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Smart Cars Coming to Canada and U.S.

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the golf-cart-gone-feral dept.

AgniTheSane writes "Most importantly the Smart Car looks cool. It also gets 60 mpg, is four feet smaller than a Mini Cooper (you can park two in a standard parking spot), the plastic panels are easily swappable and one color all the way through (so you can't scratch the paint), the steel frame makes it safe in an accident, and you can get it with in-dash Bluetooth (and in Europe can read and write email via the car speakers and a microphone). The Smart car is coming to the US soon, and will cost as little as $12,000. You can read about it in Wired or on MSNBC, or you can go straight to ZAP who will be selling them in the US soon, or the smart car website in the UK. "

5 of 605 comments (clear)

  1. It is a safe car by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    For all those screaming about security - this car has been specifically designed to be safe despite it's size; to achieve this, there are certain tricks involved, eg sliding the motor under the chassis in case of a crash.
    It _has_ been rigourously tested.

    You know, we here in Europe do make more out of less and don't need a 2 Ton SUV to have a save car.

    1. Re:It is a safe car by GroovBird · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sliding the motor under the chassis in a crash is not what happens with this car since the engine is between the rear wheels. The technology you're describing is of the Mercedes A-class cars. They look similar but the Mercedes is a tad bigger and is a front engine/front wheel drive car.

      I owned such a car for four years, specifically a Smart Cabrio. It feels much safer from the inside than from the outside. Even the most basic model comes standard with all the safety features: double airbags, ABS, stabilization... The room in front of you is all made up of buffer zone that folds when you crash. The distance between the wheels is so short that in any side crash at least one wheel takes a part of the punch.

      It's a fun car to drive, with a direct feel but not like a go-cart. The suspension may be a bit dry but it corners well and is handles well in any situation.

  2. Not so cool by Lomby · · Score: 5, Informative

    I live in Switzerland and had the possibility to test drive one of the two seats model.

    Positive points:
    - looks cool
    - each passenger has a lot of room (really)

    Negative points:
    - automatic shift is very slow, it is dangerous and reduces confort (it brakes the car during the shift)
    - the vertical construction implies rather hard suspensions, with reduced confort (you feel every bump in the road in your spine)
    - noisy inside
    - pricy

    In Europe you can find lots of small cars that have a comparable MPG (or better km/l), have 4 seats and are cheaper.

    To sum it up, coolness factor aside, I would not reccomend it.

    1. Re:Not so cool by Chilles · · Score: 4, Informative

      volkswagen Lupo 3L.
      3L means it does 100km on 3 litres of diesel. My limited knowledge of ancient measurement systems indicates that that is around 20% more efficient than a smart. It costs a bit more though.

  3. Re:Delta P, Delta E by Trurl's+Machine · · Score: 4, Informative

    The moms love the SUVs coz they feel safe - problem is, when they hit a Smart even slighly, they kill the occupant.

    Not necessarily. Smart is designed with safety in mind and has pretty good crash test results. Don't forget that crash tests describe only the passive safety (can you survive when bad things happen?), while Smart excels in active safety (can you avoid the bad things to happen in the first place?). I was driving a rented one on a business trip and the thing is agile like a TIE-fighter. Unless you're asleep at the wheel, you will be able to make an evasive manoeuvre avoiding getting hitted by the SUV.

    On the other hand, large SUVs are hopeless in active safety (a pick-up truck with a wagon-like interior will always remain a pick-up truck in terms of agility), they prone to rollover and the frame chassis does not add to passive safety, contrary to popular belief. Yes, the chassis will remain untouched by a minor collision, but it does not mean your spine will remain untouched as well. If someone drops you in a steel cage from a steep cliff, the cage might itself remain untouched on the bottom - but your spine probably won't. Modern cars wreck so horribly precisely because the chassis takes all the energy that would otherwise release - among other things - on your spine. It's no wonder that the safest 4x4 according to NHTSA is subaru forester. It's a car-based SUV that gets totally wrecked in a crash - but that's because the driver leaves from collision in perfectly good health. Someone has to explain this to all the SUV moms...