I drove my buddys New Smart Car

I was posting in another thread how all electric vehicles need a farther range before
they will come truly mainstream as the prius has.

i feel that this vehicle falls into the same category. I cannot imagine using such a little
car that has such limited use. I actually want to fit things inside the car besides myself
and a passenger.

 

Although I have not had a chance to drive a "smart car" - I tend to agree with your "dumb car" characterization. It looks like a gimmic.

40 mpg for such a tiny car ... thats really bad ... Fit, Yaris and even Civic are in the same neighborhood w.r.t. mpg.

Such a small car should get at least 60 mpg if not more. I dont understand why some people are buying it. Perhaps its their third car (for running errands) etc.

 

yea errands to pick up a jar of mustard and a bottle of ketchup. i am not
sure I could even fit my normal grocery run in the back!!! :-|

 

Check out the latest issue of Consumers Report (August 2008). Has a short article on The Smart Car, and says pretty much the same thing as Larrysoossin.

 

They have had these cars in Europe for as long as I can remember and I always thought who in the right mind would buy them when there are other options. I saw some guy driving in a yellow convertible and he looked like an idiot. Why would you ever buy a street legal, over priced, inefficient, and useless go-kart?

 

I got a Consumer Reports today which says pretty much the same thing.

 

whats that sexy white car behind the yellow smart?:nod:

 

The PC crowd pew pewing a Smart, no way

 

I think the issue is that a Smart is not designed for the driving environment that most of us are used to. Visit a major European city and the benefit becomes apparent: space. I used to wander around Athens and find these things parked everywhere, often along side the motor bikes or together sharing a normal size space on the street. You can't do that even in the smallest of cars that we would consider "normal" here. They also get the diesel option, which is incredibly underpowered by our standards but works just fine if you never have to break 35mph while crawling through traffic while burning a fraction of the fuel. There, it's exactly the right tool for the job.

Stateside we have completely different conditions. It's all about long distance travel on the highway, perhaps with a slow leg at the end. Or sharing the suburbs with the oversized urban assault vehicles that we've convinced ourselves to drive. Our version of the Smart is the Insight, which you could think of as the highway adapted cousin. It's squashed down to cut air resistance rather than squeezed at both ends for improved visibility and to fit into that tight parking space.

In short, just how Smart it is depends on which test you administer.

**EDIT**
Now with illustrations.
Athens:


Prague:

What you really want is feet, but the smart is the best thing with four wheels.

 

As originally designed, the Smart Car was. It had a small diesel engine, perfect for Europe. It got very good mileage, in the area of the Prius. It seats two, with two bags of groceries. You can park two of them in the space you park one "normal" car. We have a bunch of these in Canada. Only drawback is they are hard for truck drivers to see, based on comments from several of them to me. It's a perfect large congested city car. Especially if the city is very old and has narrow streets.

Then Mercedes got greedy. They wanted to sell them in the US. So, out went the diesel (emissions), in went a larger gas engine (for safer freeway speeds). Out went the good mileage.
So now it has to sell on the cute factor. I'm sure it'll do well.

Go look at one. The interior looks like a European kitchen appliance, styling wise. Certainly not your cookie cutter car!

 

Yea, right, well around here more likely a quick trip to the liquor store. Hum, now that I think about it maybe it will sell well around here.

 

Surely you realize he meant the white two story house.

 

Parking. In many European cities parking is nearly impossible. They park these things sideways between real cars. They do have a purpose, but not for your driving style.

Tom

 

I am surprised this hasn't been mentioned in this thread, but the so-called Smart Car also requires premium fuel.

 

$0.30 per gallon differential in my area.