Smart in L.A
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A couple of friendly readers sent me a few pictures of a Smart taken on the freeway.
It looks a little odd to me. the black wheels, the “out of state’ plates. Is there something new about this one????
Someone I know just picked up hers over the week end.
I’ll check it out and report later….
Hey Vince,
I was goin g to get my Ep3 washed today in Alexandria, VA and I saw a Smart fortwo. No idea what this one in LA may be but I just wnat to say “they’re here” que creepy music.
Warren
LAME, the Dealer in Orlando won’t get any till March! The Central Florida Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge just got their “Smart” license yesterday…So slow!
But Premium Fuel….WHY?
you get the cabrio version too!
Good to know Americans are finally getting those not-so-eco friendly things on wheels too. Take a family of eight – you need four smarts, a fifth for the luggage. You can calculate the mileage yourself. But what a relief pic for a suffering sqeezed in a small car European looking across the pond at the SUVs and Pickups in the US. Now how about a crash between an Escalade and a Smart? Then put the pics in the net as a sales promotion – for the SUV, of course. The Smart looks bad when hitting a tree, of course the tree is NOT moving. It is true: We are living in a changing world. I really like cars but motorized shopping mall baskets should not be used on the open road.
Give your friend a big hug when you see her, Vince. She’d be safer in a ’73 Pinto that blows a stream of sparks out its tailpipe.
At least it was a dry and sunny day when they were driving around that day. I hope owner of this Smart made it o.k. during our wet and gloomy weather these days.
Re: Stupid comments…
If you had a family of 8 why would you buy 5 smart cars? Of course you’d buy a people mover you moron…SUV’s are quite safe – when they hit another car – but some of them still have very poor crash protection otherwise…and of course trees don’t move…or do they have legs? Maybe i’m missing something here…do they uproot to get out the way of oncoming vehicles?
FYI the new Smart ForTwo obtained 4/5 stars in the EuroNCAP crash testing and even the previous generation obtained three. If you look on YouTube they crash a Smart into a concrete barrier at 70mph and considering the force of the impact it’s remarkably strong. They also show an impact with an E-Class where the windscreen stays completely intact…
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s
So I doubt a ’73 Pinto would be safer. But then you’d know that if you’d bothered to research it.
Thank you, 7:08 PM. You said it, so I don’t have to. I work at a crash-test facility in Europe and believe me, the Smart is safe. And I might add this: the unsafest (is that a word?) car on sale in Europe is an American-built people-mover, the Chrysler Voyager (that’s Town & Country to you). Check out its incredibly poor rating at http://www.euroncap.com
Yeah the comment about a family of 8 needing 5 Smarts is incredibly stupid. The Smart is not intended to be the perfect car for everybody – but as a car for single people/couples, or a second commuter car it makes perfect sense. My partner had one for a couple of years and it was great, I never felt unsafe in it, it is not cramped inside at all – very comfortable in fact and feels very stable on the motorway at 80mph. I was very sad when it went, but we no longer needed a car.
Sure the Smart’s safety cage holds up, but what about it’s lack of crumple zones to transfer the force of the collision away from the occupants? I guess we’ll find out soon enough how safe Smarts really are when they’re involved in accidents out in the real world, not some test lab. Suffice to say I wouldn’t want to be the first driver to let the rest of us know.
Really in the end it doesn’t matter what you drive because rapidly decelerating from high speeds is something your body just can’t handle.
Considering it’s size the Smart is good at what it does. It does have crumple zones, small but efficient. I can’t really see that it’s any less safe than someone who drives a car from 1990 or even 1980 which I doubt would have any kind of crash protection, least of all crumple zones or a rigid body structures..
Any accident that’s serious…well you’d probably want to be dead anyway…
Dangerous car!
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=kj6ijpYJJgU
Bigger isn’t necessarily better, which I think Americans have yet to realise….I think the USA tends to rely on size and value for money rather than efficiency, technology and R&D….
People who say the Smart car is dangerous are only professing their ignorance….and unless you’re a really bad driver, how often do you actually have an accident?
In Europe, the public transport system is so good that the notion of the “large family car trip” is just a silly idea. In America, we have this idea of the car as an extension of the home. In Europe, it’s just an appliance like a toaster.
I said …..”Dangerous Car”
Saying the Smart car is dangerous and “Dangerous Car’ means exactly the same thing…The car is dangerous therefore it is a dangerous car. Both are descriptions and both are correct, the order is irrelevant.