From our wire services

London Ñ You say gas prices are so high you have to take out a second mortgage just to fill up the SUV? You say your socalled minivan is actually so maxi you feel like you're driving the Goodyear blimp?

The good news is, there's a simple solution to the big-car blues: Sell your car, sell your house and move to Europe.

Over here, you can take advantage of a new blossoming of an old fad for cars that are tiny Ñ not "compact," "small," or "mini," but downright tiny.

With gas prices above four dollars per gallon and city centers so jammed that illegal parking is an esteemed art form, many Europeans are turning to cars so little you hardly need a garage if you have a half-way decent hall closet.

The two most popular of these midgets aren't for sale in the United States Ñ their manufacturers are convinced Americans would never go for cars so small. A third, however, is due to test the United States market late next year.

The tiniest of the tiny is Daimler Chrysler's new Smart Car, a toaster-shaped, two-seater with a miniature engine rated at 44 horsepower, about the same size that powers riding mowers in many American yards.

The Smart Car is eight feet 2 inches long and five feet wide, so you often see this car tucked into parking spaces reserved for motorcycles. A Ford Taurus LX seems positively mammoth by comparisonÑ more than 16 feet long and six foot across, with 153 horsepower.

The Smart Car was designed by Swatch, the trendy Swiss watch maker. It comes with replaceable doors and side panels you can click into place in your garage on those mornings when you decide you'd rather have a chartreuse car than a red one.

In addition, the little car offers big time economy. The Smart Car sells for $7-$10,000 Ñ including tax Ñ and gets 60 to 75 mpg.

If an eight-foot car is a tad too tiny for you, you can move up to the relatively wide-open spaces of the Ford Ka, which is 11 feet 10 inches long and seats four (as long as two of the passengers are tiny themselves). With its humming 58-horsepower engine, the Ka gets 40 to 50 miles per gallon; prices start at about $10,500.

The name Ka is a bilingual pun. The Great Ka was the ancient Egyptian god of the spirit, Ford says. But the name is also supposed to mimic the British pronunciation of "car."

Still, for all their success in Europe, there are no plans to drive the Ka or the Smart Car in the world's biggest auto market. "There's no market for a car as small as the Ka in the U.S.," said Philip Hale, of Ford's European headquarters.

Gasoline "is very, very cheap over there, and the parking spaces are twice as big as ours."

Or is there?

Americans who have tried the tiny vehicles think they might go over big at home, at least among some drivers. "In the city, these cars are fun and really easy to handle," said Tom Benghauser, a transplanted Pennsylvanian who tools around Bath, England, in a Mini Cooper.

"But I donrt know about a highway. If you're in one of these babies and you have an unexpected meeting with something like a Chevy Suburban, you'll be crushed like a pea."