** H-U von Mende and Matthias Dietz "Kleinwagen / Small Cars / Petites Voitures"

[Arunas]

Title: Kleinwagen / Small Cars / Petites Voitures
Author: Hans-Ulrich von Mende, Matthias Dietz
Published: 1994
Pages: 176
Language: English, German and French
ISBN: 3-8228-8910-5

About: The title speaks for itself The book describes the history history of small cars and includes many pictures of well know micros. However, in this book I have also found several pictures of very rare micros which are almost unmentioned in the internet sources or I haven't found anything concrete about them yet. At the end of the book there are separate despritions of each (or almost) microcar builder that is mentioned in the book. Oh.. and forgot to mention - all text in this books is written in English, German and French. Recommended for all small car fans

[DynaMike]

Nice book indeed, but somewhat unlogic in its structure in its chapters:

1: Small Cars -  Several older and newer well known small cars, but also a Nissan Be-1 (written as BE-1) and a Volkswagen Chico, that are, I think, in the wrong chapter...
2: Adventurous Beginnings - Chaotic mixture of well known and rather rare and unknown cars. No consequent chronological order, nor alphabetic or geographic...
3: Modern Small Cars - Massproduction cars, like Fiat Panda or Nissan Micra, and some exotics, like Gurgel Supermini and (again and with the same picture) Nissan Be-1...
4: Curiosities and Innovations - Nice collectrion of strange objects, but again no logical structure, and again the same picture from the Volkswagen Chico...
5: Company Profiles - Except for the logos no pictures. And why are Bond and Reliant put together on one single page, whereas FMR and Messerschmitt have both their own page?

Also there are many small mistakes, like
p.72: "Citroën 2 CV, Version 1980" but the picture shows a 1965 (only) 2CV AZAM ('luxury' version, no suicide doors anymore, still only two side windows, indicators on C-pillar)
p.73: "Austin Mini, 1959" but the picture shows a recent Innocenti Mini Cooper (quarterlights, black roof and wheel arch extensions, new big taillights).
p.78: "NSU Prinz IV, 1961" but NSU used roman I, II and II for its older model, but arabic 4 for the 'mini-Corvair'; the pictured car has the one-piece front bumper and the new facia of the 1968+ version.
p.83: "Witcar, 1980" but the Witkar (with k, not with c) were delivered in 1972, 1974, 1979 and 1982. Also in the same pic you can see a big Chevrolet and an Amsterdam tram. The text refers to the Chevrolet as a Caprice, but the name Impala is clearly visible, the car has only a vinyl Caprice-like roof because it is a stretched 6-door version.
p.93: "Honda Today, 1993" is the same picture as on p.29, and the translation of one-box car in German is One-Box-Auto, which is correct, but in French they have the description la forme d'une caisse sans capot ni arrière marquants (the shape of a box without clearly visible engine bonnet or rear), whereas in French this is called simply monocorps.

Just to mention a few.

The problem is that when it is so easy to find out that the authors are not always accurate in what they say, it makes it difficult to accept theur autority in matters that I don't know. But indeed, there are very nice and interesting pictures, and the overall presentation is well got-up.

[Paul Jaray]

I have this book too, and I found interesting the pictures of the Art Centre College of Europe.
I think its structure is unlogic too...2 pages of crash-tests....why?

[ImpishGrin]

You have to remember that it's a book published by Taschen. They publish outstanding boks but focused on visual aspects, as they're an artbooks publisher. So, for them it's not the subject that's important, but the form which it presents itself and the form in which it's presented. I love Taschen books, but I would never consider them accurate sources of automotve knowledge

[hugo90]

I have this one, too, and it's just for the pretty pictures.  I bought it online, so didn't know it would be of little value for research.