Letters to the Editor
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I love these cars
I saw them years ago in France and immediatly thought of how great they would be for people in cities like San Francisco. They would dramatically ease the parking burden in areas like the Haight and around Golden Gate Park. They are a perfect runabout for inner city dwellers.
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Small in a Sea of Big
I like the idea of the Smart Car. I drive a Toyota Corolla, and I rarely use the back seat - a two seater with decent trunk space would be great for me. However, it can be difficult to drive a small car when you're surrounded by big ones.
Try backing out of a parking spot, when there's a massive minivan or SUV on both sides of you. You are completely blind and can't see if there's someone about to step in your way, or smash into your bumper. Every morning, I have to make a right turn onto a busy street, and every morning, a minivan or truck will pull next to me, trying to turn left. My view is completely blocked, and I won't be able to see oncoming traffic - I just have to wait until the road hog turns left and gets out of my line of vision.
I love my small car, but there are definite disadvantages when you're driving on streets dominated by massive minivans, tremendous trucks and stupendous SUV's.
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Should be cheaper.
Given the incredibly small size of these cars, I'm surprised they're not cheaper. Both the Toyota Yaris and the Chevy Aveo have better starting prices... and those cars come with back seats!
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Hmmm, I think not.
I bought a 2002 Prius Sedan for $10,000 this year. It gets 47ish mpg in the city. I can carry 2 passengers (a very short person could ride behind me since I am 6'7"), and it is fairly comfortable. So, why buy a new car that takes up more resources, is smaller, and gets about the same gas mileage as a used Prius? Certainly, there are a finite number of used Priuses, and people migrating to a more fuel efficient car would be great. Still, the car is not very practical for more than a city runabout.
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This tinnie Euro-car will never sell in the old US of A
It'll flop just like the mini-cooper and VW beetle.
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happy owner
I own a Smart ForFour (slightly larger than the FourTwo, although it may not have made it to the US) and couldn't be happier, my petrol useage is sensational, and it is the safest feeling small car I've ever driven - the biggest drawback is people staring at me on the road.
But one thing this article misses is the environmental impact of the car from manufacture to end life. I went for a Smart car because they are built in the most environmentally sustainable way possible - in environmenally aware factories and from recycled and recyclable materials - although the Prius (and other makes) is hybrid, its environmental impact over its lifetime is much higher.
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Smarts have already crossed the Atlantic
I hate to break it to you, but Smart cars have been on sale in Canada for a couple of years now. There are loads of them tootling about the streets of Vancouver, and they seem to do just fine out on the freeway too.
Personally, I think the Fortwo is daft, but they make a nifty four-door and a really nice looking sports car.
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Americans are idiots... Let me count the ways...
This article, unwittingly, makes the case for every non-American who thinks Americans are dimwitted idiots who simply have no clue. A few things about the Smart:
1. It's an extremely well built car.
2. It gets extremely good mileage in the city (something which is rarely considered in American mileage ratings). Its weight is one of the main benefits here: driving in the city implies a lot of speed changes, and the smaller weight means less energy required to accelerate or decelerate.
3. It's a runaway best seller in Canada, which has distances which even Americans can't imagine. Driving from Montreal to Toronto (The two closest large cities) takes between 6 and 7 hrs depending on how far above the speed limit you go.
Stop thinking of Europeans as not liking their cars. If you believe that, you haven't met any Europeans.
What a bunch of fools...
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parking!
I'd love one of these--I could actually find parking in San Francisco in one of those not-quite-a-spaces you see for ten minutes before you find a place big enough for your compact.
And my understanding is they're short enough you can actually park them perpendicular to the curb. The writer scared of pulling out into the street could park it back-end to the curb, even.
But I'd like it better with an electric conversion. Damn would I like a tiny parkable plug-in highway-capable runabout. (An NEV isn't practical for the Bay area because there's no way to drive a 30-mph-tops car across the Bay.) Damn, would I.
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Nice Car But
I drive a Honda Civic hatch back,which is larger than the smart car but a lot smaller than most of the surround vehicles like pick up, and SUVs. I can tell you, with a Hummer in front of you, it's hard to tell what is ahead of you beyond them.
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Great car, but too expensive
I like the Smart car a lot. I see them all the time in the streets of Vancouver. Lots of advantages to them, except for the price. A new Smart car north of the border will run you about $18000CAD (as I remember in 2006).
Sorry, but no. I can get a new Honda Civic or Toyota Yaris that gets better mileage and is cheaper. And, I can have back seats. 40MPG is not that great gas mileage.
The only reason I can see getting one of these is for the fact that you can ark perpendicular to the curb.
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how does it go in the snow?
Seriously though... how well does it drive in the snow? There was a comment above about Montreal/Toronto that got me wondering about this.
I live in Australia right now, and lots of people have these cars. Friends of mine have one on this neat scheme where it gets painted with advertising material every 2 weeks, and they get to "lease" it for free. The thing is, it doesn't snow here. And having had a close-up look at the tiny tires and low wheel base, I'm frankly dubious about how well this would sell in new england (where I grew up). I suppose it has a chance in California, but a place where you could ever get more than 12 inches of snow? Dubious.