I had a Suzuki Alto.
I now have a VE Commodore.
It was great only paying $45 to fill the Alto once every 10 days. That was about it.
What wasn't great was being embarrassed to take anyone in it - Even though it's a 5 door, the rear seats are strictly for appearances only, unless you're 4'2 and anorexic and even then it would have been a squeeze.
Yes, it had power windows in the front. What it didn't have, however, was a master control on the driver's door. If I wanted to put the passenger side window down, I had to lean over and use the switch on the passenger door.
Doing a two person shopping trip required folding down the rear seats. In fact, fitting anything larger than a shoe box in the boot required folding down the rear seats. I gave up on my plans to install a sub because that would have meant no boot at all.
Keeping up with traffic required wringing every last rev out of those three thimble sized cylinders, and overtaking required at least two downshifts. Driving up anything steeper than the average driveway required at least three downshifts, even when I was in the car alone. Thankfully, I had a manual. I don't want to even think about how slow the auto would have been, and heaven forbid someone had the auto and four people in it at the same time.
The peak of it's 90Nm(!) of torque came somewhere around the 115dB mark.
It changed lanes of it's own free will in even light cross winds, and driving into a moderate headwind on to the freeway made it struggle to do 100km/h.
It disappeared very easily in to other vehicle's blind spots, and I suspect I also got cut off fairly often just out of spite.
Now, lets contrast this against the Commodore, shall we?
I pay twice as much in fuel. It's worth it, considering that:
I can take 5 people in it in reasonable comfort. It even has an AC vent for the rear passengers.
The boot is big enough just about fit the entire Alto in it. I have a 12" sub box in there, and I still have room for three 50L plastic tubs *and* my towing and emergency gear, including a fire extinguisher.
Keeping up with traffic or overtaking is just a twitch of my right foot or a flick of the cruise switch. Taking off from the lights at a comfortable speed is just a light press on the go pedal and the low down torque pulls the car lazily away... I could easily drive it around town and never get over 3500RPM.
It's quiet, except when I want it to be loud. Stomp on it and it roars, cruise around and it's nice and relaxed.
Wind? What wind? Doesn't throw the stability of the car at all.
I don't get cut off anywhere near as often as I used to. My car is actually visible to other road users.
Given the choice between a Barina Spark (which is damn near the same size and similarly featured to the Alto) and a Commodore, there is NO FRIGGING WAY I would ever drive anything that small again. Even my wife's Getz, which is borderline OK in size and power, is fatiguing to me to drive now I'm used to the Commodore.
The rest of the world can have their highly strung, tiny, efficient, cheap mini cars... Me? I'm gonna loaf around happily in my comfortable, powerful, spacious, leather-scented couch on wheels, and to hell with the cost.
