Are small cars about to be a big deal again in U.S.?

It might be time to dust off the old jokes about rubber bands and windup keys that tormented early Volkswagen Beetle owners.

Some auto-industry forecasters and carmakers are betting that Americans are ready once again to embrace tiny cars in big numbers.

At the Geneva auto show next Tuesday, DaimlerChrysler plans to unveil an experimental small car, the Dodge Hornet, that's about 151.4 inches long — or nearly two feet shorter than a Dodge Neon or the Neon's replacement, the Dodge Caliber, that is just going on sale.

The carmaker is noncommittal about plans to market the Hornet, but it has said it is looking for an offshore partner to build a subcompact for sale in the United States. And analysts say Dodge needs such a car, here and abroad, to entice first-time buyers and the newly fuel-economy conscious and to counter inexpensive models expected in coming years from China.

"I hope they do it," said Erich Merkle, senior auto analyst at the industry forecasting firm IRN in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Merkle thinks the growth in small cars will be driven most by "Generation Y" — the 65 million Americans born between 1979 and 1994. "This is definitely a youth car," he said of the boxy Hornet.

The four-door, front-wheel drive Hornet has a 170-horsepower supercharged four-cylinder engine.

Merkle expects sales of all subcompacts to double in the next five years, to 450,000 vehicles a year in 2010.

Although larger vehicles are more profitable, DaimlerChrysler isn't the only automaker paying added attention to entry-level cars. Toyota's Yaris, a replacement for the poor-selling Echo, goes on sale next month starting at about $11,000, in two-door and four-door styles with a 106-horsepower four-cylinder engine.

The five-door Honda Fit, a four-cylinder car smaller than the Civic, is due in U.S. showrooms in April, expected to start at about $13,000. Nissan's Versa, a four-cylinder car smaller than the Sentra, is scheduled to go on sale in a five-door hatchback version about June and as a sedan later in the year, starting at about $12,000.

The Hyundai Accent was redesigned for 2006, as was the mechanically related Kia Rio. The Chevrolet Aveo, whose sales increased 20 percent to 68,000 last year, is redesigned for the 2007 model year, with sales to begin in summer.

Not everyone, though, is convinced that significant numbers of Americans are ready for a major downsizing in their transportation. Even 450,000 vehicles would be less than 3 percent of a U.S. new-vehicle market that Merkle expects to remain at about 17 million vehicles.

"I don't think it's a car for the U.S. market," analyst George Magliano, director of automotive research in the business forecasting firm Global Insight's Manhattan office, said of the subcompact genre.

"Those cars look great in Europe, but put them on road here next to a big SUV and they don't look so good anymore."

Some Dodge dealers, though, like the idea of a Hornet-sized car.

Joe Santosus, general sales manger of Security Dodge in Amityville, N.Y., said, "I definitely think there is still a market for small cars, especially nowadays with the price of gas."