Indeed. As I said above, I managed to fit my 300 lb, six foot frame in there and had far more legroom length and side-to-side footroom than in the vast majority of American and Japanese cars I’ve been in.
I get the impression that people just don’t want to believe that it’s both more roomy and safer than an SUV. I’ve not been able to find any 70mph crash tests of any other car for comparison.
One other thing I love about the ForTwo - plastic panels! You can slam a car door open right into the door of a ForTwo and it won’t dent. No scratching either, the color is solid all the way through. There’s plenty of steel in the car, used to make the cage protecting the driver, just none wasted where it’s not needed.
I’m disappointed that the price has gone up so much. I fear it’s going to be sold in the US like the Mini Cooper. In the UK, the Mini is cheap, reliable transportation. But in the US it’s a fetish object for the wealthy.
I’ll have to find the cite, but statistically smaller cars are safer precisely because the drivers feel less safe! If you’re in some monstrous SUV, five feet above the ground and six feet from the front bumper, you’ll have less awareness of the cars around you and be more likely to do stupid things while driving and react more slowly. That is exacerbated by the mass of the vehicle, so that when you do react, it takes longer for anything to happen. But in a ForTwo, you’re close to the ground, close to the front and - in spite of it being very good in a crash - you don’t feel as disconnected from driving.
There’s footage somewhere online of someone repeatedly smashing into one with big heavy vehicles - I think it might have been from the UK television show Top Gear. The thing was pretty near indestructible due to its rigid tubular frame. They did concede, however, than the occupant would not have survived this treatment, because there was nothing to crumple and absorb the shock.
They may be (relatively) less expensive in the UK, but they are still seen as upmarket and are not cheap. The basic Mini One goes for 12,000 or so, compared to maybe 8,500 for a similarly specced but less trendy supermini (that’s what we call that size of car) such as a Vauxhall Corsa.
My mistake. I was annoyed by the constant assault of expensive print ads in various upmarket magazine - Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Wired - with every expensive printing trick in the book. Metallic inks, die-cuts, foils as if someone had told the ad agency “Cost is no object! Go win yourself a lot of awards! We’ll just increase the price of the car to cover it!” I don’t want the Smart Car to be like that.
I found this thread from 2004: I bought a Smart car!. The CDI (diesel) version then on sale in Canada got 3.5L/100 km (67.5 miles per US gallon). Incidentally, an article I read today mentioned that Minis are going for between 20k and 40k, so they’re still pricey.
Edit: in the thread, I mention that a 22-litre fillup of diesel costs around twenty bucks. I wonder what it is today…?
The actual frame of the Smart is comparable to the frame inside F1 racecars, and the wheels are positioned in such a way that, in a collision, the car is likely to inflict more damage to the other car. I dunno about trucks and such though, but then I wouldn’t like to face any of those in a small or midsize car.
BTW, there is a Smart for 4 now, for those who want space for groceries or children.
I wish they had crash test dummies in the car in that crash video. The drivers compartment does look fairly intact but you don’t know what would happen to a person. I see it does have a drivers side airbag. Couldn’t tell if it had a passenger one too.
I’ve owned a Smart for 6 years now and can address some of the questions/observations in this thread. Yes, there is a passenger-side airbag. My model (2001) got a 3 out of 5 star NCAP safety rating, the new one gets 4/5. What causes mine to get 3 is the extra forces on the occupants due to minimal crumple zones. Anecdotally, I met a woman who had a bad crash in one. She hit a deer, went off the road and rolled over several times down an embankment. She walked away but suffered cracked ribs from the seat/shoulder belt. The cop who attended the scene reckoned that in any other small car it woud have been a fatality.
About the plastic panels - if you don’t like the colour of your car you can swap out the entire set of panels in about an hour, less with a helper. At least one of the Smart UK message boards has a forum where members arrange to meet up and swap panels.
They’re a bit like a Tardis on the inside. I’m 6’5" and have plenty of head and leg room.
I’m an American ex-pax and am used to seeing and driving big cars when I was there. What others have said about the differences in average car sizes is right. From my office window I can see around 40 cars in our car park. There are 2 SUVs, a Land Rover Discovery and a BMW X5. The biggest regular car I can see is an Audi A4. Then it goes down to VW Golf / Ford Focus sizes, and a few sports cars such as an Audi TT, Toyota MR2, and Mazda MX5 (Miata).
They certainly aren’t very intimidating. I would love to see one in a police chase running away from THIS!!
Is that what this is?? I saw this thing in Nurnburg last year and I’ve wondered what the hell it was ever since. I want to buy one but didn’t know where to look or what to ask for.
