Smart Car: c/d (brand name is 'Smart,' this isn't KITT or something)

https://wiki-land.wikispaces.com/file/view/0729_BIZ_SMART_CAR-1_t600.jpg

Cars that are eco-friendly (as far as cars go) bcz they are tiny. I saw my first one in squaresville here at...the Unitarian Church parking lot. Makes sense.

Cute? Silly? Smart or imbecilic?

Are they just being introduced over there? Quite familiar sight over here in Belgium, the last couple of years. (I don't think I've ever seen a tank like the one behind it in real life though)

These are all over London. They're OK if you don't want to drive anywhere quickly. The problem is the owners - 50/50 chance that they'll be smug and condescending (and then whiny and PA when you don't fawn over their ride).

i like them when they're Sims3 cars driving around Paris. otherwise dud.

Ridic to look at, but sensible for city life and cheap(ish) and easy to park in a small spot = more + than -

They've been in the U.S. a few years, but just showing up in non-metro areas. LikE El Paso, TX, (pop. 606,913) just started selling them.

i see a few around town here and they are great. i've seen some crash tests on youtube that are impressive...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz-s1sIoLhU

but i'd still be a little afraid to take one on a freeway

http://www.smartsrus.com/images/Hello%20Kitty/hello_kitty_smart_8_500.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/2662027329_c830895b9f.jpg

I'd be afraid to take one on a WINDY freeway like they have in Idaho and Utah, where while driving a Buick leSabre my car felt like it was going to blow away with the autumn leaves...

i see some of these around chicago, but not many. there's an expensive euro car dealer somewhere in the burbs that sells them, i think. mostly rich people drive them, often smugly.

Not for freeway use. Top speed might just be OK, but they're very much for city use.

The coupe and roadster were fucking AWESOME little cars:

http://image.europeancarweb.com/f/8613641/0508_s+2004_Brabus_Smart_Roadster_Coupe+Front_Passenger_Side_View0.jpg

Sadly, they don't make them any more -- seem to have been a few warranty issues that made them too expensive for the company to produce. Shame, because it's the only thing that would tempt me to take advantage of the otherwise totally fucking pointless UK £2k trade-in offer for a new car.

Cute? Silly? Smart or imbecilic?

Dangerous. Too small and frail.

this started out as the SWATCH car and you were meant to be able to replace panels with new, fashionably-coloured ones at your leisure! alas swatch dropped out of the deal so mercedes-benz just went ahead with it themselves and created a new brand.

The sporty one is really popular over here but overall they were a failure.

Dangerous. Too small and frail

Depends what you're doing with it, doesn't it? Also, I think they're tougher than they look: there was a UK TV ad campaign based on exactly that (it had one being hit by a massive wrecking ball, etc).

That said, my fear would be being rear-ended at speed: fuck's sake, you're a bawhair from the impact. Then again: are you likely to take one on a motorway? No.

They look like little shoes to me. Shockingly small and crushable looking, esp when viewed down from a bus window on the freeway. I see three or four speeding along every morning on my commute.

"Hey guys we designed a tiny tin can car specifically for places with buses and subways and taxis and bike lanes and sidewalks! drive it down the grocery aisle! fits in an elevator! retire your feet! yay, environment!"

Being able to perpendicular park is quite an attractive feature. Still, naw.

I guess if I lived somewhere not suited for a car-free (or motorcycle-only) existence, but without the need to travel on highways a lot. Other than that, no thanks.

Being able to perpendicular park is quite an attractive feature

You ever seen anyone actually do that, though? :)

Actually: up the side of our building there's a lane that's wide enough -- just -- for two normal-ish cars to drive up and park side by side. Some fucking choad with a Smart occasionally parks slap-bang-sod in the middle of it, which seems especially cunty given that it's such a tiny car. I'm not sure if he's trying to prove a point or if he's just a dick.

i thought perpendicular parking was illegal most places

isn't the fuel economy unimpressive too? i forgot what i read but it was way worse than i thought

You see it occasionally in Glasgow, but not that often I suppose. I do look at them enviously when I'm looking for a space myself.

Of course, that envy is immediately abandoned when I see people actually driving about in them.

(xxxpost) you could do the old (first done with a Mini) trick of getting a group of people to move it onto a nearby roof or something.

i thought perpendicular parking was illegal most places

I don't think the UK has any specific laws: it'd be a standard-issue "causing an obstruction" decision, I guess. When the Smart was launched, this was one of the big selling points: because it's about as long as a large-ish car is wide, you could perpendicular-park in tiny on-street spaces. Unlike Scotstvo, though, I've never seen it done for real.

oh, i think in the US it is. i've never seen one parked that way anyway.

I actually own one. OK, it's the ForFour which, as grimly notes above, is not in production any more and I am neither smug nor condescending.

I love it. It's fast (easily does the ton on the motorway) and picks up fantastically well in the city (0-60 times fairly respectable) while still delivering really good fuel economy (averaging 43mpg or so even when driving fast). Add to that the "lounge" interior (Top Gear once proved it was comfortable enough to live in by... errm... living in one for 24 hours) and a boot bit enough to fit a fridge in when you fold the back seats down into the rear footwell and there's nothing not to like.

Aye, but the ForFour was basically a Mitsubishi Colt, wasn't it? (And, as an -- old-skool, admittedly -- Colt driver, I'm gonna approve.) I mean, it's basically a small, economical and pretty fucking decent hatchback, whereas the "classic" Smart is ... an oddity.

Come on in, random-Googling Smart owners, we don't bite. (We just bark a lot, like dicks.)

Yeah, a Colt restyled by Mercedes for half the price of an A Class. Result.

Saw one of these get a ticket for perpendicular parking in Burbank. Seemed unfair because it wasn't sticking out any farther than the truck parallel-parked next to it.

this started out as the SWATCH car and you were meant to be able to replace panels with new, fashionably-coloured ones at your leisure! alas swatch dropped out of the deal so mercedes-benz just went ahead with it themselves and created a new brand.

I can't tell if this is a jokE!

True

Holy shit!

Yes

Dear god!

Waht?

Fucking A!

My sister dreamed that she bought one of those cars and stored it in the house at night (parked on the living room sofa) so it wouldn't get stolen

LOL!

Right now, we just don't need a car, but if I moved to a part of the city that was less public transportation accessible and didn't have an iGo or Zip Car nearby, I would totally drive one of these little things.