edmunds.com
Review: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=119682
Some owners comments:
My wife purchased a 2006 smart fortwo and we took it on vacation for a week from Edmonton AB to Penticton B.C. we put close to 2000 miles in the week and the fuel cost was $99 Cdn for Diesel. The car absolutely loved running at 120 kph (approx. 75 mph)without a problem averaging almost 70 miles to the imperial gallon. The car was comfortable and a great conversation piece wherever we stopped. It is a very surprising automobile and it it looks a lot better than most Japanese Imports!!
fwiw…
Haven’t seen the gutter-mount area on that specific car, but we outfitted my granddad’s original VW beetle for an 18’ cedar-canvas barge back in the 60s… Sure, over 60 you’re gonna maybe have a little shifting/drifting cause of yaw?..etc, but just get some wide enough straps so you can tie anything on tight… You shouldn’t have problems.
$.01
Steve
Cars get a lot smaller than the aveo…
My vw Polo -00 (one size smaller than the vw rabbit) is 7 inches shorter than a chevy aveo. At 75bhp, the vw Polo works fine for hauling two sea-kayaks at +65 mph (speed limit).
As seen from the picture below, even the vw Lupo (7 inches shorter than my vw polo) works ok when strapped to a NDK triton.
http://www.kajak.nu/prylar/prylpics/transp_k2lupo1.jpg
The original Smartcar is about 3 feet shorter than the vw lupo in the picture. I would have my doubts about strapping it to a canoe. I guess it would work ok, but I wouldn’t want to paddle it…
more on smart
The fortwo is coming here. The epa rating is nowhere near 70 mpg and cars usually don’t meet the epa rating in real-world driving.
http://www.automobilemag.com/reviews/hatchbacks/0704_2008_smart_fortwo/
Of course, if Roger Penske is behind it that is a good sign…