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 ...
You can save a few bucks on gas AND save the planet!
</eco-guilt marketing>
You have a point, I’m in a rural area and get 33 from my Nissan Frontier.
Its very well designed. It only fits a 4-pack in the passanger seat. So beer is out but wine coolers and Zima fit perfect!
DeltaV of 70 is considered non-surviveable in any event, in any car. The front end crushing would have amputated the legs of the occupants and they would have bled out before help could arrive. The survival of the upper part of the 'cage', which received no direct impact, proves nothing at all about the potential survival of the contents.
I would be much more interested in actual crash test dummy studies of a DeltaV of, say, 40 or so. That's where there's probably a significant difference.
I sooooooo wanted a smartroadster when we lived in Germany. They were just so darn cute.
my bmw gets pretty good gas mileage. Hubby’s T-bird...not so much. Daughter’s Powerwheels is only slightly smaller than a SmartCar...and gets even better gas mileage...omg...environmental people...drive powerwheels
They still make wine coolers,,, and Zima? Yikes
No room for lover’s lane though.
There is more to surviving an impact than the crush resistance of the driver compartment.
Crush zones greatly reduce the impact imparted to the passengers.
And doesn't it require premium gas?
She’s three, right? ( I have one of those)
Well, you missed your “window of opportunity”.
Boxer thinks you should be able to kill your child up until the time you take her home.
“Boxer: I would make this statement: That this Constitution, as it currently is — some of you want to amend it to say that life begins at conception. I think when you bring your baby home, when your baby is born — and there is no such thing as partial-birth — the baby belongs to your family and has all the rights. But I am not willing to amend the Constitution to say that a fetus is a person, which I know you would.”
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/notansweringboxersantorum.html
It also underscores the main advantage of a Smart car — easy to park. Our city recently created dozens of half-size parellel-parking spaces (mostly from left-over bits at the ends of blocks of regular-sized parking spaces) — they are used by Smart cars and motorcycles. Downtown parking is hard to come by here — so these extra spaces help everyone, by freeing up full-sized spaces for larger cars.
Of course not -- they just want to guilt everybody else into it.
It's this sort of pretentiousness that makes liberals completely insufferable. If you don't need one, fine. If I do, or think I do, than its none of your damn business.
Trying to justify to the world why he is P*ssywhipped.
I have a Titan, and just spent $75.00 to fill it up last Saturday.
I filled my 69 VW (after a week of commuting) with 6 gallons of gas. AND I have NO PAYMENTS on it.
I’ve parked the Titan, and only drive it when I NEED a truck. The VW is my daily driver.
I have no idea.
They need a hot version... sorta like the Renault R5 Turbo2 was to the LeCar. :P
I live out in the country. On the way home the other day, I saw one of those little death traps between a Hummer and a Titan pick-up at a four way stop.
The look on the drivers face was priceless. Something akin to total panic and deer in the headlights.
Not for me brother, I am keeping my pick-up and SUV.
“EPA lists this thing at 36 mpg.’
If it gets that far without meeting a larger object.
A 2000 Lexus LS400. Plush luxury, 26mpg in mixed driving for me, and 0-60mph in 6.6 seconds. Cheaper than a new Smart Car, even when you factor in the difference in mileage, and you won't die in a 35mph crash.
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