Recently, I returned from a family trip to Aruba. The beaches and such were lovely, but what really interested me was the cars. That’s made evident by the fact that I *Exclusively* took pictures of cars. Most of these cars weren’t even anything super special, just something foreign I hadn’t seen before. However, I’ll be writing about it anyways.
Nissan March
These Nissans were common as dirt in Aruba. It makes sense, as it’s a place where you’d probably be much better off with a compact car, which was made even more evident by the noticeably small amount of crossovers and such. One of my favorite things about the Marches are the fun paint colors. The one I got a picture of was a funky bright green, but I also saw some cool pink and blue ones. They’ve got a real love-it-or-hate-it look, but I’m a fan. I think they’re cute looking, and a decent stab at the retro-themed cars that were so common in the era of the Mini and new Beetle.
Toyota Hilux
As a huge top gear fan, seeing the Hilux badge immediately rang a bell in my brain. This is (admittedly a later generation, but still,) the indestructible car! I liked the aftermarket bumper on this one. The badges said 2.7, which, from what I hear, is largely considered to be a great engine. I’m thoroughly impressed with the Hilux, and it’s one car that I’ve always been baffled about not having abundantly in the US.
Suzuki S-Presso
This is a car that I would say is best described by the term “silly.” It’s comically small and looks pretty disproportionate, in a strangely appealing way. I adore the fact that the “Espresso” is made by the same company as the Cappuccino. These very-compact crossovers were extremely common over there, as well as many other Suzukis. This is a pretty stark contrast to the US, where Suzukis were fairly rare even when they were sold new. Here, occasionally, you might see an SX4 every now and then, but over there, the streets were practically lined with every Suzuki you could imagine. This S-Presso was my second favorite of them, behind the legendary Jimny.
Suzuki Jimny
The Suzuki Jimny is the stuff of Legends. A surprisingly capable, but compactly sized, offroader? It sounds too good to be true, and it in fact is, because the United States only ever received the similar, but not identical, Samurai. The Jimny is considered more comfortable than the Samurai, and, notably, the Jimny is still produced, whereas the Samurai was discontinued in 1995. Unfortunately, due to crash regulations, Suzuki’s recent market withdrawal, and a lack of demand for small cars, the United States’ chance of ever receiving a new Jimny is basically zero. I do like the new and blocky Jimnies, but my favorite one I saw was the slightly earlier, and tastefully modified on that you see in the picture.
Renault Duster
I won’t lie here, I think this is a Duster? This is the single newest french car I’ve ever seen in my life, so to say I’m not particularly well-versed in them would be an understatement. In terms of French cars, I saw 2 of these same Renault SUV’s, which I think are Dusters, plus one Peugeot wagon. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any of my favorite of the 3 French brands, Citroen. However, I was still super excited to see this Renault. I actually think it’s a pretty decent looking car for its category.
Pink Fit
While the Honda fit is a common sight on American roads, I’ve used this picture of a lovely pink one to say something else about Aruba. Their cars are typically pretty far from grey! While some are still affected by the epidemic of boring-colored cars that’s sweeping across the rest of the world, I saw many brightly colored cars. For one thing, I think I saw more factory pink cars in my short time there than I’ve seen in my life. The only American market car I can think of that’s pink off the top of my head is the “Tuscadero Pink” Jeep Wrangler, but in Aruba I was seeing Nissan Marches, Toyota Vitzes, and Honda Fits, all in pink. I think brightly colored cars are wonderful, and generally agree that the national trend towards black and grey is a tragedy, but my time in Aruba was a refreshing departure from this. Seeing a parking lot and it being dotted with color rather than a monotone palette of blacks, whites, and greys was quite nice.
Mazda BT-50
I am a huge fan of this Ute! I know very little about the Mazda BT-50, but I think it’s a great looking truck. According to Wikipedia, it’s based on an Isuzu platform. The United States hasn’t gotten an Isuzu pickup for some time now. This BT-50 reminds me of the early, Ford Ranger based Mazda B-series pickups that the United States did get. It looks pretty similar to some of Mazda’s SUVs and Crossovers. While the one I got a picture of was grey, I also saw another in that beautiful Mazda red.
MG ZS
While it was certainly cool to see a modern MG, it was also sort of sad. MG has been owned by SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) for some time now, and has pretty much exclusively produced soul-sucking appliance cars. While the MG3 seems at least a little cool with its Rover K-series derived engine, all of the other SUVs and EVs just seem fundamentally against what MG used to be. However, I doubt the Chinese Government, which controls SAIC and therefore MG, really cares about its heritage. Unfortunately, it seems like a cash grab taking advantage of the name recognition. Recently, MG released a car that they keep comparing to the MGB, called the Cyberster. However, they’re so fundamentally different! The all-electric (First red flag) Cyberster will cost upwards of £55,000 in the UK, which is ridiculous! A true modern MGB would be competing with the Mazda Miata, not the Porsche Boxster! The most atrocious part is that it’s a 2 seat roadster, but set to weigh over 4,000 pounds. And don’t even get me started on the obnoxious name. Thank you for listening to my tirade, now back to your regularly scheduled programming. I saw some other MGs as well, but I’d basically be writing the same thing about each one.
Toyota (?) Vitz
This car raised a few questions for me. The badges said Vitz, but the manufacturer badge wasn’t Toyota. It wasn’t any badge I’d ever seen before. Even a reverse Google image search couldn’t figure it out. After a lot more digging I figured out that it must be a foreign import agency of some kind, importing Toyota Vitzes from another country. The Vitz is basically identical to the Yaris, which are fairly common in America.
Volkswagen Saveiro Robust
I REALLY want a Volkswagen Saveiro Robust. This small car-based truck seems all but perfect for Aruba. It’s compact enough to make sense for tight city driving, but still functions just fine as a truck, so long as you don’t need to tow much with its 99 horsepower engine. It’s built on the Gol platform, not to be confused with the Golf. I like to believe that this would sell in the United States, with the popularity of the Ford Maverick and other compact trucks. However, these are typically SUV based, whereas the Gol is a hatchback, and hatchbacks don’t sell too well here right now. Therefore it’s fairly safe to assume it’s not commercially viable for Volkswagen to bring the Saveiro to the US.
Jaguar XJ X350
I’m counting MGs as Chinese (See my irrelevant tangent earlier), so this was the only British car I saw in Aruba. That photo is taken from a bus window, so I didn’t get a great look at it, but it was definitely an X350. I’m pretty curious who imports these, as I’d highly doubt it was Jaguar itself. I think there’s a chance this is an XJR based on the fact that it doesn’t have a chrome grille surround, but there’s an equal chance that I am completely wrong and/or losing my mind. The only thing I know for sure is that this was a very nice, and wholly unexpected, Jag.
Overall, it was super cool getting to see some cars that weren’t US market. Things were definitely quite different there in terms of the cars. Most notably, they were generally smaller and more colorful. While there was occasionally the familiar sight of an F-150 or Wrangler, basically all of the cars there were new to me. I think my favorite of these cars would probably have to be the Volkswagen Saveiro Robust, and I wish they were available in the US. Did any of these stand out to you?
-Max Daigle
Slow Traffic Keep Right 
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