[jayski]

I live in a smallish city in Mexico. For many years I had a Honda City, and I hated it the whole time because the streets are awful.

Which means I was always scraping the bottom of my car. Potholes, uneven pavement, damaged pavement etc. It was so bad the plastic coverings underneath tore apart and now I was dragging plastic everywhere I went.

Needless to say for my next car my main priority was ground clearance. I ended up getting a Jeep and now my problems are solved.

So that's my only point, I agree we should all have small eco cars. I would love to have a 2 seater and save on gas. But you have to live in a place with good infrastructure. A lot of cities in the third world are basically "off road" in practicality.

Especially in the third world a car can be an extraordinary purchase, people need their cars to not get damaged easily.

[dash2]

The equivalent in the developed world is when there are so many speed bumps that it incentivizes having a SUV! My city is a bit like that.