Wednesday, July 23, 2008

What's So Smart About A Smart Car?


Ok, I kind of get the attraction to the Smart Car, the little car no bigger than a golf cart. They're cute and good on gas mileage. Remember the Volkswagen Beatle?

But seriously, is it really that smart? From a safety factor, I think I have as much chance of surviving a collision if I'm riding a bicycle. From a gas saving and economical factor I don't think it's that great either. Golf carts get better gas mileage. And they're bigger too.

Unless you are a single driver with no passengers this car doesn't make sense to me. Take your average compact car like a Toyota which gets around 25 miles to a gallon in the city... put four people in it (yes, car pool) and you have a total of 100 miles per gallon. The Smart car seats two at the most and gets 33 miles to a gallon in the city. Thats only at the most 66 miles to a gallon.

Better yet take a train or bus to work and take another car off the road. Save the Smart Car for when you are trying to get from the 17th to the 18th hole.

By Allen Bacon, Editor, The Daily Bosco

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

But they are so cute!

Doug Vehle said...

I blame the Americans.

In France it is said it was getting some 60mpg. But those Americans just had to have a bigger engine. 'My economy car can kick YOUR economy car's butt.'

I'm not so convinced there's a real safety issue. The MINI Cooper is highly rated for protecting the occupants in a crash. Haven't heard result for the Smart car, but my larger Neon is supposed to be a death trap.

The fact is for California, carpooling mostly isn't an option. When I'm busy I don't go to the same place or even the same city everyday, there's no group I could fit in with. We get us enough small cars, we can have shorter lines of cars on the freeway and more space to park in.

So let's see how the Chinese knockoff, the Chery, will do if Malcom Bricklin ever gets it over here. (The man behing Handyman Hardware, the importation of the Subaru and Yugo, and of course, his own car, the Bricklin.)

Doug Vehle said...

I blame the Americans.

In France it is said it was getting some 60mpg. But those Americans just had to have a bigger engine. 'My economy car can kick YOUR economy car's butt.'

I'm not so convinced there's a real safety issue. The MINI Cooper is highly rated for protecting the occupants in a crash. Haven't heard result for the Smart car, but my larger Neon is supposed to be a death trap.

The fact is for California, carpooling mostly isn't an option. When I'm busy I don't go to the same place or even the same city everyday, there's no group I could fit in with. We get us enough small cars, we can have shorter lines of cars on the freeway and more space to park in.

So let's see how the Chinese knockoff, the Chery, will do if Malcom Bricklin ever gets it over here. (The man behing Handyman Hardware, the importation of the Subaru and Yugo, and of course, his own car, the Bricklin.)