YORK, England — In america, the one Good car bought new right here was the ForTwo (which received the axe in 2019 after being included on this publication’s Prime 20 Dumbest Automobiles of All Time record just a few years earlier). In Europe, nevertheless, there have been loads of Good fashions obtainable to automotive consumers for the reason that first Metropolis Coupés hit streets as 1998 fashions. A four-door hatchback Good hit dealerships over there as a 2004 mannequin, and I’ve discovered a type of automobiles at a self-service scrapyard (that is what they name them over right here) in York, England.
There are however two American-style self-service wrecking yards in Nice Britain, each owned by Dallas-based Copart, and I flew to England primarily to go to the one in York (the opposite is in Edinburgh, Scotland).
Simply to be annoying, Good’s official designation for this automotive was the sensible forfour, all lower-case. Is not that cute? It may very well be worse (see: Volkswagen up!, Chrysler’s TC by Maserati, Kia Cee’d, e e cummings), however I’ll protect my sanity by calling it the Good ForFour in as we speak’s Junkyard Scrapyard Discover. Have all of us given up on writing MINI and LEAF in all-caps but? For the reason that company overlords who personal this publication nonetheless insist on utilizing an exclamation level of their firm’s title, possibly not.
Beneath the pores and skin, this automotive is a Netherlands-built sibling to the 2002 Mitsubishi Colt. The Colt title was final utilized in america on Dodge- and Plymouth-badged Mitsubishi Mirages within the 1994 mannequin yr, however new Colts remained obtainable in Europe by way of 2013 and the Colt title was simply revived on a Renault Clio-based automotive. In truth, I shot a 2007 Colt just a few rows from this Good and shall be sharing these images in a future article.
Within the UK, the 2005 ForFour was obtainable in 5 trim ranges: Pure (also referred to as Purestyle), Pulse, Ardour, Coolstyle and Brabus. It was simply the automotive for a well dressed Brit to set within the background of a selfie (in all probability at a futuristic 640 by 480 pixels) utilizing a modern candybar telephone.
This automotive is a Pulse (as you’d count on, the trim degree designation wasn’t capitalized by these intelligent Good entrepreneurs), which was one step up the status ladder from the El Cheapo Pure however much less well-appointed than the Ardour.
It has the petrol-burning 1.3-liter Mitsubishi A490 DOHC straight-four, which suggests its MSRP with taxes and costs was £9,995 with the handbook transmission. That is about £16,916 in 2024 kilos, or $21,418 in 2024 Freedom Forex Items™.
This engine was rated at 95 horsepower. A turbocharged Mitsubishi Orion 1.5 with a ridiculous 177 horsepower was obtainable within the ForFour Brabus, whereas the ’05 ForFour Pure had a depressing 64 horses underneath its bonnet. A Mercedes-Benz-sourced 1.3-liter diesel three-banger with 68 oil-sipping ponies may very well be had within the 2004-2006 ForFour as effectively.
A six-speed computerized was obtainable at further price; this automotive has the usual five-on-the-floor handbook.
By all modern accounts I may discover, the first-generation ForFour was amazingly roomy inside when in comparison with its tiny footprint. Keep in mind when Richard Hammond and James Might spent 24 hours straight inside considered one of these automobiles?
An proprietor of this automotive donated to the Royal British Legion (there was as soon as a Flanders Discipline poppy on this pale decal, symbolising the poppies that grew on the World Struggle I battlefields of Ypres and Passchendaele in Belgium). There’s a substantial amount of historical past within the junkyard scrapyard, if the place to look.
Why did it find yourself right here? A search of its MOT inspection data exhibits that its registration was nonetheless nonetheless good till October ninth. U-Pull-It York’s data present that it ended up of their fingers on August 12 with left entrance crash harm and simply 70,764 miles on the odometer.
Good revived the ForFour title with a automotive based mostly on the Renault Twingo, for the 2014 by way of 2019 mannequin years.
You did not want bloodhounds whenever you purchased the optionally available satnav in your new ForFour.
Is that an Angelo Badalamenti music?
That meter maid does look one thing like a milit’ry man.
Would American automotive consumers have thought of the ForFour?