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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Please, oh please, bring back the roadster, http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/list.asp?s=588
I park anywhere on my bike, carrying up to 4 shopping bags, and get good gas mileage for a '96 bike. You want to 'park', you can't beat it. Bikes are also cheap to buy, maintain, insure and license. The Smart Car seems a blend of car and bike...except it get's crappy mileage for such a small car. Not so smart really. The "KindaSmart" car?
I think bikes are, A, as unsafe as the people driving them, and B, as unsafe as the other people on the road. I've driven for 26 years, in Chicago and Minneapolis, and only had two accidents - both my own fault, and only involving me - once drinking and once that nasty oil slick in the center of a wet road. The Smart Car also seems to have a 'safety' issue. The death of the SUV/Pickup/Van will help that along.
As for the other people, I'm actually suprised at what good drivers there are, especially in Minnesota, where people tend to be calmer and slower - and especially now in the gas crunch. But of course, you have to be hyper-aware on a bike to read their tiny minds when they decide to change lanes, or turn, or open their car doors while not looking.
No one, of course, can prevent the drunk who goes through red lights or stop signs.
I signed myself up on that very long waiting list for a Smart Car recently, and I'm thankful for having had to wait. After test driving the Smart, I checked out the Yaris and the Fit. I passed on the Yaris but couldn't resist buying the Fit immediately after I pulled up to the Honda dealer's parking lot following my test drive.
Originally, I wanted the Smart Car for a few important reasons: (1) it's affordable, (2) it's small enough to park in tight NYC/NJ spaces, and (3) it's great on gas mileage. All the same could be said of the Fit, except the Smart is modestly shorter in length. That's important if parking is a witch as it is in my urban area. Even so, the pros of the Fit vs. Smart far outweigh this one exception that the Smart has over the Fit.
First, both are fun to drive, but the Fit is much more fun. Test drive both and you'll see what I mean. It's just designed to near perfection. The Smart, however, has a herky-jerky feel to it no matter if you're driving it in manual or automatic mode. And why bother driving in manual if the clutch is automatic? Where's the fun in that?
Second, the gas mileage between the two is not that different.
Third, the cost of the Fit (I'm talking fully loaded Sport edition) is actually less than the cost of the Smart. Not by much, but by enough to win me over.
Fourth, and most important for me, the Fit fits a lot more than anyone could ever imagine. With the Smart, I could only drive out to my favorite restaurant in faraway Portchester with one other companion. With the Smart, the passenger ratio is tripled! Also, thanks to its clever and awesome design, the Fit has as much cargo space as many SUVs! That is one area where both the Smart and Yaris come up short.
Last but not least, the overall look of the Fit makes it far sexier than the Yaris and even the Smart, especially in the case of the Sport model. People may gawk at the Smart for it's toy-like design, but the Fit will leave a longer lasting impression.
Oh yeah, and I bought my "perfect" Fit on the spot. Couldn't have done so with the not-so-Smart Car.
Oh yeah again, and I've owned a Honda (Civic) before, one that lasted for 12 years without a single mechanical problem before I sold it for the highest going rate of its annual model.
Get Fit!
Jeffery
I believe that Smart Car recommends 91 octane premium gas, which would add another 40 cents/gallon where I live. So when comparing mpg some adjustment should be made. The car will run on regular, but performance and mpg will suffer. Since regular gas in Europe is the same octane as our premium most European cars have this issue.
Back in the seventies and early eighties I lived in SF and I worked there until three years ago. Small cars would be a great advantage in getting those small spots between driveways in the neighborhoods.
In the future there will be more choices of small cars, maybe running on electricity. Maybe with swappable batteries. Being charged by the solar panels on roofs. The world awaits changes.
Wolverine
For the most part I no longer read reviews by professional auto journalists for several reasons. They are loaned cars by the auto companies that are invariably finely tuned by company mechanics before delivery to the journalist. In almost all cases the model they test drive is the most expensive and fully loaded one, not the one most car buyers would choose and not the one that accounts for the bulk the manufacturer's sales. Auto journalists as group prize acceleration and large size over any other characteristic of the cars they review. Sports writers and financial journalists are often criticized for being too close or beholden to the folks they write about but auto journalists make them look like pikers when it comes to shilling for the manufacturers. In short, I find auto journalists to be seldom believable and hopelessly compromised by the car manufacturers.
The Smart Car is not revolutionary by world standards, but by U.S. standards maybe it qualifies. I don't remember seeing this short a car before sold in this country. And I think it makes sense to have a car this size. Too bad the deficiencies in the Smart Car don't make it a good start at it. I would have bought a Smart Car were it not for the serious problems noted in the article. I really only need a 2-seater.
They do make a Smart Car with much better mileage - they just don't sell it in the U.S. It's the diesel, which our Canadian commenter reported on. But the gas one gets poor mileage for the size of the car, and to boot requires premium.
I think clean diesel is the way to go right now, although it may not be too many years until there's a better option. Hybrids have two engines, with concomitant loss of space, extra weight, and potential cost in needing to maintain both. Diesel mileage is comparable to that of gas-electric hybrids, and diesel engines last much longer and require less maintenance than gas engines.
Given that my 12 year old car would cost more to repair than it's worth, I put down a deposit on a new VW Jetta TDI, for which I'll have to wait a couple of months or more. Comparable cost to a Prius, but overall better car. Probably comparable mileage. The official EPA sticker mileage is not nearly as good, but the mileage test system is set for gas cars not diesel ones, and the Final Technical Report on the current system showed that the one diesel they tested got 18% better mileage in the real world than its test results. Based on actual experience of folks with past TDI models, it should get average mileage in the 40's in real driving.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
