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Well, I've been wanting a smart Roadster in the US for about 2 years now. Where the hell is it?? Yes, I know, it's only one car, and Europe does tend to get the shaft on the tech side rather consistently. But I really think it's just that (a) it's not made in Europe and (b) the European market for this, and other, technological toys is rated small, whether it deserves it or not.

Oh, and just in case you didn't click through to it already, the roadster BRABUS is actually an extremely nice-looking car.

Smart it's just another thing!

Honda, has a proven track record of quality automobiles. Zap, in Europe? I don't know. Colour me ignorant.

Otherwise known as Daimler Benz; been making quality automobiles since 1886. So, not much track record there.

Cool is a matter of opinion, obviously. I happen to agree with you, the Smart marketed by Zap (aka the fortwo) is not cool-looking. You should have a look at the forfour and roadster versions they're selling over here in Europe though. Maybe not the coolest cars I've seen, but especially the roadster sure is a whole lot better than the fortwo.

I haven't actually been inside one though. Looking at these cars from the outside gives me a sneaking feeling that at six feet I might not even fit, much less fit comfortably.

Cool is a matter of opinion, obviously. I happen to agree with you, the Smart marketed by Zap (aka the fortwo) is not cool-looking. You should have a look at the forfour and roadster versions they're selling over here in Europe though. Maybe not the coolest cars I've seen, but especially the roadster sure is a whole lot better than the fortwo.

I haven't actually been inside one though. Looking at these cars from the outside gives me a sneaking feeling that at six feet I might not even fit, much less fit comfortably.

Cool is a matter of opinion, obviously. I happen to agree with you, the Smart marketed by Zap (aka the fortwo) is not cool-looking. You should have a look at the forfour and roadster versions they're selling over here in Europe though. Maybe not the coolest cars I've seen, but especially the roadster sure is a whole lot better than the fortwo.

I haven't actually been inside one though. Looking at these cars from the outside gives me a sneaking feeling that at six feet I might not even fit, much less fit comfortably.

Yeah, in the UK it's distributed by Mercedes, and I think they had quite a lot to do with building/designing it too...

Oh, no, having checked the Smart site it's actually part of Daimler/Chrysler.

The FourTwo is OK, but I just got myself one of these babies.. a Smart Roadster Couple Brabus. Pretty much all of the fuel ecomomy and a top speed of 120mph. Sorted. Oh yes, you cant't get them in North America for at least a couple of years.. heheh :)

Most manufacturers don't have any cars over $100k, let alone two similar cars which have prices $100k apart. No Japanese automaker sells a car which costs more than US$85k (Honda NSX) and only one US Domestic automaker has a vehicle over $100k (Ford GT), not counting limited-run manufacturers like Shelby and Saleen. The two american production cars which were arguably closest together until one of them recently dropped off the map were the Chevrolet Camaro and the Chevrolet Corvette. They used the same engine, but the Camaro's powerplant was detuned so that the Corvette could outrun it - perhaps this is what you were talking about? However, the Corvette also has a double wishbone rear suspension instead of the Camaro's live axle, and the price difference was only $20,000 or so (in extreme cases) between the C5 corvette and the Camaro SS with the same powerplant.

Now, Mercedes-Benz does have AMG models which are about US$100,000 more than the base model, but they are practically a different car. Everything that can be changed without it literally being a different car has been changed; Engine, transmission, wheels, interior, even the available paint colors in some cases.

Or, maybe you're talking about how some cars cost more than others; it's not just about capabilities, it's about a mystique and that has nothing to do with crippling some cars and making others great. Sometimes, it IS about capabilities, and the fact is that you can't make a production car as cheap as a ford focus that can outrun a ferrari enzo, no matter how hard you wish. But, you didn't specify nor give examples, so it's hard to me to say just what you mean, when you didn't bother.

My mother lives in a "golf cart community" which means you can get to any place in the community with a golf cart. The only place she can't go is to Wal Mart, which is across the street and her golf cart isn't road legal, though there are some road legal golf carts.

One would be tempted to think that this car would be perfect for that situation. It would be completely safe because nobody drives about 30 - 45 mph along very scenic routes with relatively few cars. Only when she went to Wal Mart would she actually use it on the road, a 4 lane thing with a wide median, I think the speed limit is in the 45 - 50 range.

The only problem is... if she brought a friend along, where would they store the things they bought? There's barely enough room for groceries. In fact, it looks like her golf cart has more storage space than that thing, so she might as well stick with the golf cart, and get a regular car for gong to Wal Mart.

I looked all over for some indication of what might pass for a trunk, even at the brochure (link below, they pretend ask you for your email address before sending you to this link), and there spend lots of time on safety features, but no time on the interior.

So what do you do with it? You can't run errands with it, and it's probably uncomfortable for long trips. It looks sort of like a second car, or a car for people who never have to buy things in the store and bring them home, and without a back seat, there's no way you could use it if you have young children.

So I guess in some ways, this overlaps the Jeep Wrangler market - small, impractical, but fun, but even the Wrangler has a bench seat area in the back where you can put your groceries. Or maybe the bicycle market. You can carry about as much home (assuming you have a passenger) as you can on a bicycle, or - most likely - the road legal golf cart market. But those at least have 4 seats, and perhaps some extra storage space, and they don't use gas at all (I think), you charge it at home.

Also, Volkswagon has the TDI diesel engine that gets close to 50mpg highway, and something in the mid 40's in the city. So if I want fuel economy, I can get a VW, and be more comfortable to boot.

I'm not really disparaging this car, I like it - or want to like it - but don't see it as more than a "can get where I want to go and stay dry and warm in the process, unlike my bike" car. And with a $12k starting price, you'd really have to convince me why not to get a (insert budget car here) instead.

http://www.thesmart.co.uk/act_smart/brochure/downl oad.asp

The smart car is a low selling, rather dinky car which is VERY popular with businesses around here. Any company that needs to get its people around quite quickly- but doesnt need them to haul a tonne of stuff - seems to be buying one of these and covering it in logos.

They have low running costs, have an environmental cool image, show forward / independent thinking, and are noticable on the road. They do a pretty good job.

They are SCARY to drive at anything over 60mph though - you feel like your only touching the road about 20% of the time! But theyre not really built for that!

This is a niche this little monkey should be aimed at - corp city runarounds.

I just had a look at their 'smart fortwo coupe pure' and it achieves a combined 60.1 MPG (UK Gallons). That is very good. For those countries that can get Citroen cars and don't have a problem with Diesels, then the Citroen C2 is probably a more viable option, as it is larger and manages 68.9 MPG combined.

As a side benefit, small cars make the roads safer, and take up less space (which many people don't care about, but with tight street parking a small car is pretty sweet). And if you are really concerned about the environment, I suspect a small car has a lot less up-front environmental cost. I have a feeling a hybrid has significant costs above a typical gas car because of all the batteries (which are little bundles of toxicity, no doubt with many toxic byproducts during production).

Of course if you want real efficiency, a motorcycle beats them all.

These things are highly desireable in the US partly because they are not available, a friend bought a rolling SMART chassis (no drivetrain) off eBay from the now-defunct eMotion. He has since purchased all the other bits (engine, drivetrain, etc) and is now trying to put it together but he's stumped because he cannot get the SEVEN computers to talk to each other. He is no stranger to working on cars either. And once he screws it up, he can't exactly take it in to a "dealer" either since both he AND the car are in the US.

The era of flying cars started in Britain about 2010. The Smart car company was the progenitor, essentially by adding a pair of wings to its lightweight vehicle. The introduction was timely, in that the minority coalition of Conservative and New Labour parties, under their "Privatise everything" policy were introducing tolls on all roads. The flying car avoided this by not using roads at all.

The concept quickly spread to Europe, causing the Channel Tunnel company to become bankrupt.

The idea was imported to America but was a distinct failure. Although the country would have seemed ideal for such an invention the inability of American companies to make a "Flying Humvee" that would do more than half a mile on full fuel load meant that it never caught on.

My wife showed me an article about a two-seater diesel powered Mercedes apparently now available in Europe and apparently coming to North America in a couple of years. If I did the arithmetic correctly, it gets about a hundred miles per gallon.

The best feature, I believe, is how incredible small this thing is. You can park two in a standard parking spot, or even park perpendicular to the road. For those of us living in crowded European cities and can't do without a car, this is very compelling.

On the other hand, I'd rather not think about what a soccer mom can do with her tank, er SUV, to it... which is probably the reason they haven't introduced them in the US yet.

Is that the new design? It looks identical to the Norwegian Pivco electric car developed about 5 years ago. Ford got into a partnership with Pivco and released the vehicle as the TH!NK in Europe.

AFAIK the Pivco is now out of production. It featured on an excellent Channel 4 programme backed by the Design Council 'Better by Design' where they called in the designer partnership Seymour-Powell. The designers came up with some superb little ideas - electric cars that looked great, micro-delivery vans for small companies that featured removable back sections so the van could be changed to a different purpose in minutes, small cars with easy access for the elderly or for small children, a sporty version.

As you can imagine, there ideas weren't taken up by Pivco.

Now what we need are electric Smart cars - great design, I love the removeable body panels so that you can restyle your car when you get bored of it, but the fuel economy is no better than bigger, cheaper cars. But I have to admit, the Smart Roadster and the Bluewave are gorgeous!

Best wishes,
Mike.

Anyway, not bloody likely I'll ever see one here. Unless I buy one in Mexico and bring it home.

I'm sure at least some do it already...

With places like Mercedes it's quite common in Germany at least that after you ordered your car (and waited a couple of weeks) you actually go to the factory, get a tour, and then pick up "your" car that was manufactured as you specified.

I'm sure other car-makers are similarly capable of producing custom made cars... eg
VW or
Smart

and many others... I think the difference for this guy is that he will source components from lots of different manufacturers, though i'm not sure how that's better than VW or DaimlerChrysler who also choose their components from sub-contractors and get them cheap in bulk

Ponxx

You can compare prices of the Smart car
and the specification of the Smart and the Tango.

Tango:
Range: 80 miles
Cost per Mile: About 1/2 the cost of a gasoline car for the average commuter.
Acceleration: 0 to 60 MPH, under 4 seconds
Top Speed: 130 MPH

Smart:
Acceleration 0 - 100 km/h (62.5 mph) - 17.2
Top Speed 135 km/h (84 mph)
Fuel Consumption Urban - 5.8 litres/km - 48.5 mpg

I strongly disagree. I don't know whether you have them over there but in Europe (Italy especially) the Smart Car is increasingly popular. It has a 599cc engine (yes 0.6 liter) and that easily gives it enough power to wizz around town and do 90mph on a motorway. Their new sports roadster also has this engine, but turbo charged and has perfectly adequate performance as it only weighs 790kg. Thousands of people in London/Paris/Rome have these cars and it just goes to show it's a very good little car.

By comparison, the Buick Century weighs 3368kg (nearly 3.4 metric tons!) and has a 3.1L V6 engine which for some unknown reason, only produces a relatively pathetic 170BHP (easily achievable with a 1.8L VVTL engine like the one fitted as standard to a Totota Celica 190). Guess how fast it is? Answer: About as fast as the Smart Car above. 0-60 time = 11 seconds for both. It uses TRIPLE the amount of fuel for urban driving! I regard the Buick Century to be a typical American car, and if all your cars are like this, I'm surprised you want drive anywhere! I dread to think what would happen if you wanted to bring something like a Mustang or Camaro to the UK.... You'd be spending thousands of pounds a year on just the fuel.

I say again: if your car needs and engine bigger than about 1.6L for everyday use, then you don't know how to design cars. No normal person needs an engine bigger than this if they drive on normal roads.

Nick...

I got one of those and I can tell you the speed is limited to 135km/h. With a little chip tuning you can get it to 180km/h though.

..."[Americans have] ridiculous-looking 'muscle-cars'."

WHAT? *WE* have rediculous looking cars? Hahahah!
Heeeee! Haaaaaaaa! OMG!!! WHooo, what a belly ache you give me!

Stupid brits!
Stupid brits!
REALLY stupid brits...

If you assholes hadn't shot yourselves in the foot and tried to fight us all those years ago, you might have some land on which you could drive for hours and hours at 100 mph like our midwest. But no. You fucked up. So now you're stuck on an island and running out of room.. What's that I hear? Big engine envy? Aww.

A Diesel smart car can do 68mpg(US) which is around 86mpg(UK) IIRC. Top speed of 86mph, group 2 insurance and a doddle to park.

Ideal for running around town.

They won't be officially released in the US till 2004, but there are importers already planning to ship them. The cars themselves have been around for a few years in Europe and they are all over the place. Daimler are planning a Diesel/electric hybrid version of the car.