakery. Their entrance is on the other side of the buildings, obviously. Everything you need is right there.
This Police Benz must have done some fieldwork, judging by its tires and the mud marks.
Not much to say, apart from the fact that my highschool teachers (the Dutch equivalent of them, anyway) used to park their rides here, back in the late seventies and early eighties. The school building across the street was demolished years ago. All houses now.
A 2003, first gen Toyota Yaris on the left…
…and a 2010, second gen Toyota Yaris on the right. With two bonus doors.
A construction worker, not a farm boy.
A similar line-up was posted years ago, but these V8 brutes represent the latest generation of heavy Scanias. And there’s a conventional this time, which is merely an aftermarket conversion of the factory cabover model. That’s all for today.
All pictures were taken by me, myself and I, in and around the (small) town of Druten on March 16, 2024, between 15:03 and 16:02, local time.
Looks like a Land Rover Freelander2 is sharing the curb with the two Toyota Yaris. Saw several of these on recent trips to London. Always liked the design. As I understand it, fuel in The Netherlands is very expensive. I would imagine its a diesel for max mileage.
Right, it’s a 2011 Freelander 2 with a 2.2 liter turbodiesel.
An amazing amount of small, silver and anonymous-looking cars here (and everywhere I suppose).
I like the Alfa 147; sharp car. Found a picture online showing it painted red and looks so much better than silver IMHO. Always enjoy your posts.
I love these types of everyday shots – both for the cars and the backgrounds. I think it would take me a month here in the US to see that many Toyota Yarises.
One thing that’s very uncommon around here are police vans. Some police departments use vans for prisoner transport (our local sheriff’s office has a ominous-looking unmarked black van for that purpose), but actual marked police vans are pretty uncommon.
Nice two-tone Impala! And it looks like an unusual brown/gray color combination too.
The Police fleet comprises a wide variety of vehicles, apart from the motorcycles. C-segment/compact cars, E-segment wagons, mid-size vans, full-size vans, SUVs (Land Cruiser 150-series) and pickups (HiLux).
Their fastest car -in the usual Police livery- is the Audi A6 Avant 3.0 TDI Quattro S-Tronic.
I like those brickstone paved streets (see 2nd and 3rd shot). So typical for villages and towns in the Netherlands.
I must visit Holland. it looks like a flatter, cleaner version of Blighty – certainly the cars are all the same.
I’ve actually been many times but only passing through Schiphol Airport [ an excellent airport , they’ve got a big glass box where you can have a nervous cigarette before getting on a Boeing]
Great photos Johannes, thank you for sharing these! I’ll be honest, I find the architecture more interesting than the cars!
That’s an advantage of framing multiple cars. The more cars, the more there is to see in the background. Irrelevant at a car/truck show, but not in a town center.
I live in Canada but I had the good fortune to be assigned to a project in the Netherlands for the last several years before I retired 10years ago. Although I enjoy seeing the cars, the street scenes are of particular interest. I really enjoyed all my visits. I spent most of my time in Amersfoort, Odijk and Utrecht. As I have a 2CV I also visited Burton in Zutphen. Until I spent some time in Netherlands I thought southern Ontario was flat, but now I realize I was wrong.
I find it interesting on the street with the silver Yaris: I assume this is a two-way street, but you see cars both facing each other, and then facing away from each other in opposite directions . Usually here cars are pointed parked in the direction of the adjacent road- all cars facing west if the road goes west. I suppose that we could park like that here as well. I don’t think it’s illegal. At least in my area you just don’t see people parking like this. Not wrong just different.
Yes, it’s a two-way street. It’s (legally) perfectly fine to park your car in either direction, all depending from which direction you arrived. Or the other way around, in which direction you want to leave later on (turn the car first and then park).
I see a tiny hitch on the back of a VW Polo, maybe, in about picture 7, and have seen similar hitches on “supermini” and slightly larger cars in pictures from Europe. I’m wondering how much tongue weight are these rated for, how much weight can they tow with this size car, are there speed restrictions when towing, and so forth. I really liked these pictures and the de facto story that goes with!
The 2005 VW Polo 1.4 (gasoline) in the 7th picture has a registered towing capacity of 1,000 kg (2,205 lbs) for a trailer with brakes, the freeway speed limit in NL is 90 km/h (56 mph).
The tongue weight is the segments of sub-compact (like the Polo) and compact cars is usually only 50 or 75 kg.
Tongue weight is a non-issue when opting for a full trailer, see below. But these are only coupled to a mid-size/full-size van, a pickup or an SUV. Vehicles with a decent towing capacity, up to 3,500 kg in standard trim.
As far as I can see, hitches on B-segment cars are barely used for towing. Mostly, they install it to carry bike holders, I think.
Ah, thanks. Perusing these very pages after doing a search of “Europe towing” got me more information with hints at towing capacities for smaller cars and towing speed limits in Europe. That tow hook itself looks so tiny compared to what I’m used to seeing in the U.S. I’d wondered if, even for a Polo – sized car, there were heftier hitch options/alternatives. Very interesting, nonetheless
The two very key issues are percentage of trailer weight on the tongue and limited top speed. In the US, since we rarely limit the speeds of towing vehicles lower than non-towing vehicles, the tongue weight is 10% (or greater). With a higher tongue weight, there is significantly lower likelihood of fishtailing. In Europe, tongue weight is typically 3%, significantly less. That’s why the speed limit for towing vehicles is lower.
This explains why the same vehicles sold in the US and in Europe will have very significantly different towing capacities: it’s the 10% tongue weight in the US that restricts it so much, not because there’s any actual differences in the vehicles.
The small hitches in Europe are because of these lower hitch weights.
I did a post in this way back, but I mostly got it wrong, as I was not clear then on these key differences: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/auto-biography/the-great-american-anti-towing-conspiracy/
You can tow a little, single-axle utility trailer to get rid of some garden waste. But in practice, you mostly will see a bike rack on (top of) the hitch. So what Midsommar says above.
I agree with Daniel M in that I enjoyed seeing the architecture more than the cars. I always get a kick out of the Yaris because the word in Armenian means “my dear.” Keep the good pictures and interesting facts coming. Much appreciated. Tom
Fun fact, never knew!
Several ‘my dears’ and only one John Deere, how about that.