I took my chances the other night and rolled out in our long term Smart. My overall reaction borrows from my favorite movie reviewers, Blaine Edwards and Antoine Marryweather, from "In Living Color": Hated it! What exactly did I hate? Well - almost everything. I'll save you from a snooze fest and discuss just two topics.
When I first got in, it took me several minutes to find the ignition slot. I looked all around the left and right side of the steering column and on the column itself. Nothing. I stared at the key to see if it was an RF (radio frequency) - type. Nope. The others in the office apparently haven't mentioned that the ignition is behind the shift console, very low in the car, a la Saab. How charming. The Smart also has an automatically shifted manual transmission. In normal driving it porpoises like crazy, like you're piloting a dinghy in the North Atlantic - I almost became motion-sick. As Bryn mentioned yesterday, it's better to shift with the paddles, but I only learned this after my drive.
Why anyone would choose this over a Civic or something else in that price range is beyond me. But if you fancy yourself as Eurotrash, or want a preview of what's coming from the People's Republic of Beijing, then by all means, have at it.
Albert Austria, Senior Vehicle Evaluation Engineer @ 5645 mi
hondacura4 says:
09:45 AM, 06/13/08
2 snaps and a twist!
dougtheeng says:
09:50 AM, 06/13/08
"But if you fancy yourself as Eurotrash, or want a preview of what’s coming from the People's Republic of Beijing, then by all means, have at it."
LOL, stabs at Europeans AND China.
crowb says:
10:18 AM, 06/13/08
Albert sort of covered blacks and gays in the post as well...sheesh (j/k)
SnakeDoctor says:
10:51 AM, 06/13/08
crowb -
Those guys...are gay?!
Regards,
Snake Doc
trackwrex says:
11:16 AM, 06/13/08
3 snaps in a "Z" formation...
crowb says:
11:46 AM, 06/13/08
HA! This place kills me.
bankerdanny says:
12:35 PM, 06/13/08
Albert,
Not sure why you didn't know to shift yourself. Don't you read the long-term blogs? Shame on you. :)
carmizvi says:
03:07 PM, 06/13/08
I'm loving the entries on the Smart (or Dumb?) and this one is rocketing up my personal charts.
The previous generation Smart was sold in Canada for a couple of years. It had the direct injection diesel engine...even less hp, if memory serves (40 vs 70 for the 1.0 litre gas engine.) But its fuel economy was at least appreciably better than the current model's to make it a viable contender.
There's no reason why the current-gen vehicle doesn't beat a hybrid by sheer virtue of its size and weight. Yet another case of a car de-evolving from one generation to the next.
North American Focus, anyone?
firstwagon says:
03:42 PM, 06/13/08
I hear the diesel is coming back next year, now if they can only put in a real manual trans.
desmolicious says:
05:21 PM, 06/13/08
How can I guy named Albert Austria complain about Eurotrash?....
SnakeDoctor says:
10:58 AM, 06/14/08
desmo -
Maybe self hate?
It's my stage name anyway. On the birth certificate, it reads: "Blaine Antoine Marryweather"
Regards,
Snake Doc
autoboy16 says:
06:40 PM, 06/14/08
For those not in the know, the two guys in the poster (Damon Wayans/left and David Alan Grier/right) PLAYED as 2 gay people during a certain skit in the show In Living Color from the early 1990's. Their trademark closing was hondaacura4's 2 snaps and a twist.
I'm seeing a lot of Smarts now! Mostly Yellow w/black tridion and Blue w/silver tridion.
I read on a website that the 2009 Smart fortwo is having a bluetec diesel option. This is great news!
-Cj
esanto says:
07:36 AM, 06/18/08
Al,
I think your shifters back at the flight club.
DR. Santos