[Russ_Boston]

Originally Posted by Rag ******

It's not a good deal if your trying for over all cost savings based on MPG. Other cars like the small Kia or Yaris are better. You will never recoupe the savings in MPG vs the up front cost of the Smart Car.

Huh?

According to Edmunds.com the cheapest Yaris is $12,605 and gets combined 32mpg. The cheapest smart is $11,990 and gets combined 36mpg. What is there to recoup? Of course there are more expensive models in each brand but I'm comparing cheapest of each.

[Pturner]

My sister-in-law drives one in Atlanta, where traffic is legendary. It scares me, but she does. She loves that little car!

[TrudyM]

Originally Posted by Pturner

My sister-in-law drives one in Atlanta, where traffic is legendary. It scares me, but she does. She loves that little car!

The 285 or the 75 in a smart car OMG. When we lived there was the only time I wished I drove a big heavy car. Bumper to Bumper at 70 in the slow lane. It nearly gave me a heart attack every time I drove. Driving from CT into NYC was a breeze compared to driving from Marietta into Atlanta.

[Rag Bagger]

Originally Posted by Russ_Boston

Huh?

According to Edmunds.com the cheapest Yaris is $12,605 and gets combined 32mpg. The cheapest smart is $11,990 and gets combined 36mpg. What is there to recoup? Of course there are more expensive models in each brand but I'm comparing cheapest of each.

OMG I stand corrected. I thought the cheapest smart car was around $24,000.00.

[Russ_Boston]

Originally Posted by Rag ******

OMG I stand corrected. I thought the cheapest smart car was around $24,000.00.

Maybe you were thinking about Minis?

[Rag Bagger]

No, no confusion between a Cooper and a Smart. I really like the Mini Cooper for a lot of reasons. Fast, stable, great ralley car and a lot more room than a Smart but that's not saying a whole lot.

I have never driven a Smart so maybe I am totally full of it but they just seem way to short and unstable not to mention so little room. For as small as the Smart is I would have thought it would get upwards of 40 MPG easily. As mentioned earlier there is a diesel version available in Europe that gets higher mileage but In Europe there are a lot of small diesels that get 40 plus MPG.

My previous vehicle was an F-250 Super duty with the 7.3 liter diesel engine. We used it to tow our trailer. When empty, not towing that big heavy truck would get 20 MPG with major reserve power. I hated giving it up but when we bought a house and retired from RVing the truck was just too big to drive around town and major over kill for any other transportation requierments.

Regarding the Smart price, I must have been thinking of the prices I had seen advertised a few years back when they first were introduced. It seems the price back then was near $24,000. Maybe that was for a more US acceptably equipped version.

[JohnN]

I think it's a great TV and local vehicle, especially when size is a consideration. I've talked to a couple/few people who own one and they loved it.

[memason]

Originally Posted by JohnN

I think it's a great TV and local vehicle, especially when size is a consideration. I've talked to a couple/few people who own one and they loved it.

I agree... It's great for tooling around town, parking and it's easy on the fuel budget. As far as stability, the Smart has a wheelbase of 73.5 inches. Compare that with a standard golf cart at 65.7 inches. Certainly, for a vehicle designed to drive at highway speeds, the wheelbase is rather short. In my experience, that is only an issue at highway speeds and not city driving.

In a typical Designer home garage, you could easily get 4 Smart cars. I did a little calculating and with a standard 2 car garage, you could park a Smart and golf cart on one side and still have plenty of room for your "Sunday" car.

The Smart feels much larger than it is, when you're sitting in it. I was expecting it to feel like driving a roller skate, but was really surprised at how spacious it is. For sure, very little storage space, but we take it to the store every week and have no problem getting all our groceries in it.

When I get to TV later this year, I will look very hard at getting another Smart to supplement my "Sunday" car...