Knappster's Garage

[Doc in AZ]

here are a couple pix when jon left the smart at my shop because he had to "borrow" the xk to tow his trailer.... i have a BMW Isetta we're building and it makes the smart look like a luxury sedan in comparison.

[AJeepZJ]

I used to have one of these when I was litttle!!! They were so efficient, required no gas at all! I would get in the inside, and my dad would push me around in it all the time. They didn't see to have much battery life. Here's a picture of mine

[Budasac]

^ lol. At first glance I thought it was a Power Wheels. Ya know, the ones where you're head sticks out the top. Personally I think those smart cars are kinda dangerous on the highway with the vehicles we have here in the states. That Beamer you might want to keep on the sidewalk, although it does have some bad ass crash bars on the front. (or are they hooks to hang it on the wall when you're not using it?)

A guy around the corner from my parents has a new Mini and a classic Mini. The old one looks like my Go-cart from when I was 12 with a body kit on it.

[LWM]

Personally I think those smart cars are kinda dangerous on the highway with the vehicles we have here in the states.

Comments like this make me laugh, are you serious? Do you think you are safer on a motorcycle or in a vehicle built in the 70's or earlier? The smart has a four star safety rating, front and side curtin air bags and a nascar style roll cage built into it. I have seen many amazing videos of crashes and the smart does so much better than people give it credit for, I would take it over most other compacts any day of the week.

[CmmdrDan]

While that is true about the safety rating. It is still all about inertia. Your going 60 mph. That car stops you don't and since there aren't any crumple zones. I find it hard to believe you are coming out of it on top..

[Budasac]

No I definately don't feel safer on a bike. I know full well that if someone runs a light going 20mph There's a good chance I can lose a leg. (seen it happen) But at the same time I can't imagine there being much left of a Smart car that's involved in a highway speed crash with say a Ford Excursion or any one of the massive SUV's I see crowding the roads around here. Not to mention if I were to hit one in a utility truck or my E-350 SuperDuty while working. I wouldn't drive any sub-compact car around here. The other drivers are ****ing crazy.

Keep in mind my perspective. I live in one of the most populated areas of the country with arguably the most aggressive drivers on the planet.


And when you compare the Smart to motorcycles and "cars built in the 70's and earlier" it's absolutely safer. But I don't see many pre 70's cars on the road. When compared to the average car on todays roads (the one it's going to square off with in an accident) it doesn't look like it'll make it.

Even in my pre-70's Mustang I have a feelin the driver of the Smart would be eating my carb if we had a head-on. I know, I'd be embedded in the dash since there's no air bags or shoulder straps for that matter, but still better then havin' a big block engine on your lap.

[LWM]

You need to see these videos:

[Matt]

I can't see the videos on my phone.... but I sure hope one of them is the independent test done where they put a smart car against a normal sized family sedan (to compare it against the most common type of vehicle on the road that you're most likely to be in an accident with) in a 50mph head on collision and the smart car looked like a ping pong ball bouncing down the test track....

current test ratings/standards are skewed by these new light weight tiny vehicles. there has been some jive recently about adding test criteria to make the ratings more "realistic".

[Budasac]

I'll admit it does better in the crash tests then I would have thought. However, even the guy in the video said that just because a small car gets good safety ratings it still isn't going to protect as well as a larger vehicle. "You wouldn't put a feather weight in the ring with a heavy-weight" as he put it. And there are alot of heavy weights rolling around here.

Also those test were showing the smart crashing into a fixed object (less the 30mph side impact.) An accident involving two very dissproprtionately sized vehicles would be entirely different. Let's say a Yukon and a smart both going 50. When you facter in the laws of motion based on weight and size I think you'd agree. I know I'd rather be in the Yukon.

I think the real question when it comes to safety is would you put your 16 yo daughter in the car and let her go out on the interstate. If the highways by you are filled with motorcycles and Ford Pintos then the Smart would be just fine. But I know around here I would never trust a small vehicle like that.

I think it's a great car for Europe where vehicles are alot smaller. Personally I think the huge SUVs I see everywhere are a complete waste. I miss the days when the only trucks you saw on the road were work trucks. As opposed to business men driving pickups and soccor moms cruising in Suburbans while talking on the phone and drinking Starbucks. But that's the reality of roads in the US these days, and as such, I wouldn't want my kid on the road in one of those hampster cages.