Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small, economical automobile with few amenities.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal A small, unassuming automobile.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[econo(mical) + box.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of economy and box

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Examples

  • Also, car makers have come a long way in combating the bare-bones "econobox" image that long clung to compact cars.

    Tiny Cars Make It Big 2008

  • I recently spent weekends in the 2012 Elantra and the just-launched 2012 Honda Civic to experience the dramatic evolution of the econobox.

    Auto Makers Sweeten the Recipe for Small Cars Joseph B. White 2011

  • The cheap-looking, cramped, "econobox" car is dead.

    Auto Makers Sweeten the Recipe for Small Cars Joseph B. White 2011

  • But for that money, you get a car that is as far advanced from the beige 1982 Toyota Starlet I bought new to beat the gas-price crunch of the early 1980s as that quintessential econobox was from a Mercedes-Benz of its day.

    Auto Makers Sweeten the Recipe for Small Cars Joseph B. White 2011

  • This includes cheap econobox toy cars and full-size RWD police cars.

    Chocolate Fireguards (Cars and Email) « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009

  • The result is a profile that seems to emphasize the econobox, front-drive conformation, rather than read as anything like "sporty."

    Brand-New and Almost Out of Date 2010

  • While Chevy put more into the Cobalt to improve it, addition through subtraction is the order of the day with Nissan's Versa 1.6, a new trim level which renders this econobox sedan a "stripper" in the purest sense of the word.

    Small-Car Tweaks Pay Off 2009

  • It also appears to be Lib-Dem policy to charge large amounts of road tax for large cars that are hardly ever driven, but no road tax for the econobox that does the school run every morning.

    Will the Lib Dems stick up for their own policy? Stephen Tall 2007

  • (The auto industry has done this since time out of mind: my beloved 1965 Mustang was a 1964 Ford Falcon with new sheet metal, but underneath -- right down to the instrument panel -- it was your grandma's Sunday-go-to-meeting econobox.)

    September 2006 2006

  • So let's put aside those 32 mpgs during my week in the Fit, forget about the 40-plus mpgs I saw in steady highway driving and make a case for this exceptional econobox above and beyond fuel economy.

    A Candidate for Best Car on Road 2008

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