Daimler's Smart car lives up to its name (Business 2.0/CNNMoney.com)

[eppur_se_muova]

It's 8 feet long, gets 60 mpg and is surprisingly roomy and sufficiently nimble.

By Andrew Tilin, Business 2.0 Magazine
July 29 2006: 9:21 AM EDT

Titans of the auto industry seldom go out of their way to use the word "small." They don't talk much about small cargo areas or small engines, and particularly when it comes to these SUV-loving shores, they'd rather not think about small cars and the small profits that go with them.

But "small" has been an unavoidable term lately at DaimlerChrysler (Charts). In finding my way into one of the company's ingenious Smart cars, which may or may not soon appear in a showroom near you, I discovered exactly why.

The Smart, for those of you who haven't been to Europe in the past eight years, is a Mercedes sub-brand of "micro-class" cars that's currently available in virtually every Western nation except the United States.

Mercedes just announced that it's finally bringing the Smart to America in 2008, but since that day is still a ways off, I had to hunt one down from someone the Mercedes brass clearly considers a small-fry: Steve Schneider, the CEO of a Santa Rosa, Calif., company called Zap.

Schneider has long believed that the U.S. market is ripe for the Smart - believed it so strongly, in fact, that he's spent years lining up a network of dealers and taking orders for cars not in his possession.


***
more: http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/27/magazines/business2/smartcar.biz2/index.htm?cnn=yes

[Warpy]

1. He's right!

Those things will sell like hotcakes in the northeast corridor, if only for the fact that you can NOSE IN to a standard parking space instead of parallel parking. They're that short. They're perfect for cities like Boston, cities that were planned by cows, sheep and drunken sailors, with narrow streets and the maximum in congestion.

They will do less well out west, where distances are huge and the road is shared with tandem trailers and often the only way to get from here to there is on an interstate.

I would have loved one of those things back east.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. I always suspected Boston was planned by drunken sailors

in pursuit of cows & sheep. The true origin of the term "animal husbandry," no doubt.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

29. It's on a smaller scale than Boston but...

I describe the part of town that I used in live in as, "Nobody moves to White Meadow Lake. They just get lost in White Meadow Lake and never find their way out again. Eventually, people just realize they've purchased a house, their kids have entered the public school system and they're going to activities at the synogue, even though they're not Jewish." I've lived there since I was 10 on and off. I STILL get lost regularly and I have a good sense of direction.

I think it was even too confusing for the town cops. I never saw a cop at all in there until a couple years ago. My friend looked at me and exclaimed, "holy shit! It's a cop car. Someone must have stolen a cop car!" We saw cops regularly after that though. I guess after years of careful study of the alleged "maps" of the town, they finally felt they were up to patrolling the area.

[eppur_se_muova]

34. That is hilarious...sounds like something Terry Pratchett would write! nt

[uppityperson]

2. I have wanted a SmartCar for many years, wish they would get to the USA

[napi21]

3. I really LIKE that little car! I bet it will be a big hit in the US too!

It's another one of those "so ungly it's cute" cars like the VW beetle was years ago. It gets good MPG, and is very easy to maneuver, drive and park!

I'll be anxious to see what it sells for here. The article says it's selling for $12,500 in Europe.

[uppityperson]

4. couple for sale, not sure if real, but here is link

http://carsalesbuyowner.com/

[CraigHinTenn]

7. yea, But look @ the price! about 3 times actual.

Halliburton must be selling these

[newyawker99]

19. Hi CraigHinTenn!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[mom cat]

5. At last! A car that even I could park!

[whistle]

6. I think my king size bed is about the same size as the SmartCar

....So it runs $12,500.00 in Europe what will it be here in the U.S. I wonder? And will it compare to the proposed Chinese imports due to hit the country for $5,000.00 per unit?

[eppur_se_muova]

8. I would feel SO safe driving a car imported from China.

:eyes:
(I assume you mean the PRC, the home of the worst industrial safety practices just about anywhere.)

[caduceus111]

28. Safety

Here's one hitting a wall at 70 mph. I'd say it would appear to be quite a safe car for it's mass, given that most accidents involve a much lesser degree of impact. I saw one driving in Seattle just today. Pretty nifty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s

[XemaSab]

38. I'm not sure that safety video is a high reccommendation

:scared:

Also, according to the group that does car tests in the US, most cars now are pretty good at withstanding frontal impact, but side and rear impacts, notsomuch.

[jpak]

9. The diesel version gets 70 mpg

not bad...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5217861/

<snip>

Up north, meanwhile, Canadian drivers will get two-seater smart cars starting in September. In fact, they'll have two models to chose from that get around 70 mpg because they're diesels, not gasoline-powered.

The models use what's called common rail diesel, a technology that's cleaner than older diesel engines. The top speed is 75 mph and prices start around $12,100 for the coupe and $15,170 for the cabriolet.

So what about heading north and bringing a diesel-powered smart back over the border? JoAnne Caza, a Mercedes-Benz spokesperson in Canada, says don't even think about it. "It is not possible since the Canadian car is not certified for sale in the USA," she says.

Heidemann, for his part, is optimistic the first smarts in the United States will be ready for purchase "in four or five weeks."

<end snip>

[eppur_se_muova]

11. 'Light rail diesel' ... how's that bode for conversion to biodiesel ? nt

[tammywammy]

15. It would be fine for biodiesel

The common rail diesel is well know, Mercedes uses them now, and VW will be converting to them for the 08 models.

Check out tdiclub.com for more info on diesel engines, particularly the TDI vs the common rail.

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Excellent! I could commute for a week on a Biggie size fries. nt

[whistle]

12. And here is the link to Smart Car of Canada

http://www.mcuniverse.com/The_Smart_Car_Comes_to_Canada.1325.0.html

[MissB]

13. I saw one driving around Portland the other day.

I would buy one just for running errands. It seems perfect for that use. On the other hand, you wouldn't catch me on a freeway in the thing.

[Dissenting_Prole]

20. I've put over 30,000 miles on mine

mostly on the freeway.



http://endofsuburbia.com/

Mercedes reports that it is the only car in Canada to pass an angle crash test at 55mph. The steel is 3 times as hard as the steel in an average car.

[tomreedtoon]

25. Okay, a couple of technical questions for the driver.

Does the thing reach interstate highway speeds (65 MPH) easily? Does it handle okay in rain, snow, heavy crosswinds? (This last is a real concern, since I've almost been blown off the road in a Toyota Corolla.) Assuming it has an automatic transmission, how smooth is the acceleration process?

I admit I love the look of the car, but I'm worried about its practicality as a general-purpose automobile.

[4dsc]

31. I saw my first ZAP on the highway

I was driving a semi truck in Ohio when a ZAP car passed me by.. I couldn't believe tha shape so I took quick notice of the ZAP on the back of the car and researched when I got to an internet commercial..

This car reminds me of the old Honda CRX. 50 mpg's on the highway and it would easily cruise 90 mph!!

[Dissenting_Prole]

37. My experience

First of all, the Smart is not a Miata. Neither is it a Cadillac STS. People need to realize this before they start making comparisons to other cars.

It does take more time to accelerate to 65 mph than other cars. However, I have never run out of lane before that happened.

I didnt invest in snow tires. If there is more than 7 inches of snow, I might have problems. However, if there is more than 7 inches of snow, I'm staying home, or taking the other vehicle to work. Rain, no problems. With wind...I find most minivans to be more of a problem. Big trucks? On the highway you can feel some pull when you are 50 feet behind them. If you feel comfortable, the solution is not to drive behind them. When you're driving on the highway, people are staring at you, and you're wondering "what's up?". Then, when you get out, you realize once again how small the car really is. But when you're in it, it feels like a normal compact car.

The transmission is semi-automatic. You shift gears, but there is no clutch. If you fail to shift, eventually the electronics will take care of that for you. There is very little range in the gears, so it does move out fast. Most of the torque is around 45 mph. I drove it through West Virginia and it loves switchbacks. I've carried all kinds of stuff in it - a dog, camping gear for two, 800 DVDs, and I've never come close to buying enough groceries to fill it.

I only wish that I'd ordered a better stereo system, but I bought mine at the Toronto Auto Show, so I didn't have much of a chance to check out all the details. I bought it to promote a documentary on oil depletion, so the details weren't that important to me at the time. I just needed the car NOW.

Overall, I'm happy with it, especially when everybody else is paying 80 bucks to fill up. It's helped me to end my love affair with cars, and make the transition to a bicycle easier - a transition we'll all have to make within my lifetime.

[tomreedtoon]

39. No, there will be no bicycles.

IF the technnological failure of society goes as far as you think - and a lot of eco-nuts are rooting for the end of technology like Bush is rooting for the Rapture - you won't have bicycles. No gas to transport them. No steel mills to make them. No rubber plants to make the tires.

You'll be Fred Flintstone, using foot power (without shoes, yet) walking your bicycle with carved stone wheels and wood sticks, while holding a club to fend off the neighboring tribes who want to steal those hard-to-make stone wheels.

Actually, it won't be that bad. There will be cars and bicycles and everything else. Except they'll be made in China, where they'll have solutions to energy that Americans were too afraid, lazy or greedy to investigate. And we'll be the backwards natives, trying to learn pigdin Chinese to communicate with our global masters.

[Dissenting_Prole]

41. I agree that there is the possibility that we'll go back that far.

However, if most of us end up on bicycles, they won't be coming from China unless they're on a sailboat. :)

[Strelnikov_]

14. And An Electric Version Is Being Tested In London

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/07/daimlerchrysler.html

The smart ev is powered by a Zebra Sodium Nickel Chloride battery. The smart ev has 30 kW output and a top speed of 70 mph with a range of up to 72 miles (116 km). Acceleration from 0-30 mph takes 6.5 seconds—a faster time than the gasoline-powered version.

[eppur_se_muova]

18. Wow, greencarcongress.com is a great site! Check out the Li-ion EV ...

http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/07/obvio_to_introd.html

Sure hope the prices come down, though.:(

[tammywammy]

16. Sweet!

I love the Smart. If they had been out last October when I purchased my VW Beetle TDI (diesel) I would have jumped on it.

[Joe Bacon]

21. What about a hybrid Smart Car?

That would REALLY be SMART!

[pfitz59]

22. Already for sale in Seattle (Kirkland)

http://www.thegreencarco.com/

They have about half a dozen 2005 models for sale.

[LifeDuringWartime]

33. expensive!

hopefully they won't actually cost that much when they're officially for sale here? those are about double the European prices.

[Lisa]

23. I've seen them all over my Canadian city

The major has one -- it's funny to see it parked in his reserved space outside city hall! I can usually count on seeing at least a couple, just when I'm walking around town each day.

Some towns now have dedicated parking spots (costing less) for these cars -- successfully lobbied for on the grounds that they take up half the space of a regular vehicle. This may also happen on board the BC coastal ferries!

[Longhorn]

24. We saw these all over Germany on our recent trip.

Every time I saw one, it made me giggle. It's such a cute car! But so practical!

[Voltaire99]

26. Can't wait until SUV drivers have to squeeze their McBellies into these.

Going to be very amusing.

[Miss Chybil]

40. I don't know why, but I find that comment a little biased, bigoted

and stereotypical. Ok. I find it's a lot biased, bigoted and stereotypical. Maybe, because I've added a few pounds since I hit menopause and it irks me to think someone could think they could devise my political leanings from my weight. I'm certainly not obese, but considering obesity is a bigger problem among the poor... I don't know. I think it was a mean thing to say - even if you were just joking.

[ikri]

27. There's a "sports" Roadster model too

That might appeal to more people, and still averages 55mpg.

[Robb]

30. Emissions?

Three-cylinder engines can have rough emissions, although I expect they've figured that out for this. Nice.
What about big families with dogs? :D That's what everyone says when I point out my five-year-old motorcycle gets 80 mpg...

[eppur_se_muova]

35. You should recommend they look into dogsleds.

:evilgrin:

[DarleenMB]

32. A friend in Canada owns one

He absolutely LOVES it. It is amazingly well made and he swears he has no qualms driving on the highways around Toronto.

It's cute. But we're looking at a Gem car for doing errands in town. We're still so far out in the sticks we need the minivan for long hauls.

[skipos]

36. Anyone know how they are in snow? I live in MI

and that is a big issue.