When Prius met smart

I can fit 4 people also. For the same money I can buy 2 cars. :lol:

Just joking. The cup holder is an option on smart and there is only 1. Europeans aren't big into cup holders in a car designed for the city.

There are 3 model levels on smart - pure (base), pulse (sport) and passion (luxury). Then there is a coupe (glass hard top except on pure) and cabrio (rag top). Total price range is $16,500 Cdn + $995 delivery for a base pure coupe to about $24,000 Cdn (roughly $19,000 US) + delivery for a passion cabrio with leather interior and pretty well all other options. Power steering is available but almost noone orders it. The car is so light the steering even at rest is easy to turn. I only know of one person ordering power steering and she has physical problems that demanded it.

I have a pulse cabrio. The green colour of mine is only available on the pulse. I also have the green on black interior. It is the most wild colour scheme available and quite popular. If you are going to have an outragous car, why not the most outragous colour scheme?

Vehicle Stability Control is standard on smart, all of the safety features are standard. The smart radio is OK but I would never hold it up as a great car radio. The only nice point is there is a cable available that you can plug into the CD changer port and end up with a line in for an MP3 player. Like Prius, smart is aimed at the technosavy and MP3s are popular in our community.

Another difference is Prius has a spare tire, smart has none. smart comes with a liquid you insert and a power inflator. Then you drive to the dealer, the soak the tire to remove the sealer and fix the flat. I am 5'9" tall and do what a gentleman from europe suggested who had owned a smart for years (they have been out since 1998). The front wheels are different than the rear, the rear is wider. You can run a front in the rear but not the reverse. I took my front snow tire/wheel, made a cover and put it behind the drivers seat. At 5'9" the seating position is what I would normally run anyway. The trunk cover still fits and I bought a jack and lug wrench. If I was around town always I would just use the road side assistance that will repair the tire for you. But I drive to the US and I wanted a spare. I made a cover out of ultrasuede fabric that matches the interior nicely. Most people don't even notice the spare there, it just blends in.

Another uniqueness, the battery (we have only 1 ) is under the passenger foot rest floor as is the tire fixing kit) and the engine is under the back floor between the back wheels. This makes only the most basic work possible on the engine without removing it. It takes 20 minutes, 4 bolts and 2 harness connections to drop the whole drive train.

You have to suck out the oil as there is no drain plug. This is common in europe as it is less polluting. The car uses high end 0w40 synthetic oil only (Mobile 1 recommended). The oil filter is the smallest I have ever seen. It is a cartridge and is 2" in diameter and 2" high.

Here is a pix of the interior. The convertible top is only open to position 1 in the top pix. In my avitar it is open to the full position 3 with the top rails removed (they store in the tail gate).