October 26, 2007
SMART Cars in Austin For a Limited Time
The SMART car, one of Europe's most eye-catching two-seaters, is finally coming to the states next year. If you can't wait to get behind the wheel of this fuel-sipping sub-$12k urban commuter, head over to Bookpeople post-haste.
As part of its pre-US-launch promotional push, SMART is taking the European version of its "fortwo" vehicle on a 50-city road show. Austin is the final leg in its Central Tour, which started in Minneapolis back in June.
The cars boast a 40-mpg fuel economy, which is impressive considering the lack of a hybrid transmission. The basic model starts at $11,590, but comes pretty stripped-down; you'll need to shell out a few hundred bucks for "extras" like air conditioning, power steering, and a radio. At 8 feet long, they're roughly half the length of a normal sedan and 33% shorter than a Mini Cooper, which should make for incredibly easy downtown parking.
From now through Saturday, you can test drive the fortwo at Bookpeople, between 10am and 5:30pm. And bring some reading material while you're at it—according to SMART car spokesperson Lisa Ray, some folks have waited in line for an astounding 4 hours just to get in one.
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Would have been impressive in 1990. Now? When you can buy a Prius which seats 4 (or 5, if kids involved), has a big cargo space, and still gets 8-20 more MPG than this thing?
40 mpg? Is that all? If I'm gonna look like a goofball nerd while driving, I wanna get at least 60 mpg.
My bike gets like, a-finity miles per gallon. I do like the idea of potentially parking perpendicular in parallel spaces. Is that even legal?
But it'll never get a-finity MPG. Neverever.
M1KE: true, but it's still $8k cheaper than a prius, which goes a long way to make up that MPG difference. the seating, as i see it, is also a matter of personal preference; i rarely have more than one passenger in my car, and would've opted for an arrangement like the SMART's to my hybrid sedan.
say you put an average of 15,000 miles on the car each year, with gas at $3 a gallon (both pretty conservative figures). even with the prius' 20MPG increase (and one-time tax credit), you'd only be saving some $32 a month -- far less than the worst-case difference in financing costs. you'd also have enough $$$ left over to pick up carbon offsets for those wasted 20mpg, though i'm not convinced those really do much yet.
still, like kenneth says, you'd look pretty goofy driving around in one of these.
Yes, but allen, I can haul stuff in the Prius when need be; and I can take along more than one person once in a while.
The Smart might work as an adjunct car (second vehicle) - but the Prius is our only car (family of 4). I have hauled a rain barrel in it; various furniture; and taken the whole family plus dog down to Port Aransas for the weekend.
Rear drum brakes, just like the Prius. And 15 seconds to 60. I think you might die trying to get on I-35 in one of these.
That saddens me. Both Toyota and smart are missing the boat. No one who truly cares about performance will buy either of these cars.
I'll stick to my Cooper until I win the lottery and can afford a Tesla.
People who truly care about performance should probably move somewhere where you can actually drive fast more often than the middle of the night. But don't lump the Prius in with this dumb car - it has plenty of power for the highway, and is as fast off a stop as any car I've owned.
Good luck with that Tesla, though. Somehow, even though they claim to have, through the power of magic fairy dust, conquered all of the problems inherent in lithium batteries, they keep pushing back and pushing back. And when they're done, I'm betting it confirms the 3-years-and-done mouth-breather stereotype about hybrid batteries, because they aren't going to be able to force the narrow chargeband of the hybrid to preserve battery life.
I chose yellow for mine. It will kind of look like I'm driving a smiley face around today.
And mdahmus, for someone who is so passionate about transportation and cities, it's unfathomable why you would speak ill of the smart.
I got to test drive one yesterday, and I was both surprised and pleased with how roomy it felt inside. You're actually sitting fairly high up, so there's none of that low-to-the-ground paranoia like I get in a sports cars. I am leaning toward the Smart for our family's second car. Parking is a huge issue for me as I work downtown, and live nearby. BTW they are more like $13,000 for the version with AC, Ipod jack, etc. Still pretty inexpensive. I put my $99. down (refundable anytime) and when they appear in January I'll make my actual decision then. IMHO I don't care if I look goofy or not, I think most people will smile at me because the Smart cars are so darn cute looking.
I speaks ill of the Smart because it's a poor achievement - like how I'm supposed to be proud of Chevy for making the Cobalt get a whopping 30 mpg when other companies manage to get 40 for their stripped small cars?
From an engineering perspective, it's horrible. They ought to be able to get much better mileage than they're getting, given the weight of the car and the performance they're apparently willing to inflict on us.
And as for parking, unless we get some smaller parking spaces, what's the point, precisely? Are you going to park in the spaces between marked spaces or something? Otherwise, any small (regular) car fits fine in any space downtown with room leftover for the spillover from the SUV in the next space.
I think most people will smile at me because the Smart cars are so darn cute looking.
Yes, that's what I meant about the "goofball nerd" comment. It's a chick car, like a Miata or a Mini. Chicks look cute in 'em but guys...? Well just call me a chauvinist, but we shouldn't drive things that can be described as "cute."
Still, I sat in one at Bookpeople, and have to admit it's pretty comfortable. But I didn't drive it.
Now that Prius one...beautiful car? The smart is different, so lets just hate it. Anything different from what were comfortable with should be ridiculed. Sounds like a good ay to live life.
Yes, you can park in the spaces between parked cars and piss off the people in front and back of you. That's how they park them in Paris. It's also a wonderful way to piss off your fellow drivers.
I guess I overemphasized pissing off other drivers. The thought of blocking people in with my back bumper to the curb makes me squeal with glee.
I would have killed to have this car when I was living in a crowded metro city, but that just isn't the case in Austin yet. A car like this is not so much for downtown parking, where metered spaces are clearly defined and cars can't straddle the metered spaces the way that a motorcycle does. It's for residential high density neighborhoods where you have to circle blocks for ten minutes to find a space big enough to fit into without blocking someone's driveway. If you can't relate to circling your neighborhood for 10 minutes and ultimately parking a couple minutes walk to your house/apartment, or double parking in front of your building to unload groceries before looking for parking, or worrying about getting your car towed by a someone when you do find a spot because your fender sticks into their driveway (that happened to me once), then you'd probably think of the Smart car as a novelty car for eccentrics or "nerds". You have to look at its competition, which is the motorcycle or scooter. I used a motorcycle for several years because I could park it in-between cars. The downside was I had to worry it would get knocked down by the car in front of it when the driver backed up to leave, and that did happen once. The motorcycle was almost essential though, after I sold my Geo Metro and got a bigger car. I loved parking that Metro though, and the Smart is even more compact.
So there are many reasons for buying the Smart beyond simply fuel efficiency, but I don't know that they are applicable to Austin yet.