Smart Cars

Happy 10th birthday, Smart Car!

The latest-generation electric model has just been presented at the Paris Auto Show:
http://benzinsider.com/2008/10/paris-auto-show-2008-smart-celebrates-10-years-with-electric-model/

This year's Smart Cars have not been overwhelming successes in the US in the Auto Mags.
There is talk of modifications .....

One of the great pluses of the SmartCar when it was first introduced in Frence is that owners weren't required to have license plates ..... as a result, people could park whereever and not have to worry about PVC tickets. Those days are gone !

Perhaps that's one of the reasons there are fewer to be seen these days.

You know, I'm not sure if I actually see fewer of them than a couple of years ago or if I just notice them less...

I agree, Stacy. It makes a lot of sense for parking in urban areas and dashing in and out of traffic, but I sure wouldn't want to be next to an Expedition in it!. It must be great for gas mileage. My husband saw his first one in Vienna earlier this year and was so intrigued that he took a picture of it. I love being able to change the panels when you get tired of the color, but I still question how safe they are. Do you see a lot of them in Paris?

Here's another article about Smarts in the US:
'Micro-cars': A smart buy?

Note that the US version is nearly 8 inches longer than the European version (everything's bigger in the US, doncha know! ).

Again, I think it makes great sense in urban areas but wouldn't be too comfortable with the idea of sharing the road with all those Expeditions and Hummers and other monstrosities.

Out here in California, you occasionally see the small cars, usually in the big cities with terrible parking (San Francisco or Berkeley). I would find it terrifying to drive them out on the open country freeways like I-5, where Expeditions and their kind play "freeway slalom" at 80-90 mph with the huge semis. There the small cars are nothing more than the bugs that splash on their windshields, and they may not even see them if the driver is short. Ditto in LA, where you drive bumper-to-bumper at any time of the day from crawl to 70 mph - not much protection in an accident, which can be multiple car. I did see a few in England on the motorways, but they usually stayed in the slow lane. In Paris, I drove my friends Peugeot 307, but I would not class that as a small car like on this thread. But that was on the Peripherique - I would not have the nerve to drive pre-holiday rush hour traffic when he picked us up at Gare du Nord, and we inched our way across part of the city to the 16th. Last time I saw traffic that bad was in NYC, trying to get from financial district in Manhattan to the LIE, out to eastern Long Island.

I just can't believe they'd offer any protection in an accident. Plus, they look like they've been sawed off (the fortwo model).

Exactement. And to think of driving one of those little things on ice... no thanks.

Bumpy roads=pot holes.

That more or less includes most all cities north of the Mason-Dixon line, starting with NY. Hardly an endorsement.

In the US maybe the smart forfour would work better, it's follows the idea of the original smart, it's in plastic so it doesn't weigh much and it probably doesn't use to much fuel, but it has 4 seats ! You see a few of them in Paris.

Smart Forfour model

In spite of their small size they're surprisingly comfortable (though I wouldn't recommend them for long trips or bumpy roads). And in Paris they're practical and easy to park.

In the US... I don't know, I just can't quite see them in traffic with all these huge pickups and SUVs everywhere. I can picture them being popular in certain communities in Vermont, California, Oregon or Washington State, for example, but otherwise can't imagine they'll really take off here.

I'm in the market for a new car and would consider one if they were available and I was convinced they'd be as safe as what I'd get otherwise. I'm a small-car person and almost never need space for more than one, so the size is no issue for me.

It will be very interesting to see if it catches on in the US.

Which of our readers is going to buy a Smart Car so we may have a first-hand report?

Considering the current price of gas in the US (over $3.25 per gallon), the cars may not be so dumb ......
We'll see.

Actually I don't think the "car" (the wheeled plastic thing) really "works" in Europe. You get to see some but to my knowledge Smart looses money and only survives because as Sam said, it belongs to Daimler Chrysler.

Yes, that's my understanding, too. I certainly understand their appeal given the price of gas and they take up a negative amount of space , but I just can't imagine that they afford any type of protection except from the rain!

It will be interesting to see if and how much they catch on in the US.

Chrysler Daimler makes the Smart car and the article I read a weekor so ago said they will begin a push to sell them in the US soon.

Great question... I wonder, those tiny things are made out of plastic and I suppose that bumping into birds could smash the car... We see many of them in Paris, it's easy to park, it doesn't use too much fuel (fuel in France isn't something "cheap")(not to say it is in the States but I suppose that if americans had the same taxes on fuel as the one we have in France, they'd all stop driving big fat 2 ton cars that seem to "burn fuel" for the fun... Plus, people in Texas would cut off they're Air conditionning systems while driving with their windows wide open ...).

Appart from that, the Smart appears to me as an ugly (I tried to find something nicer than ugly, I swear I tried but it's the best way to describe it !!!) tiny dangerous vehicule, and it's quite expensive !!!

Use the metro

What to my wondering eyes should appear last week, but a Smart Car! And it was passing me, no less! Of course, I was cruising along at 34 mph (in a 30 zone), but even so. . .

Has anyone seen them in the US? My husband had just mentioned a couple of weeks ago that he read an article about how Americans are buying them to commute to and from work and errands. But I was still taken aback to see one in my small Upstate NY town. They seem to fit in better in Europe where the streets are usually narrower, most of the cars smaller. I'll never forget the first time I saw one in France, wondering how anyone could ever survive an accident in it.

I'll take my deux cheveaux anytime, merci