Tale of the Toad Part 2: Selecting a Toad

A good way to get a fight started in a RVers bar is to walk in and announce:  "Such and such makes the best toad!!"  The occupants of the bar will rise up in righteous indignation in defense - and in slander - of their favorite toads.

Motorhomers are passionate about their toads.  With good reason: they've spent a lot of time and effort getting those toads into towable condition - even to the extent of installing transmission pumps to keep the innards lubricated.

Naturally, some cars are better suited for toads than others.  Motorhome magazine publishes a very good guide to towed vehicles that is available on their website.
When we acquired our Motorhome, our fleet of cars include a mini-cooper and a high mileage Pontiac Vibe.  We learned that the Vibe (or Toyota Matrix) is not well suited for towing "4 down".  We briefly considered a tow dolly, but the logistics of carrying one around quickly dissuaded us from that option.  We also did not want to convert the mini-cooper for towing - at least at this time.
So we sat down and starting thinking about what we wanted in a toad:

1. We wanted something small.  That eliminated a large number of cars.  And along with our complete disinterest in off-roading, it eliminated the Jeep family - even though Jeeps are incredibly popular with the Motorhome set.
2. We wanted something that didn't require extensive modification - like the addition of a transmission pump.  We didn't want to pull fuses or do any of those weird things that you sometimes have to do with toads.
3. We wanted something used.  We knew we were going to have to hack it up a bit to install the baseplate etc.  It is a lot less painful to hack up a used car - rather than one that is fresh off the dealers lot.
4. We wanted something cheap.  We figured the toad is going to get beat-up and probably eventually destroyed by our ignorance and the rigors of the road.

So we eventually settled on two possibles:  A Ford Fiesta or a Smart Car.

The Ford Fiesta is a compact low end Ford that was cheap to buy new and  even cheaper on the used market.  It had a back seat that would hold a very uncomfortable adult.

The Smart by Mercedes Benz is incredibly popular in Europe.  It made a big splash here initially, but quickly faded out with bad press and reviews.  The Smart had such marketing issues that cars with very low miles (like 100) were being auctioned as used cars.  They were dirt cheap.  It has the advantage that the manufacturer explicitly states it can be towed.  It is also the lightest car on the market today.  It unfortunately only has two seats.

We looked at both, but in the end, cute  (and cheap) won.

After all, it important for a Citizen of the Road to be cute....