The vehicle I was one of the official drivers of was a Fiat Doblo — nicknamed by us “The Toaster”. It’s a fun essentially-mini-van vehicle, seating five, with huge cargo space. It was comfy, pleasant to drive, 6-gear manual with good performance, a diesel engine, sliding rear doors, and a nice stop-and-go feature (when you are at a stop and in Neutral, the engine turns off, then turns back on automatically when you shift into gear).
It was a great touring car, and something that would make for a good US mini-van substitute (if we could get over our memories of early-generation diesel engines, or fears of foreign vehicles). And, in fact, it’s scheduled to appear in the US under the Dodge “Ram” brand, in 2012. Neat!
I admit, one of the cool things about traveling abroad is exposure to brands and models of stuff we just don’t see back home (sometimes for good reason, but often out of commercial fear or consumer pigheadedness). Cars rate right up there, and while there are a lot of cars I’d just as soon not see in the US (Fiat Panda, I’m shaking my fist at you from behind as you putter up the autostrade at 50 kph), there are a lot of others that would work perfectly well in the US market. The Doblo is one; the Peugeot 5008 (the other vehicle in our expedition) is another. (And the plethora of Smart cars around Italy is another sign to me that it’s a brand that should be getting far more attention in the US, too.)
I see the little high-rise tennis shoe of a SMART car nearly every day around here. They must be very popular in SF for tiny parking spots.
If I lived in the city, or any major urban area (or some place with tiny Italian streets), I’d seriously, seriously consider one.