There are small cars and then there is the Peel

The original Fiat 500 weighed 1100lbs. The new one shares the underpinnings with the Ford Ka. Both weigh in at 1800-2000lbs. And there is the original Mini, a heavyweight weighing in at around 1400lbs.

I should also mention the famous Citroen 2CV here. It was another simple, tough form of transport. Like the 500, it still has a very loyal following. Weighed in dripping wet at 1200lbs.

From Wikipedia: It was designed to move the French peasantry on from horses and carts. It is considered one of Citroën's most iconic cars. In 1953, 'Autocar' in a technical review of the car wrote of, "...the extraordinary ingenuity of this design, which is undoubtedly the most original since the Model T Ford."[3] It was described by CAR magazine journalist and author LJK Setright as "the most intelligent application of minimalism ever to succeed as a car."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citroën_2CV

The Peel model I always wanted was the Emma. It really moved me.

Oh yeah! My heart throb for many years.

Trucks are special purpose vehicles. It would be hard to haul 10 yds of dirt in a Prius, so what? It's hard to go 600 miles in an F350 without hauling 60 gallons of fuel. And I don't see a lot of them in tight city parking lots. Each has its purpose and place.

Electric car batteries will not end up in a landfill any more than lead acid ones do. That would be wasteful. Read up on battery recycling. And gasoline comes from big refineries that suck up lots of power too. And pumps have to run on electricity to keep pipelines going. Better to do it once instead of multiple times.

Silly myth that went out with Cheney. If that was so, countries like England, France or Germany would have much higher rates of automobile deaths. Not so. Many of today's smaller cars are superior in crash resistance to larger, older vehicles. Note how accident deaths continue to decline in spite of America finally on a downsizing trend.

Tis also the design and physics of impact absorption. Modern cars often have better designs for this. It is not as often seen in trucks.

I was rear-ended by a drunk in a truck while at a stop light. Fortunately I was in a car designed to absorb the impact. It saved my life. According to the cop, if I had been in a pickup truck, my neck would most likely have been broken. He was surprised I was walking afterward. Talking to the body shop guys they explained that this is because our car had built-in rear and front crumple zones, which do a better job of not transferring the sudden shock of deceleration on impact than many trucks. Not universally true, but it is a fact. True, eventually mass will win out. I don't intend on taking on Mack trucks any time soon. Never have, don't intend to, and wouldn't even if I owned an F350.

Again, the facts speak for themselves. In nations that have a much larger proportion of smaller vehicles than the US, there is no correlation of increased fatalities due to the smaller vehicle size.

Glad you enjoyed it Randy. This thread wasn't meant to be taken too seriously. I know I won't be in a Peel any time soon.