Bonjour readers!

If any of you have seen me lately driving around town with unfamiliar men in my car, it’s because I was busy at work. No, now take your minds out of the gutter! I was test-driving two of the newest cars available on the market. Let me take a few minutes to tell you how it went.

Firstly, Mike Cordeiro of Continental Motors took me for spin in the Peugout 1007, a sort of box-like car, which I must admit, ended up being a pleasant surprise! When Mike asked me which car I wanted to test-drive, my first instinct was to say the 307 Cabriolet without a moment’s hesitation.

However, I chose the 1007 because I had already built up the belief that I would not like it, so I wanted to see if my mindset could be altered<\m>and boy was it!

For starters, the doors did not open like traditional car doors, instead they slid, which before this, I had only seen on television. I really liked that feature as it eliminates the days of having to worry about someone taking your car door off unexpectedly.

Although I am only a smidgen over five feet tall, there was plenty of leg room (and belly room too<\m>which is extremely important in my current state) to accomodate just about anyone. The car drove quite smoothly, but I have to be honest, I don’t know how I would ever adapt to the newest technology<\m>triptronic gears.

As a veteran stick shift driver, it was strange operating a car in “manual” mode without an actual clutch (I kept looking for it!) when all that was actually required was a flick of the wrist or a tender touch of the gear stick, depending on what was your preferred method to change gears.

The Class C 1007 has great trunk space and is quite roomy and while I think a little too advanced for the older driver, I still think it’s a cool little car!

The next day, I had the absolute pleasure of test-driving a two-door Smart car. It’s a tiny little thing. When Mr. Inwards pulled up outside my office, my first thought was, “How on earth are me and the belly going to fit in there?”, but Mr. Inwards is not exactly the tiniest of fellas and he assured me that he was always quite comfortable in it whenever he travelled.

So, off we went, and guess what I was greeted with? The same triptronic gear system that I had encountered the day before! Although I was initially a bit timid to use it, it was easy to use although a couple of times Mr. Inwards had to help me to remember what mode I was in.

So as we puttered around (By my choice! Mr. Inwards kept telling me that it could get up there in numbers!) the North Shore, I was in awe about how deceiving looks can be. While this car is only eight feet long, it could be the ideal car for a childless couple or anyone looking to have an environmentally-friendly vehicle. Costing only approximately $40 to fill, this car also had low emissions and all of the parts are biodegradable! The other interesting feature about the Smartcar is that all of the plastic parts were totally interchangeable, so one day you could be sporting a blue car and then green (or a host of other colours), the next!

The Smartcar also comes in a four-door model, but if you are a fan of the convertible, they are only available in the two-seater models. While I was a little skeptical about the look of the car, while we were driving a couple people enquired about the vehicle and said they were looking to buy one, so I guess the proof is in the pudding!

All in all, the Smartcar is nice to drive but the only downfall for me was that it rolled backwards after stopping on hills when it was in automatic mode, so I am giving a post apology to the people who were behind me near PW Marine the other day!

I hope you enjoy our 2006 Motoring feature!

Until next time,