Nissan Figaro – Retro-inspired convertible from Japan [video] | Hacker News Reader

Nissan Figaro – Retro-inspired convertible from Japan [video]

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I just wish some of the electric car makers got this memo. A small electric 2 seater convertible that looked like this would be hot. Ok, I would buy it anyhow. Also one of those mini cargo vans.

While not exactly a convertible, the Honda e sounds right up your alley.

It's probably the only electric car I'm looking forward to anymore.

Yes, very close.

> The Honda e made its debut in Europe this week, but this scrappy little city car is not destined to come to the United States.

Typical. :| Why can't we have nice things here in the US? We're supposed to be the greatest country in the world, but we make it extremely impractical to import rad things like this.

How about the Citroen AMI? (https://youtu.be/ALFSHP6RnHk) and (https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/28/21157346/citroen-ami-elec...)

I should have said "In the US" because frustratingly there are often cars overseas which look rad and are priced well but never make an appearance here.

This one looks neat and the price/ speeds would work fine for me.

You and me both! haha.

The general reason you can’t get them first party in eu & na is due to crash safety regulations. The cute little kei cars are horribly dangerous in any meaningful collision. The Japanese cab over vans in particular are wonderful leg amputation devices. I don’t think electric drive train fundamentally changes the issues around wheel base, mass, and structural integrity.

I always roll my eyes when I see people enthusing about this thing. Yes, it looks lovely. But underneath the pretty shell lurks the chassis of a late-80s Micra. My sister owned one of those Micras thirty years ago, and the one time I borrowed it remains one of the most unpleasant motoring experiences I've ever had. An absolute dog of a car. She eventually wrote hers off by driving into a wall, and I don't blame her.

I have to admit Ive been tempted by a figaro hobby car for 15 years. Replacement suspension, power steering, rear discs, swapped powertrain, low profile roll bars. Itd make no sense from performance, safety, utility, effort, or cost perspective. But I already own a bunch of 70-90s japanese vehicles... and a fun to drive pretty looking micra would be a blast.

I absolutely love convertibles, and don't understand how I missed this when it was new (perhaps because I don't live in Japan? but still).

a couple of things stand out to me:

1) that's a huge amount of space used for storage of the top - a vertical storage with a little more folding would likely have made better use of the space

2) I would love to see something like this in an electric, but doubt I ever will - something of this era and features could likely never pass modern safety requirements (yeah, I know about the nobe 100, but it's not exactly a car)

regardless, it's nice to see so much attention to detail that seems to be lost these days with modern cars.

I would love to see a fad in California of small, lightweight, convertible electric cars. I'd love an electric 1957 Porsche Speedster style car to zip around town in. No luxuries needed - just enough to meet regulations. Take a $14,000 Chevy Spark, cut off the roof, swap the engine for an electric motor and I'd be happy as can be, even with only 100 miles range.

It's not that easy, though. Safety regulations are completely different now compared to 1957, using your Porsche example. Bumper and ride heights, crumple zones, etc. All these factors would make it very difficult to just recreate vintage vehicles while still being street-legal.

I think they were talking about converting a 1957 corvette. personally, I think that the closest you'll get will either be a Miata conversion or a z3 conversion. realistically, there's not enough room to convert either of those to be more than a novelty at the moment

as for something new, I still hold out hope that Mazda will go electric and come up with a nice new electric Miata, but I'm not holding my breath.

That's why I also used a hypothetical electric convertible Chevy Spark as an example, as it's being sold today, has minimum frills, but still meets regulations.

Check out the Fiat 500e. The 2021 will be Fiat’s own design, but older ones are basically Bosch internals stuffed into a Fiat 500 shell. Cheap off lease ones are available and so far (6 months in) dead reliable. And a very fun ride.

Smart sells an electric convertable, just not in the US.

I'd buy a Suzuki Swift in a heartbeat if it were available.

Definitely would get a Suzuki Jimny, a jeep on a budget.

A Japanese car that has similar charm (to me anyway) is the Daihatsu Copen. The original looks suspiciously similar to the Figaro :-) Lately I haven't been so impressed with the styling, but it still has a European roadster look going for it. It's a ridiculously cheap car as well :-)

the Figaro was part of a trend in Japan to bring back style aesthetics from the 50s and 60s for cars.