/articles/2006/06/post_1

I vacationed in Japan last month, spending the better part of a week hiking pagodas and sipping tea – OK, bungling all attempts at cultural grace like the idiot tourist I am. Nonetheless, one thing particularly impressed me: The use of space. Given the crowded conditions, it’s no wonder people drive cars not much bigger than golf carts; they have to fit them onto the impossibly small concrete patches they call driveways.

On this side of the Pacific, we’re seeing a bumper crop of new minicars: the Honda Fit, Nissan Versa and Toyota Yaris, all brand-new for 2007. Over there, dozens of even tinier models exist. Believe it: There’s the minivan-like Honda Life, the Subaru R2 hatchback, the trendy Toyota Passo. The list goes on.

Small-car popularity in Japan is rampant. I spoke with Shin Yoshida, an unassuming salesman at an Osaka-based Nissan dealership. He said that despite Nissan’s 23-vehicle lineup for Japan, half the dealership’s sales volume goes to the Tiida, sold in the U.S. as the Versa, and five smaller models. And there were no signs that would change, he added.

In contrast to Nissan’s larger homeland models – President, Elgrand, Presage – the automaker’s small cars sport eclectic half-names that resonate with young singles: Cube, Note, Moco, Otti.

Or so I thought. Shin said many families buy these cars to carry four or five people.

It’s hard to imagine a Moco or Otti hauling that kind of load, considering both have 660-cc engines. That’s 0.66 liters, by the way; the smallest engines in the U.S. displace around 1.5 liters, and they produce between 100 and 110 horsepower. You do the math.

Laugh now, but Shin said the Otti gets 19.2 kilometers per liter of fuel, or around 45 mpg. With one nearby gas station selling unleaded for $4.60 per gallon at current exchange rates, simple economics explain why folks would want one.

Americans won’t likely get Otti fever any time soon. But with rising pump prices, it’s not inconceivable that we could be clamoring for more of its larger siblings down the road.