EVERYBODY HAS AN OPINION on whether New Yorkers should own cars. At the mere mention that I was thinking about ponying up the bucks to buy (or lease) four wheels of my own, a friend who lives upstate insisted that it would be too much of a pain, saying that if I live in the city, I should stick with public transportation — why subject myself to car payments and parking hassles? But, oh, the dream of a car. Of having a small space of my own in which I could be out in the world, blasting ’80s music (sans headphones), without having to wait, wait, wait for a train, a bus, a this, a that. Of skedaddling from town at a moment’s notice (if the traffic isn’t too bad) without checking the Long Island Rail Road timetable. Plus, to be honest, sometimes I just get sick of rolling jugs of cat litter home in my grannyish shopping cart. Oh, for the chance to go to Target, to buy the giant tub of litter and an eight-pack of paper towels and be done with such shopping for a while! My dreams had been deferred for far too long. It was time for an experiment in big-city auto ownership. I borrowed three small cars — perfect for swooping into the smaller-than-they-appear parking spaces in my neighborhood — and a Segway Personal Transporter, capable of terrifying small dogs at 12.5 mph. Here’s how they, and I, fared.
THE VEHICLE: HONDA FITTHE LENGTH: JUST OVER 13 FEETTHE PERSONALITY: PEPPY LITTLE BUGGERMSRP: $13,950A pathetic admission: Upon delivery of the Fit, I headed straight to a Starbucks 20 blocks from my apartment. And then I went to the mall. Yes, it seems that the real reason I want a car is to live an adult version of my suburban New Jersey youth.
But the joy that quick ride brought! A first flash of freedom. The gray skies were threatening to drop some drizzle, and I didn’t even have to weigh the pros and cons of making a trip against the chance that I could get caught at a shelterless bus stop in the rain. And if I’d purchased some item but hadn’t wanted to drag it back up to my apartment, I could’ve left it in the car overnight (one of the truly great car things that most auto owners don’t even think about). Tooling down the street in the rather roomy Honda
Wheel Talk › All New Yorkers
are obsessed with real estate
prices, but car-owning borough
residents are the truly obsessed.
They talk about parking and
insurance prices and day trips
with wild (and sometimes boring)
abandon. Two writers have
put their own spin on the topic.
Calvin Trillin’s charming novel
Tepper Isn’t Going Out is a great
way for non–New Yorkers to learn about borough residents’ quest for a bit of personal space. The Alternate Side Parking Reader log (alternatesideparking
.blogspot.com) is one woman’s
exploration into New York City
life with a car (and life in general). |
|
Fit, I envisioned a week of stuffing the hatchback full of necessities. Within minutes, I started panicking about the end of the experiment: How would I be able to give up all this freedom?
That feeling lasted until I returned home, a venti soy latte in my driver’s-side cup holder. Then a new sense of dread came over me: It was time to parallel park, an activity I had pretty much avoided for the past 14 years. Though I rent cars when I travel, most of the places I go feature wide-open spaces and lots of lots. That is far from the story in my Queens neighborhood, where people will jam a car into a spot from which even the guys in that annoying Mentos commercial couldn’t dislodge a vehicle. My goal was to find a spot within four blocks of my apartment — in any direction — that didn’t require an early-morning move for street cleaning. Don’t worry, the story has a happy ending. It took me just 15 minutes to find a place, and I made fast work of the actual parking. I was back up on the horse, and it was a good horse.
THE VERDICT: The Fit makes sense for daily life and is comfy enough for a serious road trip. I’d buy one, though not in the dreadful Blaze Orange Metallic of the test car. Eek. Make mine Nighthawk Black Pearl, please.
THE VEHICLE: SMART FORTWOTHE LENGTH: 8.8 FEETTHE PERSONALITY: CLASS CLOWN — WITH AHEARTMSRP: $11,590If you haven’t been to Europe or Canada lately, there’s a chance you haven’t seen a Smart Fortwo yet. Be prepared for the onslaught. The “cuter than a Volkswagen Bug” two-seaters will go on sale in the United States in 2008 and are sure to inspire enough media and chatter to make Suri Cruise jealous of all the attention.
Within minutes of driving the Smart Fortwo, I felt like I had adopted a dog and become its spokesperson, and, quite frankly, I didn’t mind. It’s nice to tool around in a vehicle that makes people smile. While I would normally be put off by strangers knocking on my car, asking to take pictures of me and my car (or, in this case, of my car and me) or asking questions about my car (number one question asked by guys: How much horsepower does it have?), it was hard to be annoyed in the Fortwo. (I mean, really, from the front, the headlights and grille look like a smiling face.)
I even got to experience a moment of true tiny-car euphoria. One morning, when I went to move the Fortwo before the street cleaning, a Mini Cooper owner in my neighborhood was standing Smartside, looking completely jealous. “I thought I had the smallest car in the neighborhood,” he muttered.
Of course, euphoria crashed when I got cocky and parked in a nobody-else-can-fit space that my friendly local meter maid deemed too close to the end of the block. Small car, big ticket. Feh.
THE VERDICT: Smart Fortwo is a blast, but unless you have a second car, pack light for road trips, or really want it just for popping around town, it’s not the most useful vehicle on the planet. I’d still consider buying it, though — it’s so cute, and I’m a sucker for good packaging.
THE VEHICLE: TOYOTA YARISTHE LENGTH: LESS THAN 13 FEETTHE PERSONALITY: NOT FLASHY BUTDEFINITELY A HARD WORKERMSRP: $11,300Alas, poor Yaris, I didn’t get to know youquite as well.
Winter weather was not kind to the Yaristest. A day or so after I got the keys, a stormdropped ice aplenty — even SUV ownershad trouble getting around. But after thesounds of spinning tires died down a bit andsome shovel-wielding guys in my neighborhoodhelped me unearth the car’s tires andpushed me out of the spot, Yaris gave me afine day outing and a couple of good erranddays. First, I headed out to Brooklyn for awinter tour of the Coney Island boardwalk.Yaris handled the bumps and serious potholesof the winter-worn highway very well.And, the head-roomiest car of the lot, it felta lot airier (in a good way) than any of its testcompetitors. But Yaris really shined when Iwent on the big-box shopping circuit in myborough. This car holds a ton of stuff.
THE VERDICT: While Yaris doesn’t get abunch of style points — it lacks the pizzazz ofthe Fit and the cute factor of the Smart Fortwo— it is the most comfortable, and somehowit inspired me to feel that I would get awhole lot done if I owned it. It doesn’t say“go out and have fun,” but it does say “yourlife will be easier.” Not such a bad thing.
THE VEHICLE: SEGWAY PERSONALTRANSPORTER
THE LENGTH: 19 INCHES
THE PERSONALITY: A STAND-UP GUY WHOLOVES SUNSHINE
MSRP: $5,145
I named my Segway “Zeb.” Yes, of all thewheeled things I tested, this was the onlyone that inspired me to give it a name. Ihave yet to figure out why I chose a namebetter suited to a Mennonite farmer than toa piece of technology, but so be it.
And I’m pleased to report that Zebproved my initial fears wrong — I did notin any way feel foolish standing tall and zippingthrough the neighborhood in search ofthe best price on tofu. Instead, I ended uptalking to more people in the course of thethree days I had the thing than I had in thetwo years I lived in there pre-Segway. Both young and old —and just about everybody I passed — had a comment about good old Zeb: “I love that thing!” “I want one!” I felt the same way. To be fair, there was one naysayer — a cranky lady who chided me for riding it on the incredibly wide sidewalks down the main street of my neighborhood. (I took to the streets when traffic wouldn’t threaten my life.) But the Segway stopped and turned so fluidly that I didn’t get in anybody’s way. Take that, cranky lady! The only problem: the cold. In winter, traveling at 12.5 mph can be a chilly ride. The
VERDICT: I want one, but — and this is a big but — not in New York. If I lived in California or some other warm-weather state, I’d find a way to Segway up. It rivals the Smart Fortwo on the fun scale, and though you can’t exactly carry home a huge load of groceries on it, it’s perfect for wandering around. It’s not a car replacement, but it is a wondrous thing in itself.
JENNA SCHNUER wrote part of this article while driving a 32-foot-long RV — that’s the length of three and a half Smart Fortwos end-to-end — around Alaska.