Jay has been known to say: “Hybrids are for people bad at math, and Smart Cars are for people who aren’t.”
Exhibit A!
Not only are Smart Cars over-priced, cramped, uncomfortable to ride in, but they get HORRIBLE gas milage! Yeah the milage numbers are high, but the car is the size of a large go-cart, and it only takes PREMIUM! If I did an engine re-flash on my Edge so it ran optimally on premium it would get within striking distance of the Smart…with three people in the backseat and two weeks of groceries in the cargo hold! If you want a small economical car, get a Honda Fit, or a Nissan Versa, or a Toyota PanisYaris, or the Ford Fiesta. Since the car isn’t the size of a pocket-watch you don’t need all the extra weight of the crash cage…and you can fill it up with the cheap stuff!
Still if you don’t think my numbers are right, just look at this person’s back window! That, my friends, is the mark of an idiot!
In the late 80’s the Geo Metro hatchback w/ the 3 cylinder engine was getting roughly 50 MPG in regular use….FROM A CARBURETOR. True it took forever to get up to freeway speed, and you generally had to take even slight hills in second gear, but if you were looking for cheap commuting while retaining the ability to haul three other people, plus groceries, there was no competition.
There is a guy at my local hackerspace that has a number of Geo Metros that he does all sorts of things to, his daily driver gets some 40mpg and has reasonable highway handling characteristics.
Sure he’s a hobbyist and the average person isn’t going to be able to get the kind of performance out of them that he does, but there is definitely something about a 20 year old car outperforming most modern offerings.
Also the engine tear down can be done by two people with only hand tools and no engine lift thing.
if we could get the diesel powered smarts, they have decent power and get good mpg, but if we could get the good turbo diesel from europe for our small cars and trucks, we could have a ton of cars that get damn near 50mpg.
I used to live in Germany, and would rent a VW Passat with a small ~2l turbo diesel and would drive it to belgium about once a month, the onboard computer would say my average speed on the trip was ~110mph, and i would still get ~40mpg. But CA and too many people still think diesels are loud, stinky, smokey and too expensive.
Oil Burners can really be the way of the future. Great fuel economy, nice power, and there are a TON of ways to get Diesel from stuff that doesn’t come out of the ground in terrorist nations. Hell there are plants that cook lawn trimmings and downed tree branches into diesel!
And that’s not even thinking about the potential for algae farming!
Occasionally on my commute I’m passed by a Pious, er, Prius. I’m doing 70 in my VW TDI Jetta — and have gotten 30+ MPG on long drives at that speed.
There’s no effing way the Prius’ under-powered 4cyl gas-burner — which is doing ALL the work at those speeds — is getting that mileage.
Hybrids actually get reverse mileage from conventional cars. They get great mileage in the city (the more gridlocked the better) and horrible mileage on the highway where the gas engine needs to run flat-out constantly to keep the overweight (due to heavy batteries) car a5 speed.
My 2007 Prius averages ~42mpg with average speed of 70-75mph with a round-trip commute of ~70miles daily. The third generation Prius gets close to 50 under similar conditions.
my wife and I made the trek from St Loser Misery to my fathers house in the FL panhandle over Thanksgiving in our 2012 TDI Jetta. 14 hours each way, and averaged 47.8 mpg while cruising 65-70.
We bought a 1st. Gen Honda Fit back in ’07. 70,000+ miles later, still tight as a Drum, 35 mpg Highway, any I “Fit” in it very comfortably (and you know how big I am!). One of the best cars I have EVER owned.
Smart Car and Hybrid Owners should be among the first to receive Darwin Awards when Society crashes around Obama’s knees, IMHO.
What’s interesting is that you’ll often get the same mileage from the next size up car as all the ones in your list. The Focus gets 31mpg combined while the fiesta gets 33. Because we like to sit upright when driving, as the car gets smaller it often has to get taller, so the drag coefficient goes up and it’s less efficient at highway speeds.
The Smart car is great if you always have half a parking space. If it’s moving it’s not doing what it was designed to be best at. Also they chose one of the more arrogant, self-serving names for a car, like what if Toyota had just called the Prius the “ImBetterThanYou.”
A kind of greenwashed conspicuous consumption.
Yeah, one has to scale your fuel burn by distance AND payload.
So much of this is signaling. A way to show people how moral, upright, caring, and, above all, successful you are.
It’s really a throwback to the Leisure Gentry you’d see in Europe.
Drove my brother’s Smart….the clutch is HORRIBLE. I thought that it feel the same as driving a go-cart. Eh…not so much. It was like driving an underpowered truck. The turning radius sucked.
I remember my 1987 Honda Accord Hatchback. Carb. 4 cylinder. 5 speed stick. Front wheel drive. Tough as forged nails.
Could fly at 80 mph all day. As an ex-girlfriend said when she drove my car back from California when it was repo’d….Calling me from West Virginia….”Mark! Did you know that your car will drive 90+ mph all the way across Kansas? “click””
It averaged 28 mpg in the city. 35mpg on the highway. And this was after it was 12 years old.
Smart Cars with Hayabusa engines are fun to watch on Youtube
For that kind of scratch one could get any number of small classic autos with actual cool factor. A Citroen 2CV, a proper English Mini Cooper or Moke, or hell, an old VW Bug… all of these have what the “smart” is reaching for and missing badly.
If I were in the market for a car in that price range, I’d look at a Smart–despite the name and gas mileage rather than because of it. I suspect I’d be more likely to wind up in a more conventional tiny car like a Fit–but I like cars barely big enough to fit me. Almost bought a used early 70’s Honda Z600 in the mid 80’s–600 being the engine size, rounded up.
Smart cars are ok-if you live in an urban area with tiny parking spaces, don’t need to carry anything, and get the Diesel version. Being that we can’t get those over here…they’re not so smart. Unless-it’s a Smart with a Hayabusa engine swap. Then you’ve got an evil roller skate that can out run almost anything.
By looking at the rear bumper I’d say the driver would be a danger to society in anything larger. That small and the rear bumper is still dinged up.
Yeah there are a few good scuffs on that car. Appears that little lunchbox has been in some rough trade. What’s REALLY scary is those two black dots on the rear bumper are backup sensors. My new car has them and they’re FANTASTIC, there is really no excuse for doing the “Love Tap” when backing up or maneuvering in tight spaces. Hell when I back out of my narrow driveway the sensors are chiming as the sensor beam is actually WIDER than my car.
Unless the car was hit by others, there is no excuse for that.
*looks at scratches on back bumper*
Backup sensors be damned, this idiot severely restricted his already-limited rear visibility with the umpteenmillion stickers in the rear window…
“Progressives” don’t need to LOOK! The WORLD will get out of THEIR WAY!