seen that in taiwan, body color can be changed too.

i read from the taiwanese magzine that brabus has a package out for Smart too. that was something to entertain.

 

Indeed, over here you can just go to the dealer and tell them what colour you want this week.
Brabus makes some cool stuff for it, even a command system like in the S class for your Smart and full leather interior.

The diesel version does 3.4 liters of diesel every 100 km's, that is 60+ MPG!!!!
The gasoline one does 4.7 liters every 100 km's.
You can't beat that at the gas station!!

The Brabus one also does allmost 100 miles an hour and 0-60 in 12 secs.

 

I've driven my friend's Smart in Taiwan before and was totally unimpressed.
It felt downright cheap! It was very, very hard to accelerate to even street speeds let alone highway speeds, which can be very dangerous. The car handled like a truck and was a rattle galore. It felt like it could collapse by itself before a truck hit it. It made me feel totally insecure in that car.

I've seen the Brabus version too. Much more upscale looking and better performing for sure. But for the reasons above I won't even touch it.

 

I actually OWN a car with center mount gauges, and it is less eye movement. I think it may have more to do with the gauges being closer to the edge of the windshield, and you don't have to refocus your eyes as much. If you've only looked at, imagined, or drove a car that had center mount gauges for a few minutes, that doesn't count, although I'm not sure whether or not you've actually owned one. If so, then touche :-) But back to the point, it takes a few weeks to adjust, but personally I and most other owners will attest that once adjusted, those gauges are actually better.

Secondly, the gauges are different from a US spec to a JDM spec. I'm not as sure about the xA, but with the xB the guages are not completely center. Even in the Echo, it's a completely different dash design, and not a simple cut and paste. The only thing that changes, is that all the wires are roughly in the same area, but that doesn't decrease production costs a whole lot. It's the cost of a whole new mold for the dash assembly which is expensive. . .

BUT YES, they are weird looking.

 

on Smarts. . . the Scion was a tough enough sale for me, but the savings sold me. A Smart? Sorry, that's too small for my taste. I don't know about you guys, but I couldn't live with that. The Scion feels pretty solid and has a high crash worthiness. Now even if the Smart got 4 stars, I would still be very paranoid around trucks, suburban assault vehicles, and the like. . . and 0-60 in 8.8 is acceptable by my standards. . . barely. 12 seconds in the Smart?

 

The fact that they cannot be hidden by the steering wheel, though, is perhaps the most compelling arguement for them.

 

12 seconds is for the BRABUS...i believe the standard time is somewhere round 16! wow thats unberably slow to me considering how mad my ls400 makes me ...

 

You can't expect the Smart to be a dragster...it was designed first and foremost to save gas. Less gas, all other things equal (which it rarely is ) means less power.

 

where's a good forum for echo and corolla

i found a Canadian echo forum but it's in french.

 

Speaking of the Canadian Echo, it has a hatchback form that makes the bubbly look a much more legitimate outfit than the sedan.
Too bad it isn't sold here, though from what I've heard importing cars from Canada isn't hard or expensive at all either. Probably worth a trip to Vancouver to drive it back or something.

 

I just looked @ pics of the scion tc(not sure why I didnt before lol) and must say it looks pretty good especially for a car in that price range. http://scion.com/drive/gallery/drive_tc_gallery.html

 

Now after re-evaluating this topic, since I wrecked the GS and drive the ES, I literally have saved probably a couple grand in gas.
I was filling my GS tank up AT LEAST once a week. I drove it hard and mixed with a V-8 means 15 mpg take it or leave it.
With the ES, I notice I do drive less, I don't speed, I cruise (saving gas) and with the V-6 and manual I am anywhere from 25-30mpg on a 12 year old car.
As I was going over my next car, I can't help but think the ES will remain driven during the week and the _____ on weekends as gas is not going down to udner $1.00 a gallon again.

And with the SCIONs, an interesting car brand with a great following, that is also attractive in my eyes.

BTW, Toyota incread Prius prices another $500. To meet high demand the price is up over $800 this year.

 

Talgrl, you just missed out on this bad boy.. a '98 Spectra Blue Mica GS300, 116k mechanically sound miles(or the equivalent of 58k miles if compared to a non-Lexus vehicle ).. $8995 ($9250 OTD!!!!!!!!!!!!), sold this morning

http://autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?ca...r=&cardist=968

ps shipping to ca ~$700

 

Maybe if she weren't already driving one?

 

I gotcha now! Hahaha my bad.