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Wednesday, July 2, 2008 12:00 AM

Test drive: The Smart car is revolutionary

A car small enough to alter your relationship with the city.

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  • Wednesday, July 2, 2008 06:15 AM

    Subaru 360?

    66mpg. By the end of the series in the early '70's it had a 36hp engine. Mentioned elsewhere as a 'keicar'. These were eventually replaced with the R-2 then the Rex then the new R-2/R-1 which you can get today.

    There's maybe 2 dozen marquees of keicar class cars in the world today mostly in Japan, China and India

    BY the way, the Smart Fortwo is ALSO a keicar similar class vehicle. It's one of only two that doesn't exploit the full length allowed by the keicar class restrictions. It happens to be a modified Mercedes Benz A-Class City Car (which were pulled from the market after it was discovered they were dangerously unsafe in swerve tests). This is the root of the car's poor handling.

    Moreover the key reason that the Smart has poor mileage is because it has an engine that is almost 30% larger than most engines in the keicar class. the Benz/Brabus powerplant was replaced with a Mitsubishi engine this year.

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