What is Digg?270 Comments
- scrumpy, on 12/15/2007, -3/+85Put my car down, that's not funny anymore.
- zoziw, on 12/15/2007, -3/+68We've had these in Canada for years now and while I wouldn't buy one as my main car I have certainly considered one for commuting back and forth to work.
- Androfire, on 12/15/2007, -10/+75Dude, where's the rest of your car?
- Aroundtown27, on 12/15/2007, -2/+42How the hell does the states not have this yet?
- coolian, on 12/15/2007, -7/+36That was pretty lame.
- punkrockxtian, on 12/15/2007, -5/+33I don't want to sound ignorant but after seeing them all over Canada I just assumed they were in the States by now. Not much of a car, but REALLY amusing to see these things struggle in 10 cm of snow up here.
- EriktheBard, on 12/15/2007, -6/+33Actually its crash rating is rather good. Better than some full size cars.
- Birdoftruth, on 12/15/2007, -19/+46hmm let me see, buy the Smart car that gets 42 mpg and is $11,000 to $17,000 or buy the new Honda Civic that gets 45 and is 22,000. I think even though the smar car is cheaper. If you want to live your normal life and be green you should get the Honda (plus its safer!)
- gtluke, on 12/15/2007, -3/+30they haven't been able to pass our extremely strict emissions standards for cars.
- v0yeur, on 12/16/2007, -3/+29what's with all the ignorance on vehicle safety? everyone's a frickin' engineer by just looking at it?
- iashraf, on 12/15/2007, -0/+25We've had those in the UK for years... and even though your friends will point and laugh at you in that thing = it's stood up VERY well in crash tests (surprisingly)
- ripper99, on 12/15/2007, -0/+22I see alot of these parking in my city where they back up to the curb instead of parking parallel to it, a few times I have seen them fit in the space left in between two cars with room to spare...something like this http://www.unitednathanproductions.com/blog/images ...
- v0yeur, on 12/16/2007, -2/+20made me laugh tea out my nose. nice!
- v0yeur, on 12/16/2007, -0/+17Toronto is throwing around the idea of free parking in the downtown core for people with efficient cars - the Smart being the first.
and being able to reverse park into a half spot on the street = priceless - Locke23, on 12/15/2007, -4/+20Great! But kinda sad how it took so long to get here.
- tugger, on 12/15/2007, -2/+17I have one for my business runabout. Its really grown on me. The engine has a great gruff bass note and is quite 'torque'y for its size. It accelerates well and has quite a sporty ride.
The general agreement (among owners) is that the original merc engine is way better than the new japanese one, although the gearbox isn't. You sit high up, much higher than a normal car and almost as high as some smaller 4x4s.
As for safety, it was the first car to acheive encap 5 star rating, and still holds the highest encap overall score for any car.
It costs £7000 ($14000) over here (uk) new, but are being sold 3yrs old for £5,500 (11,000). Added to that, they are group 1 insurance, have the lowest CO2 emissions of any car (the smart manufacturing process is carbon neutral too) and 55-85 mpg..
It's truely a smart car. - jklyon, on 12/15/2007, -3/+16I see how this could be popular in the cities, not so much in the sub-urbs, however. Those soccer moms need them some big SUVs to transport little Jimmy.
- quadvods, on 12/15/2007, -4/+16or not....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s&feature ... - noahhoward, on 12/15/2007, -2/+14Care to elaborate on why the Smart is a POS?
- GeneralAntilles, on 12/15/2007, -4/+16Seriously. The Civic is a waste of money, get yourself a Corolla or Yaris that's a lot cheaper with the same mileage.
- Barryke, on 12/16/2007, -0/+12tea. nice!
- inactive, on 12/16/2007, -0/+11I reserved mine back in April of 2006 and got confirmation that my order was sent to the factory in September. I should have it in January. :-)
The only reason I can't get it now is that there are no dealerships open yet. They're currently opening up the buildings and training the dealership staff.
Smarts won't be purchased like most cars are in the US. When you go to a dealership you can test drive one, but when you go to get your own you sit down with a catalog and choose the options you want, the order is sent to the factory, then the car is delivered to you.
It takes about 45 days from order to delivery because they custom build the car for you at the factory.
However, if you want one by 2009 you should order it now because all of the US-model cars they could possibly manufacture for the next 2 years have already been ordered. - tolkan, on 12/15/2007, -1/+12(O_o) I just saw one at work in Northern California this week..
- moghua, on 12/16/2007, -1/+12Funny, I live in Canada too and I've seen people drive Smart cars just fine in the winter. Really its all about experience. The other day I saw a soccer mom in a brand new Range Rover Sport doing 20 kph after a light dusting of snow.
On a totally unrelated note, here's a funny video of a (obviously heavily modified) Smart Car vs a Ferrari:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5S1NAMnYKM&feature ... - taxali, on 12/15/2007, -1/+12Canada gets things before the States, now? Bizarre.
- Barryke, on 12/16/2007, -4/+14it IS safe.
A SUV isn't safe when a truck hits 'm. Rationalize.
SUV's are just overkill. Being large saves the owner and kills everyone else. American short sighted ***** it is. - inactive, on 12/16/2007, -0/+9Wow you're pretty foolish if you think that countries like Italy and France don't have fast moving roads. Buried as yet another clueless American.
- rainierbeer, on 12/16/2007, -0/+8This is not the traditional smart car, this is an american version of the car. The european smart cars are smaller and get 60 mpg (as compared to 42), but cost three times as much i believe.
- boflaade, on 12/16/2007, -0/+8I guess if you avoid reading facts, you'll always have stupid opinions. Being stupid is not always being safe.
- gambit2121, on 12/16/2007, -4/+12the smartcar is actually a very good car, your just ignorant.
- KevinWhite, on 12/16/2007, -0/+8And Canada has slightly more strict safety standards than the US....so you're just talking out of your ass.
- Barryke, on 12/16/2007, -3/+11Sorry to shatter your dream, but a lot of stuff gets to the States pretty late.
Especially sober thinking, caring about climate change enough to build normal cars and without being a tree hugging dork. - felchdonkey, on 12/16/2007, -2/+9I drove one of these from NYC to California last summer, it was a blast. I managed to blog the first half of the trip, up until Iowa, before my procrastination got the better of me.
Plenty of pics here: http://www.permissionradio.com - Lukinator, on 12/15/2007, -1/+8This would be a lot cooler if they weren't already being sold in Portland.
- goteki45, on 12/16/2007, -0/+7It doesnt look that safe to me either, but there's actually a video on youtube of one crashing in to a barrier at high speed, it seems to hold up pretty well
- jsauter, on 12/15/2007, -0/+7Buying a SMART car is not all about the fuel economy. I would prefer to have one if I worked downtown and had to park AND if I received discounted parking because of the small size of the vehicle. However, you are right in regards to fuel economy as compared to other vehicles, it isn't THAT great.
- boflaade, on 12/16/2007, -0/+7Victoria is doing that now.
- inactive, on 12/16/2007, -1/+7It comes with air conditioning with automatic climate control, auto on/off projector lamp lights, silicon coated carbon panoramic roof, 4 air bags, stability control, anti hill roll, power windows, door locks and mirrors, heated mirrors, alloy wheels, performance tires, paddle shifters, 3 spoke leather steering wheel, leather shifter knob, auto central locking, auto speed-adjusting wipers and rear defroster/wiper.
Most of those things are options in most mid-size sedans. In fact, if you want a panoramic roof in a Lexus it will cost you about $10,000 which is almost the entire price of a smart car. - Dynamoo, on 12/16/2007, -0/+6Right.. two points that you must understand.
Safety: the smart fortwo (yes, it is all in lowecase) is built like a racing car. No, really. There's an exceptionally strong tridion safety cage to protect passengers from intrusion. The cage is virtually indestructible, although always remember that there's not much of a crumple zone in any little car.
Drivability: the original smart fortwo was fast but the steering was vague and sometimes dangerous. The *new* fortwo is a little longer and has much better handling.
I personally drive a smart roadster BRABUS (yeah, the caps are *really* weird on that one) which is not longer in production. It's a very lightweight, very fast sports car based on the fortwo. Fuel economy is pretty good, spec levels are high but the build quality is not so good. Hopefully the new fortwo will improve on the build quality. The worst problem? Corrosion.. kind of odd when you consider that most of the body is actually plastic... - etx313, on 12/16/2007, -1/+7I want the roadster. http://www.netcarshow.com/smart/2003-roadster/1024 ...
- boflaade, on 12/16/2007, -0/+6Newer version.
- hplasm, on 12/16/2007, -2/+8Can't fit in it, fatty?
- merwin, on 12/16/2007, -0/+6Responding argumentatively to your own comment. That really makes you sound logical.
- asurroca, on 12/16/2007, -1/+7Are you kidding me? Only 42 MPG? For that little go-kart?
Pfft, my last tank was 43 MPG (stop-and-go city traffic to boot) in my diesel Bug... and when I'm feeling especially "green", all I have to do is fill it up with biodiesel and I'm set... - frostmonkey, on 12/15/2007, -0/+5LOL keep wishing
- orgazmo, on 12/15/2007, -11/+16In all fairness, if you get a car that does less, it should cost less. The Smart pricepoint doesn't make any sense.
- Johnpaine, on 12/15/2007, -7/+12F-that - my '07 Toyota Yaris hatch caused me $12,100 and gets about 45mpg highway
- hagbard72, on 12/16/2007, -0/+5They've been in Canada since 2005, that's when we bought ours. Unfortunately, they butchered the car to get it into the U.S. market by putting in a gasoline engine (ours has a diesel).
- KevinWhite, on 12/16/2007, -0/+5They don't make that anymore...
Wikipedia: "Sales of the Roadster and Roadster Coupé were below expectations, resulting in a halt of production of both models in November 2005 after 43,091 Roadsters were made." - Dylson, on 12/16/2007, -2/+7He's not ignorant, he's an idiot and doesn't know what he's talking about.
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