Cars - I hate car designers!

[Robinw]

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robinw, have you looked at any of the taller postman-pat style cars? they seem to be quite narrow...i have a suzuki wagon R which has lots of head room but only 4 seats so probably wouldn't do for you, but it has a wheel at each corner and is dead easy to park etc.
the toyota yaris verso is a similar shape but seats 5 (bit dear though.)
anyway if it's your car don't you get the last word???

You could try a focus - ours is the 5 door hatchback version and although has extra height I don't think that it is particularly wide (or at least it seems to get through quite narrow gates and has a v tight turning circle which can be v useful). It does seem to swallow the most enormous amount of stuff without feeling overcrowded and is nice to drive. The price seems to be coming down - it certainly costs less now than when we got ours (S reg).

lateral thinking - might it be cheaper and easier to widen the gateway and then get a bigger car?

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robinw, i just spent ages listing some car widths from which? magazine, only to have aol shut me down.
damn!
have you looked in top gear magazine? it has dimensions of all current models in the back...if you want to know any specific car widths from which?, RSVP!!!
(suzuki swift was the narrowest i found...)

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hi, robinw!
i dug out my most recent top gear (april) today and went through it looking for little ones. the daewoo matiz and hyundai amica are both listed at 150cm - there was an amica in the same car park as me today and it looked narrower than mine but DOES have a lap belt in the middle. (i don't think you're going to get a middle shoulder belt at this size but, having said that, have you checked out the VW lupo?)
the different widths for the fabia are probably down to the door mirrors. (some publications include them in the width and some don't.) it was one of the cars in the list aol chopped off for me yesterday!
suzuki have a 12 year perforation guarantee - 6 years against rust. they also have 3 years breakdown cover included and a 12000 mile/12 month service interval. quite a good package!

under 1640mm:
citroen saxo 160
daihatsu cuore 148
" sirion 159
fiat seicento 151
peugeot 106 159
suzuki alto 150
" ignis 160
VW lupo 164
VW polo 163

i think all these are measurements without door mirrors.
and there might be 1 or 2 i've missed!

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you're welcome!
(i love doing research!)
by the way top gear was very keen on the fabia - said it was the best value for the size...