Posted on 11/10/2006 5:35:49 AM PST by Red Badger
Hell on 95 that car would get crushed and no one would notice.
Yes, I noticed that when I was over there. A German friend of mine told me that it is Verbotten to mess with engines or suspensions, so color is the only way to customize your car..........I thought they were bad drivers who bought pieces (doors, fenders, etc) from junkyards as replacement parts.......
Well, not THAT cute.......
And the GTO and the Ford GT are being discontinued because they do not meet 2007 front crash test standards.
Insane
They have them all over Paris. I unknowingly blocked a private drive with my rental so I could have lunch in a restaurant. Ten minutes after being seated at an outside table, the adjoining building's 12' high doors opens and out pops one of these things...hangs a left and drives down the sidewalk, inches from the diners, until it finds a opening, then exits to the street.
Yeee... when Woody Allen becomes a team owner
Time machine?......Hobbit car?...........(I know, wrong book)......
In the US, it would also make a great "spare tire" in the back of a king cab pick-up. Just think of the Oohs and Aahs at the car show!
I think it would be the perfect vehicle to send the wife to the corner store in, instead of letting her use the tractor. There's just enough room for a case of beer in back.
Good Point! CALLING RALPH NADER...
The name 'Isetta' comes to my mind...I wonder if they're going to build another model for the grown-ups...
Cool. You can be buried together with your wife or best friend.
16k? Is that what the starting price is?...We got a Toyota yaris for 13k with 4 doors,5 speed manual,AC,power windows,power locks with remote, electric steering and braking,a stereo that sounds way more expensive then what a car of that class should sound like (including a disc player that plays cds,mp3's and wma discs as well).
And the darn thing gets 35 in the city and 40-42 miles to the gallon on the high-way! The thing is very peppy for 1 or 2 folks though it does flag a bit in acceleration with 4
in the car.
I'm very happy over all with the car's performance/goodies package!
I kind a like the idea of this "Smart Car", as I'm thinking of needing to get a car for my daughters...but not at 16k!
This one's not built for any highway driving, at least not US highways. I've seen many since 1995, and taken a ride in a 2004 one. 1995, I was in Germany for military duty and saw it for the first time. Many different colors and very easy to get replacement parts for, according to the Locals I spoke to. And at the time, the car was being built by Mercedes-Benz and Swatch, so the quality was very good, at least that I could see.
The next ones I saw were in Lisbon (again, on duty with the military) and they were all over! I also saw one that had been in an accident, it had been hit in the side and was flipped on its top in the middle of a "roundabout" both people inside were fine and were walking around it. The P/U truck (a toyota) had the worse damage, with the front end pretty much destroyed. Looked alright to me.
Last one I saw in 2004 was in Malta (on vacation with my wife) and I got to ride in a new one that belonged to a friend of ours. Very roomy, great pick up, sporty handling and lots of extras (MP3 player, satellite radio, etc)I asked him how fast it would go, and according to him, the sport model will get up to 85Mph. But the thing that caught my attention was when I asked him how good it was on gas. "In the city, I only have to fill up once every month"..apparently, the gas version gets around 65 MPG, and this is with a stick shift. I don't know about you, but I'm filling up my Sonata once every 5 days, and this is just because I travel 15 miles round trip from home to work, 5 days a week, all stop and go. If I can get a car that I'm not paying 1/3 of my weekly paycheck into gas consumption, I'll be definetly looking at it when it comes to the US. I don't give a rat's behind what anybody else thinks, this sounds like the perfect"go to work car". Or, if you are looking into a new car for the new young driver you may have in the family, think of this; do you really want them to be able to put more than 1 friend in the car with them at a time? Do you want them to really be able to go faster than 85mph while they are still gaining "road experience"? And lastly, how much do you think it will be to insure one of these?
Besides, I have a 95 Ford Windstar that the Family uses for any long trips or where we need to run at speeds over 70mph.
I think what I'm trying to say here is, don't look down your nose at this until you see it up close. You may be surprised.
What a mess!............er, Schmidt!.....
The Smart is a automobile for rich europeans who don't want to use mass transit and have the ability to find a parking space.
Now we need to shame hollyweird to use these at the oscars.
They will rent them for the day just for one block to look ecco.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s
Here is a Youtube crash test filmed by some TV show.
Actually has decent occupant survivability.
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