Hi,
I love small, agile, comfortable, easy to handle, and go like a bat automobiles(My history with "sport cars" includes a couple Triumph TR-2s and TR-3, 3 VW bugs ((one that would wave at you*)) Porche Americana, and Austin Healey 3000). During WWII I did things with a Jeep that would probably give most of you white hair. It didn't offer much more protection than my Hog. But hey, I was 18 and had not yet developed the brains that I have been losing again as I get older.
I have had heavier cars like Jags, Chryslers (Big waggon for hauling kids). I tried a Lincoln Continental. However, it handled like a dart running on Jello. It wanted to go straight and it floated along like there wasn't a road.
All that is leading up to is that I now drive a 5 year old Hyundai Sonata. It is big enough and has enough air bags that I am comfortable in it. I am no longer comfortable in the small cars; physics say that in an accident the small car is the one that is most apt to lose.
I have talked with two Smart Car owners. I think they are crazy driving a little, light car that cost more than Glenn's Civic, gets worse gas mileage than Glenn's, can't haul as much and is no way near as comfortable.
The Segway is even more at risk and it certainly is a lot breezier than most autos.
* The VW bug that would wave at you had a magnificant 25 HP. If you were driving 50 MPH and floored it absolutely nothing changed. However, in a few minutes you would be doing 65 and be floating like the Lincoln Continental, only nearly air-borne to boot.
You could flip a lever and a small, lighted arm would stick out of the car and point the direction you intended to turn (one arm on each side of the car for left and right). You could do flip, flip, flip with the lever and the little arm would wave at your friends.
There was no gas gauge. You had to get out and open the hood, open the gas tank and stick a stick in the tank to see how deep the gas was. They also sold little plastic dingies that you could turn wheels on to make numbers show. You buy 5 gallons of gas. You know you average 40.2 miles to the gallon so you do 5 * 40.2 and set the dials for that mileage. When the odometer got near that number you purchased gas.
One time Reader's Digest had a little squib about the guy that has a small foreign car and bragged about his gas mileage. His neighbors got a bit tired of the so they would go over at night and pour in a gallon (or some other amount) of gasoline. Finally the guy's gas mileage became so high that he was afraid to brag about it.
Anyway, one week-end Myrna and I went up to Santa Barbara (I'm guessing 135 miles one way). The morning after we returned I went to the filling station to get gas. They had to work hard to get-one gallon into the tank. We figured that several neighbors came over and put some gas in the tank without knowing that other neighbors had done the same thing. Anyway we got close to three-hundred miles to the gallon on that trip.
Bradley---it is long past time to shut-up.
Goodnight and Enjoy,
Jim