Roshake 77 posted this delightful shot of three small cars at the curb in Budapest. The perfectly represent the evolution of the species of small car over several decades.
But let’s take a closer look at them before we get into that.
I cropped the shot so that we can see them a bit more closely. The Trabant, which first appeared in 1957, reflects the common trend at the time (and earlier too) to make small cars look like smaller version of big cars, in the three-box idiom of the times.
The Geo Metro (Really? A Geo in Hungary?) aka: Suzuki Swift embodies the two-box hatchback that came to utterly dominate that segment, as well as one or two classes larger too. The modern small hatchback started with the Renault 4, in 1962, and quickly spread. The majority were two doors, although there were some four doors too.
The Suzuki Wagon R, as sold in Europe, is a wide-body version of a kei “van”, a format that has become the single most popular body type in Japan. For good reasons, as its space utilization simply can’t be beat, thanks to the tall and boxy body. I’d feel right at home in it.
The Wagon R was a minor hit in Europe after it arrived in 1997, as there were a lot of folks who could appreciate what it offered. Opel sold a version, the Agila. Eventually sales tapered off, and other European small CUVs, MPVs and tall wagons took their place.
Is that a Fiat 500’s nose poking into the picture. That would have added another good chapter to this little tale: the retro small car.
The Suzuki Wagon R+ and the Opel Agila are two cars you don’t want to be driving behind in traffic. 99% of the time the driver is an insecure senior, driving at least 20km/h below the speed limit or randomly hitting the brakes for no apparent reason (or a combination of the two). When one of these pope mobiles shows up in front of you: pass it as soon as you can or prepare for a frustrating delay.
Small cars OVER the curb. Typical parking in Budapest. Lots of “no parking” there. If you park halfway on the sidewalk, somehow it usually doesn’t count though and you usually don’t get a ticket.
This generation of swift was basically the best selling car in hungary for a while as it was manufactured here and was affordable and economical. Their massive popularity is probably what led to some of the geo versions getting here too, though those are quite rare. The easiest way to tell them apart is by their sealed beam headlights with their sunken-in look compared to the flush units on the swifts. Id compare finding one here to seeing one of those canadian cheviacs in the US, like finding a slightly different weird version of basically the most unremarkable car in the streets. I have found a couple over the years, heres another i posted at the cohort before:
Ok ima do it by link cause the pic dont wanna show up:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/191678825@N08/51177528114/in/photolist-2mEfoZT-2kYocpB-2kYod7o-2kYfEGm-2kYj9Te-2kYochc-2kYjaz9
I noticed the sealed beam headlights too. And I knew the Swift was very popular in that part of the world. I was just surprised to see a Geo version. Curious. I wonder how it ended up over there.
Large images often won’t attach to comments; they need to be reduced.
I had a similar thing (slightly different version of something otherwise unremarkable) happen back in the late ’80s when I came across a Chevrolet Firenza in Dagenham, east London. At first I thought it was just a normal Viva but I noticed the badging was ‘wrong’. Turns out it was a South African version (so RHD too).
How to make a Swift look big = park it behind a Trabant.
My brother and his wife had two Geos, a Metro and a Storm. To my mind, they passed for micro cars in the US.
“My daughter bought one of those Geo Metros… well she didn’t actually buy it; it came with her Happy Meal”
Does the Autobianchi Primula deserve credit for the modern hatchback? Hatchbacks have been around for about half the time that cars have been around, meaning that the Renault 4 plowed no new soil there while lacking the transverse engine that made FWD more than a novelty. If you can show me a hatchback in production today that has its longitudinal engine behind its front axle, then I’ll conclude that the Renault 4 was influential.
You think I didn’t know all of that? I’ve written up all those cars, and my R4 CC goes into the history of the hatchback. FWIW, the K-F Vagabond was hardly the first, as the 1938 Citroen TA below attests to. But the painful reality is that these aren’t genuine hatchbacks; they have lift up rear windows and a tailgate. A true hatchback does not have a fold down tailgate.
The R4 was the first mass-produced small FWD hatchback, period. And as such, it was massively influential. There’s no doubt in my mind that the R4 was the reason the Primula had one.
As to the orientation of the R4’s engine, it’s utterly irrelevant.
And once again, you’ve come on way to heavy with your guns blazing but without having down your homework. This is a recurring issue with you, and it’s getting tedious. Please don’t try to contradict or correct me unless you now what you’re actually talking about.
And here’s that 1938 Citroen. Not a true hatchback.
And here’s a 1954 Citroen TA that does have what can be considered a true hatchback. And it’s even FWD. But as I made clear in my R4 CC, these were specialized commercial vehicles, used to haul passengers and their goods. They had essentially nothing in common with the the format of the R4, the first modern FWD hatchback. Period.
The Trabant looks to be one of the very late ones with the VW 4 cylinder, 4 stroke engine, which had a distinct grille with asymmetric openings.