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    I've bored with this story before, but we picked up a Fiat Punto on our honeymoon. It was tiny, and I can drive stick, but I was wild-eyed negotiating the streets of Paris in it. When we were leaving, an American couple were getting into a comparatively huge Ford Mondeo. He says "Hey, it's stick" and she says "Can you drive stick?" and he says "Ah...I'll figure it out." The parking garage was like four stories below one of the Gare and it was like an arcade game to get up and down the ramps.

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      Reed, that’s because you are much more honest that the estate agent who sold him the flat.

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        There used to be someone who has an Escalade ESV on the side-streets south of the river at Battersea Bridge. I think that was a similarly ill informed decision.

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          Originally posted by Ray de Galles View Post
          In Rome last week my 11 year old son (who is far more interested in cars than me) was fascinated by how tiny nearly all the cars were. It seemed to be almost exclusively Smart cars or the very smallest Fiat models. As there was a Metro strike a couple of days and there were five of us, we got an Uber "van" a few times and when he saw how much it struggled to negotiate many of the streets and would have had no hope of parking anywhere he understood why the locals chose the cars they did.
          I can relate to that. I was fascinated by the Smart Cars I saw in Vienna when I was there in 1999. I wanted one, but they weren't available over here at the time (IIRC). Now I see them here quite often, and I think about how scary it would be to drive one on the NJ Turnpike.

          Originally posted by San Bernardhinault View Post
          It's because you grew up in a country where, to pass your test you need to be able to drive around the block. Where you don't need to show that you're actually competent to drive a car.
          My mom taught me to drive her Rambler because she thought it was important that I know how to drive a standard. I'm really glad she did that. By the time my sisters were old enough to drive, she was driving an automatic, so they didn't get the same benefit. Consequently, neither of them ever learned to drive a stick.

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            I always wonder about that whenever I see a Smart car in our neighbourhood with Pennsylvania plates (which happens quite a bit).

            They definitely weren’t for sale in this area in 1999.

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              I’d rather just learn how to ride a motorcycle than drive one of those in traffic. I imagine it would feel like driving a go-cart.

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                I had a cousin who bought a Corvair* for his honeymoon, only to have it sandwiched by two tractor trailers on the Turnpike after he and his bride left the reception.

                They spent their wedding night in the hospital and the car was a complete loss.

                *yes, this was a very long time ago

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                  Now that I think about it, I also remember being smitten with the Mercedes A-class in Vienna. I don't think those have ever been marketed here. I've never seen one here, anyway. Maybe Daimler thought one tiny car would be enough for this market.

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                    I can't even tell you how many miles I traveled between Louisiana and Texas in the backseat of my grandfather's Corvair, but it was at least three or four. They eventually traded it in for a Chevy Malibu, which was a much more comfortable ride.

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                      Sometimes I’m amazed you survived to adulthood

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                        Sometimes I'm surprised about that too. My dad put a foam rubber pad in the "back back" of his station wagon and that's where my sisters and I liked to be on family trips. Seatbelts? What seatbelts? I'm thankful that my parents and grandparents were very good drivers.

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                          I haven't a clue what year my first car was, but it was an 'M' reg Mark 1 Escort.

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                            1973 or 74 then. Beautiful cars, the Mk 1s.

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                              Originally posted by Femme Folle View Post
                              Sometimes I'm surprised about that too. My dad put a foam rubber pad in the "back back" of his station wagon and that's where my sisters and I liked to be on family trips. Seatbelts? What seatbelts? I'm thankful that my parents and grandparents were very good drivers.
                              Yep. When we left my grandparents' place late at night, we crawled into the 'back of the back' and fell asleep on a foam camping pad.

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                                My car has no gears, per se, but it does have a motor and flappy paddle regen braking.

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                                  As I've mentioned before, a friend who lived in Central Rome brought a US-sized SUV with him from the states, with the intention of using it to go back and forth to the house they were renovating in Tuscany.

                                  He couldn't get it within several kilometres of the flat, let alone park it anywhere.
                                  I drove a diesel estate around the Arc de Triomphe a few weeks ago. There was literally no need for me to drive a car into Paris. But, you know, you have to do it once, right? And at night, to make it more challenging.

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                                    Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
                                    I imagine it would feel like driving a go-cart.
                                    You say that as though it's a bad thing. My Honda Z600 drove just like a go-cart, and was utterly wonderful.

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                                      Left foot braking?

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                                        No. It just steered like one...

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                                          My dad had a Morris minor that was the 1st car I remember, but it was crashed by a drunk mate of his and I remember going with him to a hangar where various bits of it were arranged on the concrete. After Singapore we had a Ford Anglia in Cupar and the huge black and white valve telly we bought at the Auchtermuchty auction sat on the seat between me and big brother. Got home just in time to set it up to watch “Its a Knockout”, which I loved.

                                          Ms Felicity learned to drive long before me and she had an old Fiat Panda that always struggled in the wet/cold but managed to take 6 people to the Timex mass pickets in Dundee (from Sunderland). When we traded it in it had a temporary clutch cable- the 1st garage drove it and said no; by the time we got to the Elswick Citroen dealer, just getting dark, he was so desperate to sell one of his older saxos, he took a look out of the showroom window and gave us £500 for it!

                                          So that maroon saxo was my 1st as a driver

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                                            Originally posted by Gangster Octopus View Post
                                            You say that as though it's a bad thing. My Honda Z600 drove just like a go-cart, and was utterly wonderful.
                                            Not among the big trucks on the interstate.

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                                              The first car I drove after passing my diving test (I took my test in a Hillman Imp) was my dad's Vauxhall Cresta. My dad got home from work and asked how the test went. When I told him I had passed he tossed me the keys and said "Don't scratch it'"

                                              It was about three times the size of the Imp, column change, It was huge. I drove around gingerly for about thirty minutes. I was thrilled, really.

                                              Love FF's tales of automotive adventures.

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