Smart Car?

[Howard Agency]

Anyone driven one of these? Super cheap to rent in Europe, and sounds like fun.. 1600lbs/60HP, kinda like a 356 Speedster

[TimT]

Saw one on the road when I was in Toronto last fall..

Wouldnt want to be driving one on the same road the Semi's use..

[jorian]

Its a star at the gas pump.

[VaSteve]

It's fun...

If the Porsche gets you no attention, try this!

[Howard Agency]

Originally posted by TimT
Wouldnt want to be driving one on the same road the Semi's use..

Kinda like a 914.

Thanks, all. Going on a Med cruise in the fall that has 3 full day stops along the Italian coast. Haven't driven in Italy for over 20 years, but I remember it as one of the best parts of the trip.

[andrew15]

There are a lot of them here in Calgary. (Odd as we are assumed to be drowning in oil - yup, even in Alberta we are concerned about oil prices)

They're a pretty scary sight on the highway at 130 km/hr. I know they get good crash ratings, but I just can't see them winning against a semi or a moose/elk

AM

[techweenie]

Here's a "sporty version" I spotted on the 405 going 0 MPH.



Looks like they sell 'em in Mexico.

[86 911]

The new SMART cars remind me of the older Fiat 126P "maluchs" in Poland. I remember seeing a SMART driving in Warsaw circa 2001 and thought it was a neat little car. Looks a bit smaller than my grandfather's Daewoo Matiz.

[Paul K]

The Brit car show 'fifth gear' did a crash test on one- pretty impressive. I searched but couldn't find it- will look again tonight...

[Paul K]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s&search=smaRT%20CAR

[livi]

I drove one of the early models. Real boring. Mostly because of the strange semi automatic gear box. It was so slow to change gears it seemed like several seconds. As I understand later models are somewhat improved, but still kind of lazy. I would characterize it as the opposite of driving a Porsche.

[Howard Agency]

Originally posted by livi
I drove one of the early models. Real boring. Mostly because of the strange semi automatic gear box. It was so slow to change gears it seemed like several seconds. As I understand later models are somewhat improved, but still kind of lazy. I would characterize it as the opposite of driving a Porsche.

Thanks, all. Consensus is it looks like fun, but isn't. And since they have Alfa's available

[Sarah]

I was just in Spain and there were a lot of them. Looked like they took up less 1/2 a parking spot.

[}{arlequin]

Originally posted by 86 911
The new SMART cars remind me of the older Fiat 126P "maluchs" in Poland.

ha ha, those bring back memories!













back to topic:
a friend of mine has the brabus edition of the smart car and it's a hoot to drive. very torquey and quick off the line. no one beats you to the punch from a red light. you can nip and tuck anywhere with it. not sure i'd want to run it at vir, but it's a great car for the city.

[FrayAdjacent911]

The Smart Roadster looks pretty nice... turbocharged 3 cylinder rear engine car, 1741lb... could be fun.

I'm gonna see if I can find some specs...

[86 911]

Originally posted by }{arlequin


ha ha, those bring back memories!

They sure do! I remember some of my friends and I went to a discoteka (4 of us) and we all had to squeeze in one of our friend's maluchs... and I thought the inside of the P-car was small .