Considering a smart car?

2 people died in this one and it was at urban speeds. It's a large car, a Holden Commodore. A 4 year old and an adult died, the child at the scene and the adult the next day. It was suspected the driver of the truck was on his mobile phone and the car was stationary. Size doesn't always matter.

 

How can you say that when they were hit by a semi truck?
Clearly if another car had hit them, there is a good chance they'd be alive. Colision results are based on the mass of both the hitter and the hittee. Anytime one is signifcantly bigger, the smaller one is going to take the brunt of the force.

 

Vehicle design, and safety items like aribags will certainly help, but yes, it's hard to get around basic physics. In some unusual circumstances - you could almost say 'hand picked - a smaller vehicle is best. On both a motorcycle and a bicycle, I have avoided a collision because I was small enough to get out of the way of the oncoming vehicle. Driving anything else in those situations, I would have been involved in a likely fatal head on collision.

 

Those two cars seem pretty much at opposite ends of the spectrum. Are you sure you wouldn't rather just fix the leak?

 

What was the Smartcar in the post above mine hit by and how many were killed?
I give you a Holden Commodore hit by a 62.5 tonne B double and 2 dead. I know this because I attended the accident. If it were a Smartcar I wonder if the laws of physics would have meant the lower mass and rear engine of the Smart would have been accelerated forward, the force of the impact from behind would have been spread over the full area of the stronger backrests of the seats, and the occupants may, I stress MAY have survived. The Commodore in my example had the heavy iron engine and automatic transmission in front which attempted to remain stationary while the rear of the car accelerated toward it.

I ran my Mini into the back of a Corolla in my youth, the heavy iron engine caused the Corolla to crumple and move forward while damage to the mini was limited by the low mass of the body structure. I replaced the distributor cap and drove the car home where I replaced the broken headlight. I had a sore neck (no head restraints), which came good after a week. I drove the car with the dent in the front for some time, the Corolla was a mess and was towed away.

Although sometimes, in a collision between similar size vehicles size might matter, when the accident is between vastly different vehicles and the outcome of the collision is a fatality, size of the passenger vehicle may not matter.

 

I would have thought, if fuel economy was the goal, a Prius would be the SMARTER choice. If a new one is too expensive a used Prius.

 

Get a used Corolla ,Matrix, or Pontiac Vibe.
The Smart get 40 mpg freeway with PREMIUM gas.
The Corolla 5 speed gets almost that with regular and is a lot safer.

 

Or even a Ford Focus. I think the US versions have a 2.0 engine which should give you good mileage. I had a Ford Mondeo 2.0 (Euro model bigger than a Focus) and I would often get 40 UK mpg (34??? US mpg).

 

Premium isn't required in a Smart. It actually isn't required in many cars that call for it. My parents' TL can still get 30mpg on the highway with regular.

 

It's also a nice, easy way for car manufacturers to deny your warranty - which they REALLY like to do. The "Black box" on your engine control unit isn't there just for the sake of making things easier for you.

http://www.slate.com/id/2087207/

 

I'd love to own one of these... however, having five kids kinda puts a damper on owning anything with just two seats .

 

Easy! You just have to make 5-6 trips!