The time has come and the smart car is here. It looks like they will be selling smart fortwo in base version for under 12k. Thats amazing. I want one. http://smartusa.com/
Yeah, they are tiny. But i bet they are fun to drive. Only 1600lbs. And they have a 600cc turbo engine. I bet you can mod it. I know brabus makes crazy fast smart cars. I mean this car is perfect for city driving and going grocery shopping. As a second car this would be prefect, especially the convertible one.
i bet there will be people in US that will but a gsxr motor in them like this one http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Vyb-n-W0RQ
check this out tsunami turbo kits with an exhaust and tuning for $1500. Gives it 100hp http://www.smartsrus.com/smart_car_tuning.htm
When I was back in my old town of Bozeman, MT in feb they had a smart dealership there. Really small, only had 9 of them on the tiny lot that used to be a gas station. Cheapest one was $25k. :ugh:
I might be one of the few people on this board with smart driving experience. I've driven a for four and a for two, both for weeks at a time. They are not fun to drive. The suspension geometry is too scary to do anything past 70mph. They dont turn well in cities either because the wheelbase is too short ant the rear suspension wants to lift a wheel every time you turn it hard. Brabus makes crazy expensive smart cars that get their doors blown off by average level eurosports cars. I guess its the cheapest way to legitmately write "Brabus" on something you own. The smart coupe brabus (the highest level fastest one available is a whopping 110 hp. Vipers are "crazy fast." corvette z06's are "crazy fast." Ferraris are "crazy fast." A brabus smart is a decoration package, some wheels and an eensy bit of power that doesnt change much mechanically under the hood. so long as you don't actually buy any groceries. Its a cutemobile. you buy it so people can say "oh how cute" and "I love the color combination you got" or "aww honey don't you remember these from our european vacation" You buy it so you and your life partner can wear matching shades and tool around and sanctimoniously give impromptu speeches on gas conservation to people in SUVs. It is a car that cannot work in the american market becuase we dont have what europe has, which is a large network of old city states that have really narrow roads and people who live centralized lives around them and do not have much need for interstate or highway travel and use a highly developed rail network for such travel.
^zak you are a genius. This is exactly what I imagined myself saying, but figured I couldnt make it sound convincing. We also dont have the roadway conditions that europe has. Our roads are bumpy-simply put. You dont want to know what happens to a smart car when it hits a pothole like the foot deep/foot wide ones we have on 394 in places.
there is nothing less fun than going on the Autostrada in Italy and driving to the limits of the cars steering and brakes, then looking down at the speedometer that says 120 kph =[ (Smart for four, the bigger "faster" one) And getting hauled on by lambos, ferraris, and all manner of large teutonic autobahn burners.
There is a Smart dealership in Tacoma, I saw a few in Seattle when I was driving around in March. I agree with Zak, there isn't really a use for them here unless you're only doing city driving and you're not out on the interstate.
Thats why i think it would be a nice second car. It defenetly has a trunk. The 2008 smart fortwo is a bit bigger than the previous one. The wheels on it si bigger too. I personally really what to test drive one. I you live in saint paul or minneapolis it would be really cool to drive around the city. This is just my opinion, and we'll see what happens when they get them here.
A bit bigger with these cars still isn't much. I parked next to one in Seattle with an Impreza and the whole car fits inside the wheelbase.
I think these are just funny to look at really. I've seen 2 now, one just the other night out in Eden Prarie. I'm sorry, but Minneapolis or St Paul aren't the booming metropolis' with difficult streets to navigate that would really warrant this small of a car. If I bought one it would be merely for the novelty of it...I can't think of any other reason. I'd rather have an old mini if I were to go anywhere near this small.
My brother used to live in Savanna, GA. That town has some very narrow streets built for horse-drawn wagons. Might come in handy there. I laugh at the sticker price though>>>:laugh: Maybe for like $5k to $8k...even that sounds like too much!:biggrin: /buyamotorcycle/
I would actually, but i need a bigger and faster car. If i had a family and was going to get a second car. That would be it.
Jason, I'll be sending you the bill for two new nostrils and a computer monitor cleaning. On a related note, Coke hurts like hell in the ol nasal passages.
Well, yes. One car could be a wrx wagon or legacy outback and the other can be smart. And by the way the new fortwo goes up to 90mph.
I'm not really following your train of thought. If I'm going to have a second car in my garage that only seats two, it won't be a wildly impractical 2 seat microcar with no room and no power. I'd rather have a wildly impractical 2 seat sports car with a large displacement V8 and enough trunkspace to actually fit groceries or other items. A C5 Corvette Z06 would be perfect, and you can get a used one for about the same price as you can a new Smart, since they're both in the 25k-30k range.
Seriously though, owning a Smart car here in mpls would be retarded considering that the vast majority of commuting here is done on freeways. Add in the fact that I'd be scared ****less of getting killed in the thing......it's scary enough rolling around in my Miata. Those things belong in places like Rome or the east coast metropolis.
If you took time to read the smartusa.com you would see that the most expensive smart is going to be 17k+ tax. number one i dont like corvettes or most of the other "large displacement v8" cars. I would rather get a miata mazdaspeed than a corvette. And again Smart has enough space for quite a lot of groceries
Thats why car manufacturers should make less of the gigantic SUVs and more fuel efficient crossovers and station wagons. You can hate me but, i am very pro electric cars and more efficient cars.
I didn't bother reading the site because I've already walked one of their dealerships. Thanks to either getting cars that were very optioned out or given the "Market Adjustment", they were all 20k plus. And I'd be willing to wager that a Corvette will have about the same cargo space as a Smart with two people in it. I just don't see the point of them in the American market. And what kind of fuel economy do they get at 70-75mph? I bet you have to wind the crap out of that motor to keep cruising at that speed.
I bet you have not seen the 2008 version, which is different from the older version. te 2008 is bigger and has bigger motor. It will go easily 90mph on a high way and get 50+mpg. And yes it will start at 12k (the base version).
I'm sure they'll start at 12k, but in reality they will likely have several options added on, and dealers will mark them up because they can. For the money, there are several other cars out there that will get extremely good mileage and be far more useful and drivable in North America. And I'll bet that it won't be doing 90+ and getting 50+ mpg either. You do realize that the usual testing MPH is in the 55 to 60MPH range, right?
And now you are an armchair engineer. It will go easily 90mph on the freeway?! If you look at their site, 90mph is the top speed. Therefore, it isn't an 'easily' traveled 90mph. And 50mpg+ at the maximum speed of the car isn't possible. And last I checked, their site says 40mpg average. Do you even know how to read? I don't think you really are in the position to tell people to go read something when you yourself need to take some time and read the smartusa.com site. So far you are batting 0 for 2 on the car's stats. Also, the maximum cargo space is 12 cubic feet. If you break that down, that's a box that is 24"x24"x36" and that is if you stack stuff up to the roofline...8 cubic feet if you aren't stacking. 8 cubic feet is a box that is 2x2x2. A 2 foot cube. That is probably 4 paper grocery bags.
has anyone thought that it might NOT come here, after todays news? "smart remains a vital member of the Mercedes Car Group, a Daimler Chrysler Company."
FWIW, a C5 Z06 has 13.3 cu feet of cargo space and will cruise at 90mph all day long and probably return in the mid 20's for mileage. The C6 takes a small hit, down to 11 cu ft but adds another 100 hp and 1.3l of displacement.
