13 small cars for thrifty people at the beginning of the seventies
The editors of ADAC Motorwelt set themselves a truly monumental task in the spring of 1970, comparing thirteen affordable vehicles. The result was published in issue 5/1970 .
The competitors were the Fiat 500, Fiat 850, Fiat 127, Autobianchi A 112, Simca 1000, Mini, Renault R4, VW 1200, Skoda S 100, Daf 44, Citroën Dyane and Citroën 2 CV 4/6. The performance range was wide, with the slowest vehicle traveling at 100 km/h and the fastest, the Fiat 127, reaching 142 km/h. There were also enormous differences in fuel consumption. While the VW Beetle 1200 consumed 9.5 liters of regular gasoline per 100 km, the Fiat 500 was satisfied with 6.5 liters. The competitors were also quite far apart in terms of price. While DM 4,390 (DM 4,590 at the end of the test) was enough for one of them, the most expensive had to fork out DM 6,695. Between 133 and 187 DM per month was enough to pay the fixed and running costs.
However, all the vehicles did their basic job, and when you consider that DM 6,000 later became 3,000 euros, you might start to wonder.
Many other tests and interesting facts from around 100 years of automotive history can be found in the Zwischengas magazine archive.
