marshall,


Thanks for the review and posting the pics...for what it is, it is a nice looking thing and that gas mileage even at premium is VERY good. Companies doing a lot of in city, small item deliveries will snap them up with that mileage esp with oil now topping 100.00.

 

Sure...anytime.

The literature that comes with the American-market car simply refers to a "glass" roof. It does not differentiate between real glass and plexiglas, polycarbonate, fiberglass, etc..... The roof on my test model looked and felt like real glass, but, as you note, could have been some other material as well.


The roof is also not interchangeable on the Pure. It's black no matter what. The Pulse model in Europe gets wider wheels - 175 front, 195 rear.



Of course it has safety features.....it is a Mercedes-designed product. But the Koreans put a fair amount of safety gear in as well.....after all, their chief forte is value.

Smart prices here in the U.S vary with model and options, of course....loaded convertibles can run as high as 19K or so (see the web site I attached for U.S. market prices, and the Smart world web sites for prices in other countries). My particular car, a fairly loaded mid-range Passion coupe, ran a little over 16K.....about on the borderline between a Yaris/Corolla or Fit/Civic, and clearly higher than Korean subcompacts. As demand for Smarts currently outruns supply and there is a long wait, dealer makups could also be a factor, depending on the specific dealership.

 

Thanks.

Mercedes-designed vehicles are almost never a good value, price-wise. It just costs too much to build them. This car, for example, has a lot of engineering in the roll-cage frame and a number of safety features.



It's definitely not a car for careless teen-agers....or careless adults, for that matter. It is light, unstable, and wanders in crosswinds....also not a car for Interstates, IMO. It will fit in nicely in urban, dense-traffic and dense-parking conditions, though.....if you an put up with the constant, rocking-horse transmission shifts.

As far as how well the American public "embraces" it, my guess is that many of its buyers will be the same crowd that is currently buying the Prius and Civic Hybrid, but want something a little less mechanically complex. Outside of that (and the tight-urban-parking crowd), I see little appeal for it.

 

Yes.....SMALL item deliveries is correct. These are not FedEx or UPS delivery trucks.

As far as being "nice-looking", I guess that's a relative term. To me, it reminds me of the old bubble-car BMW Isetta of the 1950's..a car I found (and still find) hilarious.

 

Who knew, that years ago those Ringling Brothers Clowns were ahead of their time. Sorry, had to throw that in because with the right colors and convertible version that car reminds me of the clown cars.

 

I don't know, what's it's towing capacity?

I see those people with those (kid trailers) behind their bikes, I can see it maybe handling that behind it with some cargo...LOL

 

Great, thorough, review Mike, thanks!

Smart, if I recall correctly, was designed as a "boutique" car, primarily a fashion statement, secondarily as an urban transport. Mercedes is to be congratulated for some real outside-the-box thinking on this one - it is a major engineering exercise to develop a tiny, efficient car for two adults and a bit of cargo within a footprint not much larger than that of a good sized riding lawnmower.

Despite its ability to reach freeway speeds, it probably shouldn't be considered when selecting a mount for a long trip. I've read a few horror stories that seem to center on the little car's unbidden propensity to change lanes with a good stiff gust of wind on the beam. There are horses for courses - and the Smart seems to be a good choice for an urban commuter who wants to be noticed. A Fit or a Yaris doesn't have near the head-swiveling value of the Smart - this micro-car actually has some prestige value.

If you are a single-car owner, the Smart is not for you. Its niche is far too narrow to accommodate the needs of a "family car". It might work as a urban commuter, obviously its target niche, but it is as impractical as a 2-seat sports car and nowhere near as much fun.

Whether it would fit in your stable - possibly as a third car, after your comfortable, road-worthy highway cruiser and your practical van or pickup weekend hauler - is going to be an individual choice. Me? Make mine that 2-seat drop-top . . . I'll deal with impracticality in my own way!

 

You're right - the smart ( I believe there is no upper case "S") was the brainchild of the Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch - hence the interchangable body panels, to mimic the interchangable straps and faces of the wristwatches.

They initially teamed up with VW, and then Mercedes when they dropped out, building a new factory as a joint venture to produce the car in France.
Apparently "smart" stands for Swatch Mercedes ART". Swatch pulled out of the venture when Mercedes didn't deliver on the proposed hybrid engines and upped the price out of the range of Swatch's target market. There is supposed to be an electric version on the way, I think.

 

.......just like your great, through debate responses.

There's not much OUTSIDE that box, though.

Yes...I brought these points up in the review. I drove it on a cold morning with a crosswinds gusting to 30-35 MPH. Its lane-stability, under those conditions, was not exactly that of a railroad locomotive, though I was able to keep it in the lane with good concentration.

 

Next planned review: BMW 1-series.

(they may not be available in this area for another month or so).

 

such a novelty car...get it to showoff, but not daily driver.
It should have been all hybrid. (plug-in), then it would sell

 

Ugh. You'd figure they get it right. Well if you tap the roof, the sound is plastic, not glass. Yes it does look and feel like glass but tap it and it all goes away .


Yeah but you're also paying for brand (not just smart but the fact that you're buying a car that's a subsidiary of MB). Just like buying a Scion knowing it has Toyota reliability.

 

My lawnmower cost more than that.

Oh and it has 27HP.

 

All it needs is a Hayabusa engine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi_Cg...eature=related

 

Hey guys- what a coincidence. I just sat in one of these this morning when the gf's benz went in for service and boy oh boy is it small.

SERIOUSLY.

It's a fun car for small people but this is like "mini cooper" small and I'm not so sure I trust the engineers on their strategy for safety. I picked up a catalog and they openly claim that in a side impact the opposing vehicle will "almost always" hit the wheels of the fortwo and the wheels are positioned in such a way that they will take a majority of the force in a crash.

Um yeah.

And what did I see when I looked at the wheels?? IT'S HELD ON WITH THREE BOLTS!!!

lol.

Not for me, but I bet these will be popular for the teenagers out there. Also, when I sat in it, I DID feel like I was sitting pretty high and I immediately thought a rollover was possible.

Another issue I noticed was the convertible version has a pane of glass that juts up on the back half of the door and if you're not careful you can faceplant the glass when getting out and closing the door at the same time.