The four-year-old Citroen Ami has been given a fresh look, and now it smiles

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pIngo16@reddit

They should introduce them to the Texas market

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They wouldnt last 5 seconds on the freeway, people there do 90+ in half tons and heavy duty pickups in the slow lane and will sit on your bumper. Even here miatas have a bad enough time, everytime one cuts in front of me he will dissapear under my hood and I have to slow down to see those tiny cars.

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MaybeNext-Monday@reddit

They are not highway-legal anywhere dude. They’re enclosed mopeds.

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thatgymdude@reddit

Tell that to the contrarians here with kei cars who try to take them on the freeways.

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MaybeNext-Monday@reddit

This is not a kei car. It’s a completely different class of vehicle with a hard limiter at 27mph. Most kei cars can do highway speeds, and are perfectly legal to take on the freeway in states where you can register them. In Japan they’re just normal cars. The Ami is not legally a car anywhere.

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thatgymdude@reddit

No way a kei car can do the 85-90 mph everyone does here, they are always rolling road blocks and people will click on their high beams and lay on their horns at them.

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MaybeNext-Monday@reddit

Beat does 84, AZ-1 does 87, both electronically governed due to Japanese law. 85 to 90 is also fucking insane in most of the country, only place I’ve been that’s like that is I-95 north of NYC. 85 is a criminal charge in all of VA.

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brinmb@reddit

...Ami's top speed is...45 km/h, or 28 mph. Don't think anyone reasonable will be driving it on a highway.

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RangeRoverHSE@reddit

They have fast highways in Europe too lol, these aren't for that. These are vehicles to get around the city centre in.

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frunklord420@reddit

Could probably fit 4 on the back of some of the bigger trucks over there.

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YouDontKnowme9966@reddit

The fuck is this

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inconvention@reddit

this looks fucking rad. I wonder whether these can be imported to the US as low speed vehicles like golf carts or the electric Mini Mokes I’ve seen around.

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Moynia@reddit

There is money to be made in doing so too. I don't know if you have first hand experience with most of these 20k+ golf carts these people buy but the build quality of them is horrendous. My dad's Tomberlin is only a few years old and the availability of spare parts is terrible, and stuff like glove box hinges are just thin plastic, like think of the little tabs that hold your water bottle cap on.

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andrewia@reddit

They could probably be sold as NEVs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_Electric_Vehicle

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Multifaceted-Simp@reddit

I've seen these in Europe for a couple years now, when I visit, and it seriously looks like the car of the future. Instead of pushing for all of the heavy infrastructure changes in Los Angeles, and the United States to try to accommodate for more urbanized living, they just should have promoted smaller vehicles and mopeds. I feel like they would much better meet the living standards for people of LA.

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dedboooo0@reddit

this concept already exists in japan. it's the kei car, which is largely the reason why they don't need EVs over there. the little things are so practical and efficient, but there's just too much lobbying in the US to keep people spending big money on dumb shit

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Quaiche@reddit

Kei cars are bigger than those though.

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gIOonNii@reddit

They do need a license, just one you can get at 14.

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Quaiche@reddit

That may depends of the country because in mine and most of my neighbouring countries, it's licenseless cars and so those are known as cars for those who lost their license to drunk driving or hard speeding.

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long-the-short@reddit

Seen a few here in my UK town.

Boring maybe BUT kinda ideal for commuting in busy urban areas if you don't want to fall for the carpark beauty competition.

Cheap, keeps you dry & gets the job done

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walaska@reddit

Around where i live in eastern France they're actually most popular in the countryside for teens to reach their schools/training centres

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iamCosmoKramerAMA@reddit

Went to France for the first time a few weeks ago. Saw one of these in Paris and immediately fell in love. I had to google everything about it immediately.

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qwazzy92@reddit

Saw one of these in Sofia a few weeks ago.

"No way in hell am I getting in that tin can with how Bulgarians drive."

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No_Organization_5096@reddit

Western micro cars are definetly NOT suitable for Eastern Europe. I live in Turkey and your statement can also apply here too. Eastern Europeans just drive more chaotic.

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geoffs3310@reddit

I hired a car on holiday in Albania once, by far the most mental place I've ever driven, rules mean absolutely nothing to people!

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thatgymdude@reddit

I wonder how they would compare to the average traffic in Dallas Texas, they do alot of the same things but in vehicles 2-3x the size, whoever is bigger has right of way, and traffic laws are merely a suggestion. They might as well put a sign out on the freeway saying "Welcome to the Thunderdome".

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qwazzy92@reddit

Dallas is tame by Balkan standards.

Imagine you're on a two-lane road out in the boonies of Dallas with a speed limit of 50. Traffic is flowing both ways at about the speed limit and there's just a wild amount of vehicles traveling both ways.

Now imagine the asphalt suddenly has potholes everywhere. They're inescapable.

Then add the fact that there's some asshole in a BMW driving the other way. He knows there's lots of traffic. You know there's lots of traffic. But he'll still attempt wild overtake maneuvers any chance he has, just so he can possibly get home 20 seconds faster.

And this just repeats constantly on every road.

Balkan drivers just don't give a shit about their lives or the lives of others.

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geoffs3310@reddit

Yep this was my experience. The hard shoulder is just another overtaking lane. The lines on the road mean nothing. Cars will just park anywhere even if it's completely blocking a lane of the road so be it. Pedestrians will just wander out into the road. The list goes on and on it took all my 20 years of driving experience not to crash or run someone over.

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thatgymdude@reddit

Its even crazier when people bring those micro cars or Japanese kei cars here to USA, it shows how radically different transportation is utilized. Bringing either on our freeways is like a 5ft tall guy trying to train with 6'4 250lb+ juiced-up NFL linebackers.

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wolowbolob@reddit

You mean they dont abide the laws lol. I swear no one stops at zebra crossings and even red lights get ignored.

Source : mehmet from berlin who goes back every year in summer

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Mekkakat@reddit

My wife and I absolutely love them, too.

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CalmTree2315@reddit

I’ve always been a small hatchback kinda guy, but recently I’ve taken an interest in even smaller cars like the toyota aygo or toyota iQ. I don’t need a big car, I want a lightweight and small car with a manual gearbox, essentially a street legal go-kart.

But then comes to mind, safety… and I was astonished how a tiny car like the toyota iQ scored a full 5 star euro ncap crash rating. This car has 9 airbags, so I guess it goes to show that tiny car doesn’t necessarily mean unsafe. And let’s be real if you go fast enough into a wall, you will be a goner no matter the vehicle, the g forces will smush your internal organs.

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hbs18@reddit

Make whatever assumptions you want about me based on what I’m about to say, but if there’s one car I’d never want to be caught dead in, it’s this one

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John_Sux@reddit

Does your Beemer have a chip tune?

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hbs18@reddit

No, it’s stock and on 18” Style 189s

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linnamulla@reddit

I'd rather drive one of these every day for a year, than an SUV for five minutes.

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ConPrin@reddit

Good news! It's not a car, but a four-wheeled scooter :)

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franksandbeans911@reddit

I'm wondering if it comes with a rainbow afro wig or they just give you a coupon for one when you buy this.

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Kongary@reddit

I think these are kind of neat. Never even heard about them until Matchbox introduced it to diecast starting last year. Neighbor near me gets good use of things like a old Smart car and previously a scooter for quick neighborhood runs. This is basically an interesting inbetween.

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