Anyone drive a smart car?

[Evil Genius]

I've been toying with the idea of buying one of these cars, but would like the opinion of someone who owns one before I get too far in.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I don't have one, but they just don't look safe to me.

 

[Tumblwd501]

I don't have one, but they just don't look safe to me.

I know, they look like a stiff wind would blow them right off the road.

OP, sorry, I didn't really have anything of substance to add to your thread. Although, I have seen a few of these on the roads here in the Chicago area and they seem to hold their own. And they actually look stable, i.e. I haven't seen one blown off the road yet. lol

 

[Magic Mom]

My car is just average, but we think effort counts more than smarts anyway.

 

[Evil Genius]

The research I've done so far on the little guys shows that they are sturdier than they look. They are actually built better than the PT Cruiser I drive now.

I was hoping to get one in bright green, so it resembled the cars in Buzz Lightyear Spaceranger Spin.

 

[Cool-Beans]

I have a dumb car. But it is safe and kicks *** on the snow.

 

[Tantor]

We have a friend who bought one the first year they came out. It was extremely expensive. Not a lot of room for anything (groceries) She has also had problems with the headlights not working. They are expensive to fix too.

 

[MOMTOMOOTOO]

I don't have one either, doesn't seem practical for me with 3 kids. But I think they are the cutest friggn things since the AMC PACER. (yep I am old)

 

[JARNJ3]

I've seen some in our neighborhood.

I know they are supposed to be safe, but I don't seen how you could survive an encounter with an SUV (seems like every other family owns these around here).....

Good luck with your decision making..

 

[Galahad]

Apparently they are quite safe. We are considering one with our next trade. But not sure when that would happen. No kids at home. We use another car to haul the dogs around in. I know a couple of folks that own one that love them - they even do OK at highway speeds.

 

[Galahad]

It was extremely expensive.

They are like $13K to $17K now I think.

 

[luvmyboys]

I originally had the same thought as many of the PPs, which is that the Smart car looked unsafe, but I saw a program on t.v. that went into detail about the design. Apparently there's some sort of special steel "cage" built into the frame, that actually renders the cars more crash safe than the average cars we drive around. Not sure I would want to test that out, but that's what the automaker claims anyway.

 

[DancingBear]

You might have seen this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFzTzP0fPnk&feature=PlayList&p=3E48BA1B1D10DCF7&index=6

 

[LeCras]

A friend of mine leased one a few years ago, I think he had it for a year. As someone mentioned earlier, there wasn't a huge amount of space for groceries etc, but they were a couple without kids at the time and had no problem fitting what they needed in there.

Also, it may look flimsy but it got pretty decent NCAP ratings.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, absolute top speed is 82 mph.

Charlotte

 

[Tumblwd501]

Oh, and in case you're wondering, absolute top speed is 82 mph.

Charlotte

That would cut down on my speeding tickets but probably increase my stress and anxiety!

 

[Galahad]

A friend of mine leased one a few years ago, I think he had it for a year. As someone mentioned earlier, there wasn't a huge amount of space for groceries etc, but they were a couple without kids at the time and had no problem fitting what they needed in there.

Also, it may look flimsy but it got pretty decent NCAP ratings.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, absolute top speed is 82 mph.

Charlotte

A friend that has one says that in practicality the top speed is in the 90's but that he can drive it on the high way here at 70mph (the speed limit) with no problems, no shimmy, etc. It seems to me it's kind of like a motorcycle with doors.

 

[Galahad]

I don't think the fuel efficiency is much better than a Mini is it? Seems that a Mini or a Yaris are pretty close on that front and offer a bit more room for groceries.

 

[LeCras]

A friend that has one says that in practicality the top speed is in the 90's but that he can drive it on the high way here at 70mph (the speed limit) with no problems, no shimmy, etc. It seems to me it's kind of like a motorcycle with doors.

The 82 mph was from personal experience, we wanted to see how fast it would go. At 82 it had absolutely no more, the needle was trembling.

Maybe they souped up the newer ones.

Charlotte

 

[Cool-Beans]

I forgot to say that I thought it was cute. Very, very cute.

Much cuter than an SUV, though. MUCH. Way. A lot. I'd much rather ride around in that than the SUV, that's for sure. But I'd still rather be the one in the SUV during an accident.

I'm guessing they aren't all that hot on the snow...but most people don't have to deal with giant heaps of snow. We happen to live in the snowiest part of the state, so I'm always thinking about it.

 

[moburg]

I've been toying with the idea of buying one of these cars, but would like the opinion of someone who owns one before I get too far in.

My father has one, and I drove it around town once. It's small, loud and bumpy. I will never buy one, and my father will probably won't keep it for long.