One year with a SMART car.........

Great write-up, I've been wanting to test drive a SMART just for fun, but I've never done it. But to be honest, the price isn't too great. I'd rather pay a little more for something a bit better, and a bit bigger.

 

82 diesel Chevette does everything in the story, but mpg is around 54 and costs today around $600. (downside is not enough power to run an ac compressor and go up a hill at the same time)

I'm glad you liked the experience, but I'll maybe take the Smart and Prius like cars seriously when :
1. They design them to actually resemble a traditional car so they dont look like they are trying too hard to be cute. (The upcomming Volt may be a step in this direction)
2. They are not acting as business cards for some evnironmental agenda.

In the mean time, I hate those.

Thank you,
SMS

aka: Organic food raising, alternative renewable heating using, recycling, tree farming, LEED building, domestic energy producing, suv and muscle car driving rejector of progressive agenda forced mandates.

 

Nice to see some love for the Smart.

I've got a 2002 SmartCar ForTwo - my fiancée (soon to be wife later this month) uses it as her daily driver and apart from inadvertently setting it on fire one time, it's been a pretty good ownership experience.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Great writeup KDS and good commentary SMS... I have only sat in a Smart - they are
indeed much bigger inside than the outside view would imply - and the gas mileage
does make it tempting for all the road warrior driving I do.

I'm curious - how is the road noise on highways? And do people "see you" - or is like
a motorcycle where they change lanes "into you" all the time? It's the size that
concerns me as a road warrior car... it's just SO SMALL.

Just thinking about an alternative to my 2008 E350 being ragged out on the road so
much - I wear cars out fast.

Jedi

 

Just reread my rant, I better make the clarification that I'm not making a personal statement about Kds. Unless of course he is giving up Ferraris and 440 'Cudas for one of those things....


Then this is gonna get REAL personal!!!

 

When my dad bought the Honda Accord LX in 2005, he paid around the same price. ~16K, I don't get amazing gas mileage, probably around 25-30+. I definitely don't need a sedan or a massive truck, so I understand the appeal for the car, and not bad for a loaded Passion.

 

I have wanted one since I saw my first in Amsterdam '98. Only negatives for me is I would not want to be in a serious accident in one and might have trouble installing light bars aswell as keeping up with a suspect.

 

To the OP... 'grats on the SMART experiment! Your write-up is thought-provoking...

Is this a real person you're describing or just a mental construct of yours?

From your fellow Prius-driving F-car brother, eating a bloody steak and typing on a Chinese-made computer in a room heated by fossil fuels...

...oh and don't worry, I recycle my imported beer and wine bottles, and compost organic waste to feed my home-grown veggies!

 

Did the transmission service fix the issue where you had to let off the gas while the car was shifting? I drove the car about a year or so ago and that was the only issue I had with it.

 

My boss in LA actually owned a Smart Crossblade like in the photo. He bought it off a guy on Ebay of all things for about $25K. This just before Smarts were available in the US. It was a Brabus and badged with the Mercedes logo on the back.

He kept it for a couple of months but it was impossible to register in the US (it had some kind of DOT "tag" in the computer system telling every DMV in the nation not to register it).

I told him to keep it and sell it to a Smart dealership. But, he sold it back to the guy he bought it from and I think that's what the guy did. They only made about 500 of these but my boss loved the car.

The only thing I didn't like was the neoprene seats -- really sticky in the sun!
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I've seen one of those - I take my Smart to an independent Smart specialist rather than the Mercedes dealer these days and they've got one. I found out that my Mercedes dealer was charging me for services and not actually completing the work due to the very low mileage on the car. Cretins.

Anyway - you have to be pretty committed to drive one of those in the UK, particularly in Glasgow. Warm dry days are hard to come by.

All the best,
Andrew.

 

I've owned one for about a year and a half, bought it for one of our offices - been trouble free and a great around town driver. On the highway it sometimes "wanders" in high winds.

 

Nor does the diesel chevette have a warranty or the crashworthiness and reliability of a Smart. Or the build quality.

If it was designed like a traditional car, it'd have to be MUCH larger to get anything remotely like traditional proportions, so why even bother trying? The point is to make it this small. To take the idea of two people in a comfortable seating postion, and design the smallest safe enclosed, weathertight car around those two people, an engine, and suspension/wheels/tires. Once youre three, the requirements kind of make it look like that. It's not supposed to be a highway cruiser for a family, but a space-saving runabout to ease congestion in cities. You have to look at it in the context in which it was designed to operate, instead of looking at it the same way you'd look at a Ferrari 308 as a tow vehicle for a 27 foot horse trailer.

Seriously.

I'm one of those people that think more people should own cars like this and take mass transit... so that there's more gas and space for me to drive MY cars.

 

Got me there. But the diesel Chevette did have a self rust-proofing feature. EVERYTHING got coated with a nice oily film.


(it truely was the worst car ever if the truth be known)

 

And yet it was quicker off the line than my old Porsche 912 (which pissed me off no end at the time...).

 

That's pretty amazing considering that the car is rated at 33 City and 41 Hwy.

Are you sure you did the conversion correctly?

Kai

 

Here's where I begin to lose interest in the SMART: I have a standard (non-S) MINI Cooper that regularly gets 35+ in the city and 42+ on the highway (miles per US Gallon).

It holds a fair amount of cargo, Luca and my dog easily fit in the back, and Mrs. JRR in the front. Where is the compelling reason to get a SMART? Seriously... I have wanted to try one out, but just can't find the rationale.

 

+1 -- SMART seems like paying more for less. I'm leaning towards a Honda FIT to replace my '89 Civic 3-dr. Now, if a SMART was 2/3 the price of the FIT, I'd consider it.

 

I have both a MINI and a Smart. Here in Europe, the Smart is often a great option when going to park in the city centre as you can literally park it in places where no other car could fit... it's brilliant!

In the US, parking is not at such a premium - even in the cities - so you don't really get the full benefit of the Smart's greatest selling point. Therefore, the premium may not actually be worth it if you don't have parking problems.

All the best,
Andrew.