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Timothy Lord Looks at Gas and Electric Smart Cars (Video)
While he was at the International Auto Show in Detroit, Timothy Lord looked at the Tesla Model S, then the CODA electric car. Now he shows us the latest Smart (brand) gas and electric vehicles, including a "concept car" he doesn't think will make it into production.
Please stop with the bad music in the videos.
Its nice that you can park one of these anywhere, but can't charge it anywhere except at home. Not ideal.
that "smart" will be the adjective of this decade the way "on demand", "extreme" and "turbo" were misused in previous decade.
Apparently Timothy Lord is one of the Slashdot editors. Shameless "I'm famous" plug...
If I wanted to watch someone who has nothing to add and only repeats what the marketing driods tell them, I'd watch Fox.
Seriously /. these videos suck donkey. Spare us.
Wow. So we can add humourless to the growing list of American perjoratives now.
that "smart" will be the adjective of this decade the way "on demand", "extreme" and "turbo" were misused in previous decade.
Try this same quote with other brand/company names, and it really doesn't make sense. Smart makes small cars in France and this is just some new cars they are trying out. I've seen the all electric smart, and if it didn't cost around $34,000 I might be interested. When I checked the one out that was at the dealer I found that when you buy it you get to set up a plug in power setup for it and your residence. It is a decent idea except that people that are renting wouldn't be able to do that.
Anyway, I've gotten off topic.
Smart is a noun in this case, not an adjective.
...if his middle name start with an E.
Tim E. Lord
I've been involved in the auto industry for 38 years and I do not recall
hearing his name.
I suggest he might not be the most knowledgeable reviewer, and I am trying to
be polite.
Looks like the Euro people are the ones without humor. If Chevy made a car saying "American know-how, German nothing", they would be yelled at on dailykos, truthout, and every single rag that isn't Fox Noise.
The problem is that even though Europeans tend to call Americans provincial, they don't realize that a vehicle that is great on the streets of Paris is not going to work in the US in most areas. The electric cars with the 70 mile range are great for European cities, but in the US, not so much.
It boils down to a fundamental difference between countries. In European city cores, you can take your kids and family, and at worst if you are dressed as an obnoxious foreigner, you might encounter a pickpocket. In England, maybe an obnoxious drunk. Here in the US, you step in the wrong neighborhood, a local thug will be carving their gang sign into the kid's skull after the parents encounter acute lead poisoning. Even in "better" cities, you will be attacked by homeless. A suatainable family life is just plain impossible in downtown areas. The city councils have little to no interest in dealing with safety, as the cash a town gets goes for football (US football) stadium building for sports teams. Even the small towns must spend millions on making sure they have as many Jumbotrons as the town down the state highway. For people to live safely, it takes moving to a suburban area. This is the only way to deal with crime here in the US due to the general indifference of the government (Oh... yes, people go to jail and prison, but almost always it is due to a drug charge... the violent inmates and the general scumbags tend to have free reign unless they commit murder, and in the southern part of the US, the country is essentially ceded to the drug cartels). Which means Americans have to commute for a lot longer than Europeans. American cities also have little to no transportation infrastructure other than New York, and the Bay Area. So, a car with a long range is a must. Buses are a joke in most American towns, and they tend to be the living room, kitchen, and bathroom for the homeless, so they are extremely unpleasant at best, dangerous at worst.
Americans also tend to have higher speed collisions when driving. Seen the SMART car side impact test on the US NTSB site? It spins around like a top. Other cars will not move, other than slightly up and down with virtually zero injuries to the occupants. It is common for car/SUV wrecks to result in the SUV driver opening the door and getting out, while the fire department has to use the jaws of life to extract the occupants of the car. Seen this again and again.
It would be nice if /. had more real articles. However, the articles are either how BitCoin is cool and people must shift their wealth to it (even though it dropped in value just by one "bank" getting compromised), how Apple's new iProduct will take over the world, and how a useless car made by a company soliciting for VC money is the be all and end all.
Want to know the car to beat? The Honda CRX Si. That, or the turbo diesel VWs.
Ad campaign aside, the American version of the smart is a gimped heap of junk.
Smart gasoline Europe : 4.7 L/100 km
Smart diesel Europe : 3.4 L/100 km
Smart gasoline US : 6.5 L/100 km
smart diesel US : unavailable
How the hell did they manage to cut the fuel economy by that much?
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Mention any issue of national pride, ethnicity to a European and see what reaction you get.
So someone who complains about people making derisive remarks about an entire country is a troll. Slahsdot: FAIL.
I looked into these when buying a car several years ago, and was underwhelmed by both their price and their fuel efficiency. Looking at their specs again, they have gotten a little more competitive, but when you can get a much more versatile economy car such as a Toyota Yaris or a Hyundai Accent for similar price and gas mileage why would anyone I want to buy a Smart car?
Well pardner, we drive MILES in this country. I reckon they're about twice as big as your sissy little kilomawhosits. When you're driving for miles you need something bigger in the tank like GALLONS. Yee-HAW!
Looks like the Euro people are the ones without humor. If Chevy made a car saying "American know-how, German nothing", they would be yelled at on dailykos, truthout, and every single rag that isn't Fox Noise.
But they essentially do. They don't specifically say "German nothing", they just say "MADE IN AMERICA" waving a flag in the background and have an eagle swoop down and salute the car. If you don't understand the juxtaposition in the Smart Car advert then it's a joke that has gone over your head, not because of 'ebil racism' or the like.
It boils down to a fundamental difference between countries. In European city cores, you can take your kids and family, and at worst if you are dressed as an obnoxious foreigner, you might encounter a pickpocket. In England, maybe an obnoxious drunk. Here in the US, you step in the wrong neighborhood, a local thug will be carving their gang sign into the kid's skull after the parents encounter acute lead poisoning. Even in "better" cities, you will be attacked by homeless. A suatainable family life is just plain impossible in downtown areas. The city councils have little to no interest in dealing with safety, as the cash a town gets goes for football (US football) stadium building for sports teams. Even the small towns must spend millions on making sure they have as many Jumbotrons as the town down the state highway. For people to live safely, it takes moving to a suburban area. This is the only way to deal with crime here in the US due to the general indifference of the government (Oh... yes, people go to jail and prison, but almost always it is due to a drug charge... the violent inmates and the general scumbags tend to have free reign unless they commit murder, and in the southern part of the US, the country is essentially ceded to the drug cartels). Which means Americans have to commute for a lot longer than Europeans. American cities also have little to no transportation infrastructure other than New York, and the Bay Area. So, a car with a long range is a must. Buses are a joke in most American towns, and they tend to be the living room, kitchen, and bathroom for the homeless, so they are extremely unpleasant at best, dangerous at worst.
Massive exaggeration, both in the danger in American cities and the safety of European ones. Besides that though, if your cities are so shitty why not try demanding something be done about it? Why not look at the reasons behind it (hint: the words 'socialised healtcare', 'welfare', and 'gun control' may come up here) instead of insisting that the American Way(tm) is best while, if your description is even remotely true, it evidently isn't working. You complain that city councils aren't interested in dealing with safety and that the South is ceded to the drug cartels; if so it's because you aren't interested in forcing the issue, you've abrogated your responsibility to demand that your government take these issues seriously. You accept these failures and then shrug and use enormous pseudo-APC cars as an inevitable consequence. And yet you'll moan when a European advert pokes fun at America's over-inflated national pride.
Americans also tend to have higher speed collisions when driving. Seen the SMART car side impact test on the US NTSB site? It spins around like a top. Other cars will not move, other than slightly up and down with virtually zero injuries to the occupants. It is common for car/SUV wrecks to result in the SUV driver opening the door and getting out, while the fire department has to use the jaws of life to extract the occupants of the car. Seen this again and again.
So your solution is an arms race of larger and heavier and less energy-efficient vehicles? Good plan.
Just a guess really, but engines in the US, fuel economy has gone way up. Safety features = weight = lower milage. Polution controls = wieght = lower milage. Just a guess by folks that talk around the campfire.
because I have yet to see anything smart about pay nearly a hundred a month to use a cell phone that happens to connect to the net. So the word Smart in automotive brings to mind on their abysmal little car.
They will definitely need something other than Smart... because I doubt you can ever disassociate it from the existing car.
As for these battery only solutions, not going to work. Not until they can be charged without actually having to lift a finger, like pulling into a parking space and having a charge plate underneath the car rise up and do the work. Even then range extenders like the Volt and upcoming Fusion and Prius PHEV cars are the near term future.
We need another battery revolution to make battery only cars work, as in 1K range because then people won't have to be so careful. People love to claim 100 or even 200 is enough, but you really have to get it 300+ to get equivalent and 500+ when you look at highway miles (My Golf TDI does 540 between fill ups)
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I don't know about the "new" "Smarts" but the usual one in Europe is the 2-seater while the US is the 4-seater. The engines surely aren't the same as well.
Yeah, because Germany (home to the autobahn) doesn't have safety features or emissions regulations.
The truth is that Americans want (not need) horsepower. So while the VW Golf may get 65MPG in England on the smallest engine, they only bring the largest engine to the states. Somehow people have been convinced by detroit that they need 300 HP for a 4 person sedan to get groceries.
My 90 HP TDI gets around just fine and I have no issues on the highway but I despite getting the "Can you take that out on the highway" (people really are that dumb).
It looks like Germany has both a 61 and 71 HP model while the US only has the 71 HP version.
Even then the whole thing is a joke. It should be getting at least twice the fuel economy that it does. The VW Golf in England does.
Nice tap dance... On one hand, companies are free to insult the US as part of their marketing. On the other hand, if Wendy's said they were doing Freedom Fries or such, they would be called racist. Same tired old argument. Americans suck, any other group belittled is racism. This is an argument used to end any rational discussion and have things turn into namecalling.
As for city safety, people have tried. However, they are outgunned by the gangbangers, pure and simple. Especially in areas like DC and Chicago where a legit citizen would be tossed in prison for possession of a firearm, while the gangbangers have complete free reign. Pissing in the wind gets you nowhere, and a person has to ensure their family is safe, so one moves out to suburbs where their kid grows up thinking strays are wandering dogs and cats, and not AK-47 rounds. As usual, the response is the "blame the people" argument, which is cowardly at best, and a common cudgel used against the US middle class (No jobs? Blame the lazy US worker. No health care? Blame the US worker). I guess one can also blame the Cambodian people for allowing Pol Pot to commit their atrocities, etc. Governments != people.
Of course, the tired car arms race rears its head. Physics is physics. My VW isn't a huge car by any means, but it showed it can hold its own in the crash videos.
Please... try to use arguments that might be rational instead of playing the "OMGZ ur racizt" card. In debate class, someone doing that immediately forfeits their argument and cause. Outside of debate class, it just means one is unable to push any valid points.
I got a shrug.
What was your point?
No, I'm comparing the same vehicle, the second generation fortwo, which is the two seat one.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
It should be noted that the "German engineering; Swiss innovation; American nothing" ad was not for the European market but for South Africa.
So the question to ask yourself is why would an ad that is respectful of German and Swiss industry and disrespectful of American industry play well in South Africa?
My 90 HP TDI gets around just fine and I have no issues on the highway but I despite getting the "Can you take that out on the highway" (people really are that dumb).
Hell, my previous car that rolled out of Newark 20 years ago only output 100HP (probably significantly less by the time I bought it) and would still carry you clear to the limiter (171kph).
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
The testing they do to determine fuel efficiency is very different in the US ... most cars come out with much worse stats in US tests?
Having said that my Petrol(Gas) Car was rated at 57mpg (Imperial UK Gallons) Combined- and that's roughly what I get most of the time ...so the Euro stats seem to be correct for normal use ?
Puteulanus fenestra mortis
Hydrogen
The only solution which provides single-point pollution control and zero pollution distributed
So the question to ask yourself is why would an ad that is respectful of German and Swiss industry and disrespectful of American industry play well in South Africa?
They like the Nazi's and those that let them match across Europe.
If Fox is so bad, why have they been #1 for so long? Oh, I get it...conservatives are stupid, how silly of me to forget what liberals think of conservatives.
In European city cores, you can take your kids and family, and at worst if you are dressed as an obnoxious foreigner, you might encounter a pickpocket. In England, maybe an obnoxious drunk.
Well, maybe, unless you're murdered
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16334214
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7777635.stm
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/01/04/men-sentenced-uk-black-teens-murder-infamous-case
[quote]In England, maybe an obnoxious drunk.[/quote]
Shit he was at the airport when I got there! Tried to just avoid him like everyone else until the true horror of the situation revealed itself. That wilted missive in his hand......it had my name on it!