Picked up the Smart yesterday and as of today I have 400 miles on it. Filled up once and got the EPA mileage of 40mpg. Pretty good considering I did not baby it and the engine is still tight. I've heard reports from other owners who have several thousand miles and they are getting mid 40's to mid 50's. If you have driven a Honda Insight, this car drives, rides & handles very similar.
Driving - It actually handles pretty good with an awesome turning radius. I doubt I'll take it auto-xing anytime soon but I have seen some people that have and they handle fine - better than some of the haters have portrayed them to handle. Passing 18 wheelers I didn't find as much of a hair raising experience as I've heard. It has a Electronic Stability Control that seems to work well, though it does have issues when you take the car off roading which I won't get into. The seats sit well too, a very comfortable ride. That being said, that is at 31psi. I just bumped the tires up to 39.5psi so we'll see how much of a hit I take on ride quality. The paddle shifters are fun fun fun!!! Just like a video game! When you're bored, just pop back over to automatic. The automatic takes some getting used to, it's actually a manual with an automatic clutch - feels really weird until you get used to it. The tranny takes some beating from reviewers because they don't drive it long enough.
Speed - I cruised on the interstate and had it up 90mph at one point just to see how she'll go. The rest of the time I hung at 70mph. In this little car you don't seem to get the same run up on your booty similar to what you get in other cars. It seems most people are amazed it is going that fast and you must be pegged out at the time - they just go around no problems.
Parking - What can I say, it's friggin awesome!!! Went to Wally World yesterday and a front parking spot had one of those electric buggies taking up half the space due to the cart retrieval people not doing their job. No one could park in that spot because that was there...no one
except for
me!
Workmanship - I must say I was scared to buy a car made in France. That being said, while growing up my father used to bring home Renault demos from the dealer he worked at all the time in the early 70's and owned quite a few too. The overall quality is great, let me rephrase that, AWESOME for an almost all plastic car. Body panel fit is nice. This morning I started pulling the carpet back to look at welds, NICE JOB, they are excellent plus the paint is even thick in the out of sight areas.
Safety - Great ratings, 4 stars on par or better than many other cars out there. 4 airbags total and a "safety cell" which is essentially a factory roll bar that goes all the way around the passengers. There have been a few wrecks out there so far and from what I've seen, the cars AND trucks that hit the Smarts received more damage than the Smarts themselves. They seem to bounce right out of the way. What if you get hit by an 18 wheeler? Is that before or after you get hit by that stray meteor?
The Good - I think the sky is the limit for mileage and the whole EPA mileage for these is a load of..well you know. The SPG's for this is off the hook. What? You don't know what SPG is? That's Smiles Per Gallon
. A truly fun car to drive. If you are starved for attention than this is the car for you. You'll get more attention than Pamela Andersen walking topless through a church. This is not a car you want to pick your nose in. Most people seem to love it and it gets lots of questions - this car gets more attention than some of the other cars I drive (not listed in my garage - '30 Chevrolet Street Rod/'63 Corvette Split Window Coupe) Interior is a lot bigger than it lets on to be. I fit a full grocery cart's worth of food in it this evening.
The Bad - The standard radio just plain sucks. I was also told this would have Sirius satellite radio capability which it doesn't. Availability of parts/dealers. It's a task to even find tune up parts. I normally keep a stockpile of spare parts and not much can be found, when it can be found it isn't cheap.
You have to a lot extra time when you go someplace to answer questions. Then there's the haters, I heard a woman talking to another woman about it one was positive while the other said, "I'd kill the whole rain forest driving my Navigator".
Conclusion - I LOVE it. Now I know I could of gotten a Yaris for just slightly less money, I looked at them, test drove them etc. I also drove the Accent, a much nicer car than the Yaris IMO but it's more $$ and of course it has the Hyundai quality everyone is so scared of (not an issue, I think they do good) I also could of bought 10 nice Geo Metros like the one I used to have. One thing I love about the Smart is it is easy to change the color. If you know how to paint, it is a cinch as you don't have to worry about jamming it out. 2.5 hours to pull the panels and then you paint them the color you want.
Our
SECOND Smart will be in sometime around November through January 09 time frame - that is how happy I am with it! Remember, I am a car guy - I can understand if you aren't a "car person" you'd think it's impractical. OK, let me put on my flak vest - there, it's on...fire away.
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