Will Smart's weird cars make it here? We give the Smart ForTwo a workout on American streets. The verdict: "What the...?" NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - If you've been to Europe in the past few years, you may have seen people driving around in small cars that look like giant insect heads. You weren't hallucinating -- and you may be seeing these 'Smart ForTwos,' or cars like them, on roads in this country in the next few years. The Smart ForTwo is built in "smartville" in the town of Hambach, France. Smart, a subdivision of DaimlerChrysler, sells the ForTwo in Europe, where gasoline commonly costs about $5 a gallon and city streets are old and narrow. In that environment, driving a car that gets about 60 miles a gallon may be, well, smart. Read entire article by clicking this link.
Damm ugly thing in my opinion. My brother has one and thinks its great. Here is the official UK site Stupid Cars (aka Smart) and for something really stuip look at this [Broken External Image]:http://www.smart.com/is-bin/intersh...es/crossblade/crossblade_design_exterieur.jpg Look Mum no roof! goto www.smart.com, choose Germany, modelle, then select crossblade. ukeright:
Wierd?? This from a nation that gave us the Hummer? What percentage of the time do you drive with one passenger or less? The Smart is a reasonable cost to buy and run, well built, nippy (80+ mph), easy to park, especially in European cities where we don't have acres of car parks. Don't forget in the UK we pay about $7 a gallon for fuel, that's why the Prius is gaining popularity. I agree the Smart Crossblade is strange, definately a niche car, but some of their sports models get great reviews and are idel for a fun car. Quite a lot of motorhome (RV?) owners tow them behind to use when parked up.
This quote from the spokesperson ruffled my feathers, "Zero to 60 doesn't matter as long as you can get where you're going and get there safely with minimal impact on the environment". He is misleading you into believing that improved MPG equates to cleaner emissions. In reality, we all know that it really only means a reduction of Carbon Dioxide, which is not related smog pollution. In fact, some high-efficiency engines are known to have worse smog-related emissions. So unless you see a rating like SULEV or PZEV actually listed, don't believe the vehicle is cleaner. And of course, we all know that an efficient engine in stop & slow traffic does rather poorly in comparison to what HSD in Prius can deliver in the same situation. Lastly, if he thinks 0 to 60 doesn't matter, he obviously hasn't studied the advertising aspect of the American automotive market. Sorry to be so harsh, but someone has to make sure reports are objective. Not mentioning essential information, whether intentional or accidential, will mislead.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(StuartS\";p=\"39332)</div> Nearly 100%. Every morning for 40 minutes I drive myself to work. From what I've observed, many other poeple are doing the exact same thing. On the way home, I'm sitting all alone for 40 minutes in a car that seats 4 - 5. I'm surrounded by hundreds of other cars that are at least 75% empty. On the weekends, when my wife and I go shopping, we take her car.
One of my colleagues here at work said that he and his wife rented a Smart during a portion of their vacation in Europe. He said it was great. Easy to park and easy to manoeuvre. He said that the cargo area was just big enough for their two backpacks. Interestingly, they tried very hard to find something other than a standard transmission car, because they're not used to it. But they couldn't find an automatic. What they ended up getting was a car with a "sequential" transmission (I think. My colleague used the French term "séquentielle"). He told me that the car had gears that needed to be shifted, but no clutch, so he had to use sound to determine when to change gears. Although he found it weird at first, he quickly got the hang of it and ended up really loving the car. I agree that this car will serve a certain niche market (probably similar to the one occupied by the Honda Insight) and is not about to replace the family car anytime soon.
I'd like to see one of these parked next to that Monstrosity that's coming out this year that makes the H2 look like a subcompact.
Not mentioning that shifting (of some sort) will be required is misleading too. I hated having to do that in stop & slow commute traffic. Even without a clutch, it would still really be a pain. Give me Prius, no gears at all, just a PSD that is always engaged and never requires user interaction.
I think it would be cool for tooling around town, but I'd hate to have some @-hole tailgaiting me on the highway. There's no butt to cushion the blow from a rear=end collision. In fact, it looks like the "bug" has already lost its rear end.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(john1701a\";p=\"39387)</div> Yeah, me too. I hate shifting. Well, I've heard that we North Americans love our automatics, so maybe an automatic version will be made available to the American market. We shall see...
I love the Smart cars. I think that they are wonderful for Europe market. Additionally, I can see them as being very helpful for larger cities where parking is at a premium.
What's so tiring about shifting? I've done it for years, and that includes transmissions with up to 13 gears to work with. In fact, the only automatic tranny that I've ever been able to warm up to, has been the CVT, where you get the automatic convenience, wthout the penalty in fuel mileage. Bumping a paddle shift on the steering wheel, would be plenty easy to work with, and go-kart fun to go with teh go-kart car.
Actually, an automatic is available. It is in Canada for $350. Well, it's a semi-automatic anyway with manual override. The problem is that although it may have the only 6 speed tranmissions in its class, it's just a marketing thing. The gear changes aren't the smoothest and it needs 6 gears to squeeze everything out of its 700cc diesel engine. While 0-60 isn't everything, a 0-60 time of 24 seconds is a bit dangerous especially if you need to accelerate out of a situation (If there's anything I learned, braking isn't always the best solution, sometimes, acceleration is). That's about it, otherwise it's a great city car - mainly for grocery shopping and just going to the local rec centre for squash or something
The Smart cars are great cars...I think! I noticed them in Germany about four/five years ago then noticed them throughout Western Europe. They're pretty popular. I believe it's a joint venture between Daimler/Benz & Swatch, AG. What a combo! I believe the panels are interchangeable..."depending on your mood/fancy". Interesting concept. I'm sure an Art Center alumnus came up with the concept. They're fun and efficient cars....but extremely small for some American streets (unfortunately...like the streets of LA). Smarts are great for small streets in Europe and Asia. In the USA, however, they can be quite horrifying if next to a big monstrosity. I'd think about getting one if I lived in a small beach town or something...but, not here in the City of Angels.
It was a joint venture. SM ART - Swatch/Mercedes ART. I believe DC took over the whole thing a while back. Thus now it's okay to call it a smart car as opposed to smart (lowercase) when it was a joint venture
One of my students has a relative that just purchased a Smartcar in Canada. I'm thinking about contacting a local dealership to see if they have one I can take for a spin - I'm kind of curious (though there's no way I'd trade my Prius for one ... Dave
I just saw a SMART car outside my office building today. It had decals on it saying that it was powered by biodiesel. Very, very cool!
