Leaving work today, I spied one of those cute little SmartCars. (Thought someone escaped from Rockville at Fiesta Texas!) I came home & "built" my own on their website and did a bit of research.Here are a few issues, observations, concerns about the SmartCar...
1) This little thing is the size, front to back, of my hood. Maybe the dash. I would look like a tub driving it.
2) SmartCars only come equipped with 5-speed transmission. I've heard that's better for gas mileage, but it doesn't remedy the fact that I'm incapable of learning to drive one of those. Seriously.
3) The model, above, I "built", adding only $450 for power steering? $14,040! For 1/2 a car! My whole car was only $3,000 more and it came with a trunk!
4)It gets 40 mpg city/45mpg highway with an 8.7 gallon tank. Okay. But it only drinks premium unleaded. My guess (because I don't actually want to do the math) is that means the money saving aspect pretty much evens itself out in the end.
5) Welcome to Texas. A SmartCar? Would soooo lose in a fight with any one of the legion of F150s that dominate the highways. I will spend a bit more money to not get smooshed.
3 comments:
I agree - it's a great concept, but in the real world it just won't work. At least here.
I wish we had a more European attitude toward cars - small but fast, and drive like hell. Oh wait, we do that. No, we drive like idiots in hell. There is a difference!
Oh, but they're so cute!!! I really wanted to get one, but they weren't even selling them in the US when I was looking to buy a car last August. I would've had to wait until January and I wasn't willing to do that. I also did research and built my own and all that but I don't remember the premium gas thing. hmmm...... I guess I missed that piece of info.
You know the Vinnie said he would get me one of these to go to the store and run errands in...........where the hell am I going to put the groceries for a family of 5 in that thing.......hang them from the mirrors and the bumper! They are all over the place up here! I think I could put 4 of them in the back of my burb!
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