Sir, may I show you the new Mini Cooper Clubman?
Posted on 06/23/2008 12:50:55 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
As a regular combatant in the daily grand prix on our local roadways, I have received many one-fingered salutes from my fellow motorists, all well-deserved.
But from my first joyride in the new Smart car I brought home a month ago, the only salutes being flipped in my direction are a steady stream of thumbs-ups.
It's possible that some people are waving goodbye.
Enthusiasm for the new microcar from Mercedes appears to be exceeded only by the expectation that anybody crazy enough to drive one will soon be pulverized by a passing Peterbilt.
The question about the car I get most often, in fact, is whether it's even allowed on the highway. People seem to think it might be better suited to puttering around a golf course.
Like a lot of early adopters - there are about 10,000 Smart cars on the road nationwide, and San Jose and San Francisco are among the top 10 markets - I hated the car at first.
There had been some whiny reviews in automotive magazines suggesting the car accelerates like a wind-up toy, and like so many others who have grown accustomed to driving preposterously over-powered, high-performance cars, I wanted my mojo back.
But that's sort of the point, isn't it? Who needs a car that can go from 0 to 60 in six seconds?
Power and fuel efficiency are a zero-sum equation: You can't have more of one without less of the other.
Yet nobody, including me, is eager to concede our God-given right to treat every city street like a drag strip.
I liked the idea of owning a fuel-efficient Smart car, but did it really have to take 13 seconds to get up to freeway speed?
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Been driving Caddy ‘devilles for over 15 years. Average 22-26 mpg. Northstar blows the doors off most other stuff on the road in acceleration. It’s my little car, keep the suburban (if you care about the mileage you shouldn’t have it) around for old times sake.
You can ditch a motorcycle if you get in a pinch.... In that thing... you'd be a sitting duck.
Everyone oughta have one! Funny stuff.
Top Gear did a review of the P50 a couple of years ago - funny, funny stuff. You can see their review on YouTube.
If the Rottie will even get in.
Our Akita hates the Focus, even though he does have the back seat all to himself. Whenevr we are going somewhere, he runs to the Explorer and jumps around, motioning with his head to be let in. Sometimes, he opts for his pen instead of riding in the Focus. And when he does get tired of being left home, he deigns to enter, sulks and whines and generally lets us know he doesn’t approve.
He looks very cool in the shotgun seat of the van and he knows it.
Sir, may I show you the new Mini Cooper Clubman?
If you got the four wheel version with more ground clearance you wouldn’t have to pick them out of the grill of your Titan. I do have an occassional one stuck in the undercarraige of my Pro-4X but the screams stop after a mile or two.
20 years ago that was true... not any more. Safety cage construction, crumple zones, air bags all work together to make that delta V survivable. The problem with a smart car and other minicars is while the safety cage is very strong, there isn’t much crumple zone to spread out the deceleration.
Some interesting tests were done taking 2 vehicles of the same model, one new and one ten years old and smashing them head on at around 30-35mph. The results were than the person in the new vehicle would probably survive and maybe walk away. The person in the 10 y/o vehicle would be killed or at best never walk again.
Sure technology has improved, but not enough to fight the laws of inertia in a lightweight car. And there's what, maybe 24 inches of crumple zone there? Like I said, the legs are crushed and the occupants bleed out on the spot. And frankly I doubt they care if they die from a massive head/chest trauma or from a bleed - they're just as dead in the end.
Even the NIHS guy interviewed at the link admits that the small cars don't measure up. He doesn't like saying it, but . . . .
What is so smart about it? I have a 15 year-old Honda Civic that gets 38 mpg in the city and 40+ on the highway. And I have 4 doors and can carry 4 adults comfortably.
ping
That is so funny.
And I got 90 once in my Nissan PU with a near hurricane behind me.
That's why they have standardized testing protocols -- the one-off outliers don't mean anything.
Same result both ways. Tijeras to Flagstaff and back.
“Careful there, you’re insulting a classic.”
Can’t be too clasic, Tonka didnt exist when I was a kid!
Ursa loves the back of the Odyssey, she stretches out on the back seat and enjoys the individual A/C vents back there. She easily falls asleep, and despite a little drool on the back seat, the car cleans up easy.
Full grown, she was too big for the Volvo (with the babyseat in the back as well), and the Explorer we had was a joke.
And two crates fit nicely in the rear cargo area, when we go to hunt tests or training days. Each has her cooling mat and a big fan that runs off the car battery, and stakeouts for really hot days so they can lie on the cool grass.
Friends of mine with THREE Labs (the big male is bigger than my two girls put together) have an F-150 with a topper on the back, three crates sideways with a path up the side. But they also have an Odyssey, they can put two of the slant-front crates in the back and still have room for a platform with pull-out drawers for bumpers, collars, ropes and all the other stuff that retriever people tend to accumulate.
“My last 3 Civics all got over 40 MPG. Comfy enough for my 6’4 size too.”
That’s good MPG. How old is your current Civic? As someone else has noticed, these small cars have been going backwards in fuel economy as they’ve gotten larger and heavier, and been equipped with larger engines.
I’m surprised you find it comfy, though - I’m 6’3” and find any of these smaller cars to be marginal in comfort - there’s (just) enough leg room, typically, but I find my knees constantly hitting things. My last car was a ‘97 Sentra, which was comparable to a Civic of the same era in terms of space. It was OK - I put over 6 years and 170,000 miles on it, but the Accord is much more to my liking.
The Odyssey is great, I have the all-weather mats and the third row seating either up or down, and she's happy. And I can see out the back. She's down low, so I can see out the back, and comfy.
I've had them zoom past me on the German Autobahns, when I was already driving a bit faster than I am accustomed/allowed to in the U.S.
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