I got on the smart car list back in August 07 - and have been told I'll be waiting till Aug 08 to get my car. Closest I've been able to get is to use one from citycarshare. Would have loved to get a taxi ride - oh well. Enjoy!

in the NY Times recently..

"Rounding curves on city streets, the body roll was pronounced, causing a friend to reflexively grab the dash. When accelerating, the dreadful 5-speed automated manual transmission shifts awkwardly and slowly. It may be enough to make you reach for the Dramamine: the engine temporarily slows as the car is about to upshift, jerking the driver forward and then back with each shift. Several times, my wife threatened to walk home."

I guess you like yours more than they?

Isn't it obviously because a hybrid requires a gigantic battery pack that would make the car much larger. The point as people have indicated is the size not the mileage, which I get, but at the same time it's not that much smaller than a real car that it's a big difference. The way people park in big cities it isn't going to find you a hell of a lot more spots than say a regular compact car would. At least that is my theory.

I realize that making a hybrid adds to the price, but I'm wondering why the Smart Car isn't a hybrid so it can boast extremely high gas mileage.

Even if the car's gas mileage is less than that of my sedan sized Prius, the appeal of these cars for San Franciscans (and people from other high density areas) is the small footprint that allows parking in challengingly small places. It is definitely a niche market car, but I can see it being very useful for San Francisco residents.

It's a cutesy-wutesy car perfect for an Apple user/fan, i.e. - someone who values form over function.

Me? I love my PC. AND I love the Honda Fit: for the same price as the, ummm, "Smart", you get a real car instead of a toy!

The Fit seats four adults comfortably and has shitloads of cargo space, esp. compared to the Smart; the peppy high-rev engine, that sweeeeeet Honda 5-spd manual and the sport-tuned suspension make it actually fun to drive, and not just to look at; great mileage, great reliability (esp. compared to the Smart - built by *cough** Mercedes *cough**) and you can actually use it at American freeway speeds! Huzzah!

I think I read in a car magazine that Mercedes put a larger engine in the ones they sell over here. In Europe, no one would take one on the autobahn (said the car magazine), but over here they felt the car needed a bigger engine for times when it was taken down an interstate.

Certainly could be wrong about this.

I've had my smart for two weeks now, and am having a ton of fun with it. It is a very social car, ironically enough, not because it only holds two people, but because it gathers a crowd of onlookers in parking lots and at traffic lights.

The mileage is often scoffed at, but in real-world results, I am getting 40 of the 41 advertised mpg, and this is with a mostly suburban, non-highway commute, while still in the process of breaking it in. Fill-ups are $12 cheaper than my old Neon, which is a meaningful enough improvement for me.

The pickup is adequate to survive Boston driving, but beware any advice to just drive it in 'D'. Assuming yours is equipped with the paddle-shifted automanual transmission (a must), to really get the most of the little engine, you've got to drive it like a standard. Once you do that, the hills of San Francisco should be doable. Also, take advantage of the small size and nimble turning, and steer around potholes. I like to say i drive it like i ride my bike.

Space-wise, it's been great. I'm 6'4" and don't even have to put the seat all the way back. I've hauled around impressively outsized junk for work, even, and the back cargo area is more than enough for groceries for a small family (and plenty of room for my bottle of soda and frozen pizza).

It's not a normal car, and I'll be the first to admit that I've sacrificed some niceties in purchasing it, but it's instantly endeared itself to me nevertheless.

San Francisco is definitely the ultimate test for one of these cars. I'd be worried it would flip over on some of the steeper hills, or simply not be able to make it to the top.

We're here for the week in a rented Toyota RAV4, and even that much more powerful vehicle has me worried at times. I haven't been here in several years and had forgotten how insane this place is.

I was really taken with the Smart cars when I first saw them in Amsterdam 7-8 years ago. Their sales in Europe (I live most of the year in Spain) have dropped significantly since their introduction because of serious reliability issues.

Supposedly, they've cleared these problems up for their intro to the U.S. I'll be curious to hear what you have to say about it.

It's a small car, not a light car, which is why the mileage is nothing to write home about. The goal was to create a viable city car that takes up less room and - more crucially - that people might actually use. (There are some funny local regulations like the ones that allow for micro-cars in France, but those are a real taking-your-life-in-your-hands vehicle.)

A large percentage of the weight is from the passenger cage, so to speak, and safety systems like the stability control to prevent rolling during the "moose test" (which happened in Sweden) and putting the car on its arse (which happened in Germany with a production prototype, IIRC).

The Geos and similar cited by other letter writers got great mileage because they were small and light. Customer preferences and safety standards are making that harder and harder to achieve.

@ R1chard3 - re: road trip - CAR magazine flew a Smart car to the US a few years ago and had their writer Mark Walton and a photographer drive it across country from NYC to LA. Unfortunately I can't track down an online version of the story, but suffice to say it was a real case of from the ridiculous to the sublime... you can decide in which sense.