The Smart Car visits Mobile Tech Manor
Today’s gas prices have a lot of people concerned about how much they spend on transportation and it is such a great concern that even folks who you wouldn’t expect to take drastic action are doing so. I witnessed this first-hand as a friend of mine dropped by Mobile Tech Manor last night to show off their new purchase they had taken delivery of this weekend. This friend has a "ranch" up-state for retirement and he and his wife drive up there every weekend to work it. They have always driven the typical Texas giant pickup truck but the cost of the weekly trip has been cutting deep ruts in their pocketbooks for a while. These folks were showing off the results of their fear about gas costs, the new Smart Car they had purchased. It was the first one I had seen close up and it was the first chance I’ve had to sit inside one of the little cars. I must say it is quite a different experience.
This car is so small, it’s not much longer than a bicycle. My friend says it has a 3-cylinder engine and they are seeing 45 miles per gallon on the highway. That’s a very good thing, not only due to the high cost of gasoline but also because the gas tank only holds 8 gallons. I have to be honest and state that I would have felt claustrophobic in the little car had the top not been down leaving the car open to the sky but all in all I am impressed with the build quality of the Smart Car. This car would be a breeze to park anywhere too.
They are strong too, have a look at this or google “Smart Crash 5th gear” to see a remarkable real world 70 mph crash test.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcuimw8ql_A
Yes, there very strong. Although I wouldn’t want to be in one if it did.
Nevertheless, these things are cool. Always drive it when I go to Europe (necessary there) but here in the US, I guess with the rising gas prices, it’s will soon become a necessity. Hahaha…
Before it came in the US, I was going to buy one and have it shipped here in the US. Well… more of a novelty than anything back then.
I think your friend meant “3-cylinder” and not “3-cycle”. Unless he has an invention I haven’t heard of…lol
You are correct, it’s a 3 cylinder engine and that’s been corrected. My friend told me correctly but when I wrote this piece I kept thinking how it’s like a motorcycle engine and 3-cycle clipped out.
Note that SMART is a brand of Daimler AG, so essentially you are driving around in a Mercedes-Benz…
While it is safe, it’s not all that safe for those around it.
A friend of mine was standing on a sidewalk when a nearby Smart car was hit by another car. The Smart car actually went airborne and, had my friend not been pushed out of the way, she would have been severely injured or worse.
When I lived in Paris, these were very common. People who don’t live in dense cities often don’t realize that another advantage of a small car is ease of parking. These things are relatively easy to very tight spaces along the street. However, I think it would be a poor choice as a gas saving option in the American suburbs. These were growing popular in Victoria, BC for a time, until people started realizing that more car and better gas mileage could be found elsewhere. It’s too bad that Smart abandoned the roadster, which looked like a lot of fun, albeit slow fun. Any how, it’s nice to see early adopters out there paying down the R&D costs of new technology and exposing its flaws through their own sufferings.
The only flaw with the Smart is that it requires premium gas (read it in Consumer Reports), so the mileage is great, but the operation cost is slightly higher than other fuel-efficient vehicles.
These are a pretty common sight in Europe, but if I was looking for a cheap-to-run two-seater I’d go for one of these:
http://tinyurl.com/5uun8a
It’s actually a four seater, but the two back seats are really for emergencies only. I hired one in France as it was the cheapest hire car I could get. It was great.
In London, it’s not uncommon to see a particular model of electric car. They are made in India, and by common consent wouldn’t give you much protection in a high-speed crash. However, the traffic moves so slowly in central London that that’s probably not a big worry. A major plus with these electric cars is that drivers of them are exempt from the congestion charge, which is essentially a toll you have to pay for driving in the very central area of London.
You’re eeeeeeeevil, Kendrick!!! Eeeeeeeevil!!!
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/now-do-you-believe-in-my-persecution/
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/smart-car-stuff/
It’s not all Nirvana. There are tradeoffs:
http://www.cars.com/go/crp/research.jsp?section=reviews&crpPage=reviews.jsp&makeid=563&modelid=8791&year=2008
I have one of these and love it. (I actually had the third one off the line 10 years ago) but the new North America version is a very nice upgrade. Being 6′5″, I have NO problem at all with headroom, seat pitch or throw to the wheel or peddles. I get about 41 with city and highway driving and got 48 on a 200 mile trip a few months ago. It makes a perfect compliment to my larger SUV which I still use for biking trips and trips to the mountain.
I feel totally safe, and really enjoy driving it around town and on the highway between home and san francisco. Next month, we’re going to do a 800 trip with it, see what that will be like.
I think my next car will be a Smart car. It is the cheapest high mileage car. I was concerned that I wouldn’t fit cause I am about 6 feet and 300 lbs. I would prefer a Think City car.
http://www.think.no/
Interesting buggy, but not as good as my toyota Prius.
I get 48mpg on the freeway and 55mpg around town and have tons more room.
Indeed the prius is overall more efficient, (albeit 12,000-14,000$+ more expensive) But, the smart is the most fuel efficient combustion(gas) only car available in North America today.
The smart cart in itself is expensive. I think about 16k..for that wee thing.
@Nutsnbolts: While the convertible is $16K, the basic model starts at a little over $11K, and the upgraded (similar to the convertible, except without the retractable roof) is under $14K.
@kiwiruss: That seems a little on the low side for a Prius. My dad’s averaging 58MPG, and most of his driving is on the freeway. Might want to check the tire pressure. In any case, even if gas were to reach $10/gallon, the price difference between the cars would be enough to buy 1200 gallons, or enough to keep an average driver on the road an extra three years.
It’s amazing how much time was needed to get into the US market! I indeed worked for Smart about 10 years ago when they introduced it in the Swiss market. We had to go through hours of lectures about safety features and design… and the result was that I am completely sold
Now if only they were having a less consuming engine. Indeed while it sounds great, the car transports only 2 persons. This makes the consumption per person pretty high. Oh yes maybe you should know that we pay about 8-9$ per gallon in Switzerland
Hey bluemonq – we’ve probably met!!
So, it wasn’t so much a time to enter, but a decision to enter based on market demand, segregation from the core brand and marketing strategy and pricing. The market entry strategy for NA was developed about 2-3 years ago only, and therefore not based on the price of gas. Lucky entry point though.
Loving this website guys, keep it up. My thoughts on the smart car: I hate it. I too have been looking at small cars because of gasoline prices, and I can’t see why your friend purchased this one. Now this is just my random opinion, I’m not challenging anybody. But maybe you would agree with me.
-It is too small. It feels unsafe to go on the highway (even though it does have good crash ratings).When it is really windy, going 60+mph is just freaky, sometimes the wind blows it partially onto another lane.
-It only seats two. This is extremely unpractical. Small cars can still seat 4, like a mini cooper for example.
-The build quality is fine, but the materials used are kind of cheap for a car this pricey.I was very impressed with the mini cooper interior. Funky, cool. The smart car is bland and boring.
Car Magazine U.K. had a great feature article a few years ago. They drove across the US in a Smart. It was on-line but I can no longer find it on their site. One photo of their Smart in the middle of Arizona looked like a lander on Mars!
I’d rather have a Fiat 500, than a Smart, but that’s just my bias for Italian cars showing.
A lot of folks, self included, are waiting for the BlueTec diesel version to be released here, at 70mpg…
A MINI Cooper (not a Mini please, that is the old shape) has got pretty much the same wheelbase as a Honda CR-V SUV ! Now THAT is a waste of space.
Compared to a MINI the Smart is tiny. Like comparing a laptop with an 11″ screen with a 7″ screen.
Even the “small” Fiat 500 is a couple of ft longer.
In central London there is at least one car park that has special Smart car spaces, and people do park them “end on” although technically illegal.
MPG is not great, although the diesel version does 70mpg. I get over 40mp(UK)g from my Brabus version.
Expensive, yes.
Semi-Auto gearbox is awful, and is so slow sometimes you will think it is powered by Vista.
But it is hugely cute, and I drove mine 100 miles to a meeting today with no drama whatsoever. Not the car I would do that in every day, but I don’t recognise all this talk of lack of stabilty at speed.
Best bit is that the boot was designed to take two cases of beer !
However am changing it for a Fiat 500 next week after 3 happy years. The Fiat comes with Windows Mobile on board !!!!