| The top speed of runabouts can vary greatly, up to 80 mph depending on the amount of money you spend on modifying them. |
| The Fiat 500 was introduced in 1957 and the production run went for 20 years, with 4 million of the little runabouts being built in that time. |
| Produced by manufacturers that Detroit had in some cases taught to build cars, these fuel-efficient runabouts caught the Big Three by surprise, just as the oil crisis did. |
| Such advances have lengthened servicing intervals in many cases to two years or up to 19,000 miles on ordinary runabouts. |
| The Smarts are built by Mercedes Benz and they are supposed to be town cars, little runabouts, and not designed for the wide open highways. |
| It might just be that these retro runabouts really are something to feel good about. |
