A Smarter City Car in Paris?

Aixam Scouty RThe Aixam Scouty R in Paris. It’s even smaller than a Smart, and you don’t need a license to drive it. (Photograph by Nick Kurczewski for The New York Times)

PARIS — A group of spiky-haired teenagers and a small crowd of tourists cracked up as I drove past them in the center of Paris. They had a good reason; I was behind the wheel of an Aixam Scouty R, a two-seater city car built in France.

With the Smart Fortwo and the $2,500 Tata Nano suddenly making big headlines in America, I had decided to test the limits of automotive minimalism. The Scouty R measures only 105.2 inches from bumper to bumper. That’s an inch shorter than even the Fortwo. The Mini Cooper is longer by a whopping three feet.

In France, the Scouty is known as a V.S.P. (vehicule sans permis, or vehicle without a license). This special auto category has strict limits on top speed, curb weight, length and horsepower.

Aixam Scouty InteriorInside the Aixam Scouty R. (Photograph by Nick Kurczewski for The New York Times)

In France, you only have to be 16 years old to drive a V.S.P. — without any sort of permit. In Italy, the minimum age is 14. Based in Aix-les-Bains in the southwest of France, Aixam-Mega is the leading European manufacturer of these license-free vehicles.

The Scouty R might be small and square, but it makes an attempt to look trendy. Chunky lower body-cladding, aggressive bumpers, alloy wheels, and a removable hardtop add character, even if it ends up looking like a pug wearing a spiked collar. Its boxy shape — combined with my test car’s bright orange paint job — inspired my partner to refer to it as a “Lego car.”

Other drivers gave me the thumbs-up. Pedestrians smiled and ignored whatever monument they were standing in front of to snap photos of the car.

Unfortunately, my own smile faded after driving down a cobblestone street that felt like it would shake the Scouty apart. The plastic body panels rattled and banged as I swerved to avoid the worst bumps. Potholes that I had easily negotiated a thousand times in larger cars suddenly seemed bottomless.

In keeping with V.S.P. rules, top speed of the Scouty is limited to only 30 miles per hour. This makes it illegal — not to mention irretrievably stupid — to drive it on the highway. There are no airbags, no A.B.S., and no form of traction or stability control.

Power comes from a 5.4-horsepower 400cc 2-cylinder diesel engine. For a bit of comparison, the least powerful vehicle currently sold in America is the Fortwo with 70 horsepower.

Needless to say, acceleration is not the Scouty’s best attribute. For micro-car speed demons there is the Scouty GTR, which has a larger gasoline-powered engine that offers 20.4 horsepower and a top-speed of 57 miles per hour. The bad news: you need a basic driving permit (in France it’s called a B1 license) to drive the peppier GTR.

At least the Scouty R’s sloth-like pace returns fuel economy figures that are well over 60 miles per gallon. Even with its miniscule 4.2-gallon fuel tank, the car has a range of about 250 miles before it needs refueling.

It all sounds pretty great, until you get to the car’s cost. In France, the Scouty R sells for 13,200 euros, which is over 2,000 euros more than the Honda Jazz (or Fit). Meanwhile, the Smart Fortwo goes for 9,450 euros. Then again, it is an inch longer.

Related:

Tata Nano: The World’s Cheapest Car

It’s Electric: the CityEl Trike

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If you would like to read about a few more French microcars, then:

//www.autosavant.net/2007/12/wacky-world-of-french-microcars.html

Of course, it’s not just the French that drive these tiny cars – you can these types of cars in a lot of European cities.

B Moore – //www.autosavant.net

Wild – that thing looks like a lego car. The price seems nuts for what it is though!

at today’s exchange rates 13,200 EUR is a bicycle short of $20,000!!!