don’t hold your breath
finally the facts
It’s hard to refute those numbers. I would add that the Yaris, even the hatchback, seats 5 whereas the Smart only seats 2.
smart car in other countries
– Last Updated: May-07-08 9:52 PM EST –
the smart car in other countries has been said to get 50 mpg, but the ones for other countries are not legal here due to emmisions standards. i am not quite sure how, but in making the smart car conform to emmisions laws it dropped the mpg to about 35. in the U.S.A. the only point to buying one is for tight parking spaces. honestly it is not worth it in my opinion. and you shouldn't worry about your van being almost at 100000 miles because that is still relatively low for cars my family buys. most cars should at minimum last 200,000 miles, and my dad's 1990 chevy silverado 1500 reached 297,000 miles and was still running when sold and he traded it in for 2,200$ cars of today and since the mid to late 1990's last alot longer than cars that were around when you were still in your prime. and it is not only chevys, most other brands are comparable in how long they last. you may have to replace the tranny but it would still probably be worth it in a car with only 100,000 miles. you should't need to worry about your car dying anytime soon. anbd if gas mileage is a concern, as others have said, the 4 door, 4 cylinder hondas and toyotas are cheaper and they get better mileage. a civic gets 40mpg highway compared to the 35 mpg of the smart car along with more room and saftey in a crash.
Other tiny cars
Just saw this on CNN, decided to share:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/autos/0805/gallery.microcars/index.html
the ford is a looker
and the fiesta name is legendary.
Yours is really no better than nothing.
At least suntan has a useful profile. It’s not unreasonable for him to ask.
Yours is really no better than nothing. Why do people who have useless profiles complain so loudly about them?
Relevancy?
How is that question relevent?
I’m not bothered by the question but there isn’t any requirement to have a profile. Most of them that do exist don’t say anything useful.
===========================
“Another one coming to America in a family size gets 1,000 miles per charge.”
The problem with vague, unsupported comments like this is that there is nothing that makes it clear that it isn’t just made up or something that was misheard or misunderstood. It isn’t information.
Most things like this in the media are just hype about things that will never see the light of day.
By providing a link, people might have some chance at evauting whether such statements are just hype.
Is it that hard to provide a link?
relax NJK
I was just jerking your chain. i don’t get the relevance or obsession to profiles either and only added mine to shut someone else up.
only if you have a profile
To some people not having one is like the internet equivalent of having a little yellow star pasted on your shirt.
What we need are silly emoticons also!
CNN was the source
Air Car article from Popular Mechanics
Air-Powered Car Coming to U.S. in 2009 to 2010 at Sub-$18,000, Could Hit 1000-Mile Range
The CityCAT, already being developed in India (bottom left), will be available for U.S. production in three different four-door styles. But it’s the radical dual-energy engine, with a possible 1000-mile range at 96 mph, that could move the Air Car beyond Auto X Prize dreams and into American garages.
By Matt Sullivan
Published on: February 22, 2008
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Automotive X Prize
The Air Car caused a huge stir when we reported last year that Tata Motors would begin producing it in India. Now the little gas-free ride that could is headed Stateside in a big-time way.
Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) confirmed to PopularMechanics.com on Thursday that it expects to produce the world’s first air-powered car for the United States by late 2009 or early 2010. As the U.S. licensee for Luxembourg-based MDI, which developed the Air Car as a compression-based alternative to the internal combustion engine, ZPM has attained rights to build the first of several modular plants, which are likely to begin manufacturing in the Northeast and grow for regional production around the country, at a clip of up to 10,000 Air Cars per year.
And while ZPM is also licensed to build MDI’s two-seater OneCAT economy model (the one headed for India) and three-seat MiniCAT (like a SmartForTwo without the gas), the New Paltz, N.Y., startup is aiming bigger: Company officials want to make the first air-powered car to hit U.S. roads a $17,800, 75-hp equivalent, six-seat modified version of MDI’s CityCAT (pictured above) that, thanks to an even more radical engine, is said to travel as far as 1000 miles at up to 96 mph with each tiny fill-up.
We’ll believe that when we drive it, but MDI’s new dual-energy engine—currently being installed in models at MDI facilities overseas—is still pretty damn cool in concept. After using compressed air fed from the same Airbus-built tanks in earlier models to run its pistons, the next-gen Air Car has a supplemental energy source to kick in north of 35 mph, ZPM says. A custom heating chamber heats the air in a process officials refused to elaborate upon, though they insisted it would increase volume and thus the car’s range and speed.
“I want to stress that these are estimates, and that we’ll know soon more precisely from our engineers,†ZPM spokesman Kevin Haydon told PM, “but a vehicle with one tank of air and, say, 8 gal. of either conventional petrol, ethanol or biofuel could hit between 800 and 1000 miles.â€
Those figures would make the Air Car, along with Aptera’s Typ-1 and Tesla’s Roadster, a favorite among early entrants for the Automotive X Prize, for which MDI and ZPM have already signed up. But with the family-size, four-door CityCAT undergoing standard safety tests in Europe, then side-impact tests once it arrives in the States, could it be the first 100-mpg, nonelectric car you can actually buy?
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maybe it can run on beanie weenies
Humor - maybe I don’t want passengers
This whole year, psychologically, has been about my learning to say “no” and not get sucked in or manipulated.
One woman who claims to be a professional witch, pretends to be my friend but I’ve known for about four years she is no one’s friend unless they can “do for her”. I think she is done asking for this or that now.
A two passenger car rather limits folks from thinking they can bum a free ride to Meijers.
I’ve been leaving my cell phone in my purse too or in the house or on vibrate. This really annoyed the professional witch last weekend. So much so she called me up at work earlier this week and bitched me out. I told her to get a mirror and said I had to go.
Fortunately buying this car is not going to be an immediate thing. 've got the year I planned on to look around and make a solid decision. More cars will come out in the meantime. The longer I wait the more choices there will be. I was going to look at a Matrix sooner or later. The SMART appeals to me like the VW Rabbit did in the 70’s. I know there is some psychological aspect in this too. Grabbing a piece of my youth again? This car comes with everything I want except a real clutch!
Driving in the city, I’m managed to make my Dodge get 18.5 MPG this week. All I’ve done is keep my lead foot off the pedals. The Dodge Van is paid for and I just had the transmission worked on for a few hundred bucks.
Someone who works here has a SMART car - when she comes back from vacation I may learn a whole lot more. The thing is that from what I’ve read the low MPG folks are talking about is not necessarily the case. When she tells me what hers gets I will post it.
glad you did - thanks
I will be pouring over this website during the week.
Whatever brain dead place I was in during my earily fifites - I hope is well behind me. To my defense, I had a VW GTI I really liked and it got hit by a Ford Explorer and totalled. The next car I had got totalled too. I had been an excellent driver from age 17 until age 52. Maybe my number was up. Instead of getting another VW I got the Dodge Van. I’d always thought I wanted one and my mother had her stroke and I was carting her and her walker around in it for most of a year. It had been a demo and I got it at qa very good price. Actually the van does almost as well in MPG as the last two/three actually VW’s did. They were not Rabbits - but they were fun cars. I’ve worn out three VWS (well over 100,000 miles) and had two totalled in their youth one with 36,000 and one with 6,000.
My second Rabbit was held together by prayers, End Rust, and electronic tape. It had a Jetta engine in it and sometimes exceeded 40 MPG. I traded it for firewood. That was one heck of car but I didn’t have money to get it a new transmission, it also needed a new fuel injector pump, and it was rusted through in spots which I filled with putty or something. Lots of miles!!! It didn’t go in reverse the last two years but it was light weight, I just pushed it with my left foot.
I have time - time to research, read, ask questions and so on. So again thanks for the link.
Prius or Yaris
– Last Updated: May-10-08 9:56 PM EST –
I have a prius, and it averages 50 mpg. With kayaks on the roof, that drops to 45 mpg. The car is great in the snow (with snow tires, which drop mileage to 45 mpg). It never breaks down. Madison WI is full of them, and nobody seems to complain about them.
The Yaris is cheaper, and we rented one in Iceland (a hatchback). We got about 42 mpg, sometimes 45. The car is a lot lighter than the Prius, but it seemed solid and reliable. If I couldn't afford a Prius, I'd go with a Yaris.
Toyotas often seem to last forever, and they're completely reliable. Long ago, I had a VW rabbit (and then a VW dasher), and I spent a lot of time stuck on back roads. Then I got tired of that, so now I'll stay with boring, reliable Toyotas.
Honda Civic, Toyota Prius, several
good choices that offer competitive mpg to the SMART and cost less, “relative”, particularly if you look at used car prices. The advantage over SMART is that these cars offer rooftop carry capacity as well as inside capacity. The SMART looks good for a city driver who doesn’t do sports with large equipment.
just my opinion though 
still more options
Remember the rabbit pickup? There are a slew of them on EBay. My Rabbit diesel ran over 200k miles with ease. I have been looking at these trucks myself, there are more than one biodiesel conversion kits on the market.
Something off there
40 MPG for a Smart car. My VW would dust it off.
The Smart car does much better than that.
I would still prefer a VW Golf with a diesel. They are comming back this fall.
I have a Jetta TDI and an Old Golf Torbo Diesel.
Great little cars and theh haul boats well.
Smart Car
Good choice.
I have kids so use a VW Diesel
The boats work well on that as it has a good rack.
SC Is a fine car, fuel costs may prove this out as Diesel is $1.45 per Litre here, gass $1.35 per Litre.
Just to be clear . . .
You want to put a Smart car on your roof rack? What kind of SUV are you driving now? It might take another person to help you lift it up there, or you could see if Thule has an option like a hullivator, specifically designed for the car. As an alternative, did you check to see if it would fit in the back w/ the seats down? That would leave the rack open for your kayaks/canoes.
Maybe your best option is to just get a four door pickup w/ a rack. The boats can go on the roof or bed rack, and the Smartie car should fit in the bed.
;~)
YoS