The Prius: The REAL Smart Car?

My wife had a smart cabrio a few years back, it was a lot of fun and worked fine as a commuter car, but we also took it on holiday and did the shopping. Not as practical as the prius, with half the seats, but about half the price to buy.

 

Since you mentioned "eco conscious", you got me wondering... Well, besides it getting worse fuel economy than a Prius, thus emitting more CO2, I found that per Side-by-Side Comparison, it has pretty dirty emissions. It only gets 5/10 on the EPA air pollution score and 6/10 for CARB states. That sucks.

I haven't driven one either but I've read the car has a terrible transmission. This was confirmed by someone who had the misfortune of having one as a rental (and knew nothing about the car before she received it). I wouldn't own one in the US because you will almost always be the smallest and lightest car (curb weight ~1800 lbs.) when even econoboxes are pushing 2500-3000 lbs and medium sized cars are 3000-3700 lbs. now. Then, you've got the monstrosity class full-sized SUVs at 5000+ lbs.

The results at IIHS news release should be no surprise. Be sure to check out the video upper right. The 2009 Mercedes C-Class they crashed it into is EPA rated as a compact, but is ~3500 lbs.

 

It is pretty amazing how inefficient the Smart is given the size. The only way that I'd consider it is if I were living in a city with tough parking - in a place like NYC it would make a heck of a lot of sense.

 

SmartCars are great for city driving. But taking it out in the highway with big rigs is not smart. Do a Google search of SmartCar accidents and big rigs. It's not pretty.

 

The French really know how to do it.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqWPu-AKemA&feature=related]YouTube - Smart Car getting out of a tight parking space[/ame]

 

In my current job, I drive a lot and park very little, but I worked myself through college organizing the racks in grocery stores at the checkout counters. (Yes, I sold trashy weeklies, Globe, National Examiner, Dell MiniMags, etc. American Media Inc (AMI)) In that job your speed was dependent on how close to the checkout counters you could park. A Smart would be fantastic if I held that job today. I suspect pizza delivery folks hold it in the same high regard, so easy to park close to where you want to be.

 

As a former delivery person, the smart would be awesome for that. However, we usually park wherever we want and are in and out very quickly. With the Prius it was awesome because you could turn all the lights off, put it in EV mode, and creep down the sidewalk right next to a building when there was no parking.

 

I've never driven one but on paper they are a despicable vehicle. They are:

1) tiny
2) not safe
3) not particularly good on gas
4) slower than a school bus that's run out of gas

And all that for not even a low price. You can buy econoboxes for the same overall cost that are far more vehicle.

 

How many of these negative opinions are do to simply not knowing anything about the transmission. The second line has me thinking a portion of them are.
The Smart doesn't have an automatic. It's an automated manual, which precisely what it sounds like. The car engages the clutch and shifts a standard transmission for the driver. This leads to harder, jerkier shifts for a person use to an automatic, and driving it as such. I understand letting up on the accelerator at shift points smooths them out.

The Prius has plenty of quirks(braking system, coolant pumps, traction control, etc.) of its own for the driver coming from a standard car to get use to. Any of which could be grounds for not liking it. They don't have an actual impact on the car's performance and function. They just make the car different. Same with the Smart's transmission.

It is a niche vehicle. Hopefully, it's a niche more people will realize will work for them. Toyota and Chevy are both bringing a micro compact to market to compete with the fortwo, and Smart will be releasing an EV version next year.

 

I already saw a Smart EV about 11 months ago in New Hampshire I think it was, or MA, a dealership there. I don't know if it was for sale or what the deal was, though, but I got out and walked around it.

 

I heard it will be out around the same time as the Focus BEV with an 80 mile range. Also being a niche market, the EV arena should be a good fit for the Smart. It's size might make an EV an option for those who wouldn't consider an EV do to limited home charging locations.

 

I think the Smart car (TM) would actually be smart, if it were an EV.

That size, with the quickness and cleanness of an electric motor, would be great for city driving.

 

Yes, but it's a bigger car. I said city driving. You know... tight parking spaces, too many cars, not enough space...

 

I appreciate the smart car because you can obviously park two of them in a spot meant for one standard automobile. That's cool if it's on your own property, but it doesn't work if it is on a parking space with legal or local restrictions. As a personal example, I could easily park my CRV and Prius in the long drive of my weekday rental place, but the restrictions don't allow it. I have to park one car off in another parking lot.

I like the smart car and could see myself buying one, but with its poor fuel mileage and restrictions I have to deal with, not in the near future.

 

The 'Smart Car' vs. truck crash pics I've seen have too many lug nuts to be real Smarts. They actually started out as larger vehicles, such as a Ford Escape or a foreign VW.

Big rigs and Smarts have vastly different preferred habitats, so I don't expect to see many cases of them tangling.