To French, Tiny Microcars Have Tres Grand Appeal

For countryfolk without driver’s licenses and chic Parisian teens who don’t want to be chauffeured by their parents, a tiny new car is proving a boon.

At first sight, it’s as cute as a bug and not much bigger. The two-seat Microcar can’t be--in order to stay under the weight and speed limits set for “voiturettes” and “quadricycles.”

Owners don’t seem to mind it’s like riding atop a lawn mower. They like the legal loophole: You don’t need a driver’s license for “micros” in several European countries.

Sales of the micros also benefit from European gasoline prices, which can top $4 a gallon.

Microcar and eight other “micro” producers in France and Italy expect to sell 25,000 vehicles this year, up from about 16,000 in 1997.

At the assembly plant in Les Herbiers, a village outside Nantes in western France, lines of red, blue, gray and green Microcars hang from a yellow overhead conveyor belt that cranks out about 30 a day.

A well-heeled subsidiary of the pleasure boating giant Jeanneau--bought out in 1995 by another yachting giant, Beneteau--Microcar glues together a featherweight body from nine pieces of reinforced polyester, using parts from regular auto makers. Voiturettes are limited to a maximum weight of 770 pounds.

The Yamaha diesel engine powers the car up to 27 mph and gets about 68 mpg.

The micros aren’t much cheaper than some of their slightly larger competitors--minicars like the Rover 100, Renault Twingo and Fiat Cinquecento. Microcar’s sticker price starts at about 50,000 francs ($8,300).

But the edge is you don’t need a license. Anyone 16 and older can drive them.

“I’m 16, and it’s changed my life,” says Emmanuelle Bousquet, whose family lives in the upscale western Paris suburb of Boulogne. “I don’t have to depend on taxis, buses, the subway, my parents.”

With mom and dad’s help, she added electric windows and leather upholstery to her trendy gray voiturette--options that Microcar offers to attract the Gucci crowd.

Outside Orleans in the Loire Valley, Jacqueline Bourgeot has been driving micros since 1984. As an epileptic, she can’t get a license.

“I’m independent with this car. I’m not forced to wait for my husband,” says Bourgeot, 49, a nurse who works nights.

She doesn’t deny her Microcar is a bit loud, “but it makes less noise than my Aixam and my Erade”--earlier versions of other makes.

Microcar also makes a quiet electric version that looks like a small beach buggy, and some hybrid models use both electric and diesel motors.

So far, European officials don’t see micros as a road hazard. They are already banned from freeways because they have to stay under 45 kilometers an hour, or about 28 mph.

But it is anyone’s guess how many owners may have lost their licenses because of drunk driving or other offenses.

Up to now, there has been no clamor to do away with the legal loophole that allows driving micros without licenses in France, Italy, Spain and a handful of other European countries. Britain and the Netherlands are among those that require licenses, and the European Union is studying how to standardize regulations on licenses and safety.

The micros are part of the smaller-is-beautiful trend in Europe’s car market. Analysts expect Europe’s overall subcompact sales to rise more than 9% this year.

Of course, Emmanuelle dreams of her 18th birthday, when she hopes to get a Volkswagen Golf along with her driver’s license. In the meantime, her parents can at least be happy she’s riding on four wheels.

“A scooter is too dangerous for Paris,” she says.