Hooniverse Asks- How Small is Too Small?

As Americans, we usually like our stuff big. We’re always super-sizing our food, embiggening our big screens, and the boobs, don’t get me started on those. Our cars traditionally reflected this bigger is better mind set, gaining both length and width until our highways resembled an armada of aircraft carriers in the mid-’70s. Fuel price fluctuations have driven car sizes down since then, although an explosion in SUV growth in the ’90s (known as the early crass-aceous period) slowed that decline somewhat, and today we are seeing some of the smallest big-cars, as well as the smallest small cars ever offered to the American buying public. But how small is too small? The Mini, Toyota Yaris, as well as the upcoming Mazda 2 and its funky cousin the Ford Fiesta are pushing the boundaries of bite-sized here in the U.S. And while those cars seem tiny, they’re practically huge compared to the Smart ForTwo. That commuter with the joy-killing gearbox is the smallest semi-mainstream car you can buy here in land of Bruce Springsteen and Urkelos. But Tata is threatening to foist the Nano on us, and that may open the floodgates of moped-performance autos clogging our already overburdened roads. It’s likely that any Nano that makes it to our shores will be a more bodacious Tata as U.S. crash standards  are a little more stringent than those elsewhere. That was the case with the Honda Fit, which wears a more Hollywood-friendly nose back home, and a larger, more punch-absorbent one here. The Fit is as small as the Mini and Yaris, and like those other two, seems very popular, owing to how many are on the road these days. That proves at least some people are open to little tykes-like transportation. But what about going down a size, Kirstie Alley style? How small would you be willing to go? Image sources: [IndianAutoBlog, TheTruthAboutCars]