I've been in some small cars (Morris Mini, Nissan Micra etc...) and even owned a Reliant Robin.
I had no problems with these, i'm only 5'7" ..but overweight.!!
The only car i've ever had trouble with (was unable to get into) was a work colleagues MG Midget.! Whatever angle or position I tried to get into the passenger seat ..I just wasn't going to fit.!
I think I would have the same kind of problem with one of those extremely low Supercars, such as a Lamborghini Countach (Not that i'm expecting to ever get into one.)

Oh, I did that with the Versa, and adjusted the steering wheel, and I was still cramped. I don't know if or how my mother adjusted the seating in the Yaris.

In my old Corolla, I often had to twist myself into odd positions to peer above the windshield so I could see traffic lights. When I sat in the driver's seat of that Versa, I knew this made the Corolla seem like sitting in an old Chrysler by comparison.

@93_Montero: one important thing about the headroom in cars, if they have a sunroof. This costs many centimeters resp.inches, because the box, where the sunroof-parts are inside, is mounted on the inner side of the roof.


The space in buses, trains and planes is a real wide thematic. There you can find hundred of examples and experiences.

I can point out two main rules: premium bus lines are always better than cheap ones.
Scheduled flights are much better than charter flights. The seats are depending on the Airline and the usage of the plane, not the company, who has built the plane.

The best bus (coach in US-language), I've sat in, was the overnight express from Santiago de Chile to Pucon from that company:
http://www.busesfernandez.com/
Only alcohol was forbidden - so we had to hold our Pisco-bottles under the blanket.

Very ugly und uncomfortable shall be (from an European view) the bus-tours from students and school-teenager to Lloret de Mar in Spain (I haven't done this tour). The most important thing there is: cheap as possible. So you can use the pocket money for alcohol and parties.
This is a kind of European "Spring Break", you can say.


The most uncomfortable flight I had once with http://www.pulkovo.ru/ Worse was also http://www.tunisair.com/publish/home.asp

Quite good and with seats with space is British Airways. Otherwise: the cutest sweardesses you shall find at Virgin Air and Singapore Airlines...



A little tip to snatch a real good seat -in the business class!- : just slack around at the check-in, let all the other passengersgo first. If the plane is full then, you can have a chance to get an upgrade (for free).

I've got an inch on Clarkson at 6'6''. I definitely run into problems with headroom that's one reason why I was fascinated with the space in the Montero. My head hits the ceiling of my dad's Honda Accord coupe even. But then has no problem in his VW Passat. Headroom is one thing I'll always have to worry about. When I went to Seattle this summer I sat in coach once and I was so ridicuosly cramped. Then on another flight I was in the exit row where the legroom is doubled. These are definitely my favorite seats and I'm wondering if I can just request exit row seats forever in the future.

Well Alec Issigonis designed the original Mini and he had to create a tiny car that could comfortably seat 4 adults, a fair amount of luggage and also use an engine that was already in production, namely the good old A'Series engine.

He succeeded by mounting the engine transversely up front and fitted the transmission underneath with the gearbox in the sump and had it driving the front wheels.

So he created a revolutionary concept that 95% of the worlds car manufacturers have copied since.

But his little Mini also succeeded beyond expectations since it was in full production for over 41 years (between 1959-2000) and thanks to John Coopers involvement and the Mini Cooper S, it was also a revelation in most forms of motorsport since it won the famous Monte Carlo Rally 4 times in the 1960's.

It was also the first truly classless car as everyone from the poorest to the richest (even British Royalty) drove Minis. Plus all The Beatles had one and so did Mick Jagger and Peter Sellers etc.

I don't think there'll ever be another car quite as revolutionary, unique or clever as the old Mini, nor another car designing genius like Alec Issigonis.

Same for the Renault Twingo: for a so small car, you have lots of room inside compared to other small cars which are usually a little longer.

The Mini is actually quite large on the inside considering how incredibly tiny it is on the outside. They really utilized space quite well when they designed it.

Well I'm pleased the original/classic/real Mini wasn't mentioned as that is definitely not too small to drive.

I should know as I'm about 5 foot 11 and yet I've owned my current Mini Cooper for 16 years and it's about to go around the clock.

Fantastic little cars and if they didn't rust in the lousy UK climate, then they'd be perfect: -

http://minis.freeservers.com/

http://www.myspace.com/taffy1967

Here's a recent video of my 1990 Mini Cooper doing over 100mph on a rolling road: -

The 6 feet 5 Jeremy Clarkson can fits in a Peel P50

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJfSS0ZXYdo

Seats have a lever underneath so you can move the seat forward and backward, try that next time.



I like the Smart as well, and if I happened to live in a big capital city like Madrid could be I for sure buy that if I needed a second car to move along the city during all the day and everyday, it's incredible the amount of them you can find in that city, which proves how comfortable that car is for such cities, more than paying attention to the design (for which I have nothing against anyway) we should see it as a practical vehicle for an specific use, and when you don't happen to have a private garage it definetly has to be useful to move in one of these and be easy to park them anywhere, I've even seen them parked perpendicular to the row of cars by the curb, they fit anywhere.