Not Everything Is Bigger In Texas

On my morning walk yesterday I spotted this cute little Fiat 500 parked in the neighbor's drive. The first time I ever saw one of these was in Jennifer Lopez's "Jenny from the block" commercial on TV last year. You know - the one where it appears she is driving around her old Bronx neighborhood and says:
"Here, this is my world. This place inspires me to be tougher, to stay sharper, to think faster. They may be just streets to you but to me, they're a playground."
At the time I thought it was a cute car and a clever commercial. I like this year's TV ad better though - the one where Charlie Sheen drives the Fiat 500 Abarth through a luxury home, gets out, hugs a beautiful model and says, "I love being under house arrest" while showing an ankle monitor. I think his ad is edgier and funnier.

From the back I noticed the Texas license plates which got me to thinking about all the cute little Texas cars I've seen in our 'leased land' community in the past week.

 When I first read about the Ford Fiesta, it was only available in Europe. I still had my old 17-year-old Ford Escort station wagon with 150,000 miles on it. I dreamed of being able to trade it for a Fiesta Hatchback like this one - though not RED. Up until then, I had wanted a Focus hatchback. But, as you know, I ended up with a Saturn ION. (Goodbye Scilla, Hello Saoirse March 21, 2010 blog) I haven't even sat in a Fiesta, let alone ride in one, but I did talk to the owner of the one who was visiting a neighbor last week. He was a good-sized man - over 6 ft and quite a bit over 200 lbs. I asked him how he liked his Fiesta and whether or not it was a comfortable ride. He said it was okay for him and that it got really good gas mileage.

Perhaps the niftiest little Texas licensed car which has been around was the Volkswagen Eos. I noticed it one evening a couple doors down. (Yes, this car has MN plates. I didn't come up with the idea for this blog until the TX people were gone.)

The next morning, instead of the hardtop from the night before, there was a convertible. Cute, cute, cute convertible. It had me scratching my head - wasn't that a hardtop yesterday? That sent me to the internet to read up on the VW hardtop convertible.

Where I watched a video showing just how it works. I think this car is sweet - top up or down. Do you remember the 1957 Ford Fairlane Skyliner with the retractable hardtop? Same idea, but much bigger car.
All these small, presumably good gas mileage, cars has me wondering if those Texas owners know something we don't. Aren't there a lot of oil wells in Texas?

There was one other new car in the neighborhood last week - a Subaru Outback similar to this stock picture. Yet another car I had hoped one day to own. Love these little wagons. But I also recently saw a new black Ford Focus Wagon I'm lusting after. Maybe I'm more of a car freak than I thought. B-T-W, the Outback had Indiana plates.