My friend and I were discussing the cars we hate the most. This is easy for me; its the smart car. I have a genuine hatred for these machines. They make absolutely no sense to me.
How ironic they name the stupidest car in production "smart". For those that don't know what a smart car is: its supposed to be a practical, affordable, micro-car built by Mercedes Benz to commute around town. However, the designers at Daimler decided to play a global prank on the world and plague us with what is basically an over-glorified golf cart. There is only one model, which is referred to as the fourtwo. It was named this because thats the average IQ of the potential 'smart' buyer. There are also three trims available: pure, passion, and passion cabriolet. I'm not even joking. Look it up if you dont believe me.
I found a photo of this thing. Look at it! Ugh! My blood pressure rises slightly even as a look at this cancer of a vehicle. I don't understand the appeal of this car. I've always thought its design was inspired by a hard boiled egg. Ive also sat it one. Its cramped, claustrophobic and cheap feeling. So why is it that this car exists?Is it economical?
Not really. The prices range from $12K to $17K. You are essentially purchasing a two-seater golf cart w/ that can barely hold your golf clubs! Honda Fits, Toyota Yaris, and so many better choices exist in this price range.
Is it safe?
Not quite. The smart rated "good" in the highway safety for frontal and side impacts. Which is ok for people going around and running into stationary objects. However, in a recent crash test where a mid-size cousin of the smart car, a MB C-class, slammed into it, the results weren't pretty. The crash test dummy was pretty trashed w/ the legs being broken at the knees and, since the cockpit was so tiny, the head and arms bounced out of the car. Needless to say, the rating was "poor" for an offset frontal crash w/ a bigger car. So while its somewhat safe at hitting other things, don't ever get hit by anything bigger than it. Good luck w/ that in the US, where moms SUVs rule the streets. That means, a smart car driver should avoid all roads and stay in the power wheels section at Toys R Us. It should be a lil safer there.
Well, its environmentally friendly right?
All the smart cars get 33 / 41 mpg. While numerically, that's not too shabby lets remember that this car is tiny: its only 1800 lbs. To put that in perspective a Mini hatchback is 2,500 lbs, a Honda Fit is 2,400 lbs, and a Toyota Yaris would still smack the smart car around at 2,300 lbs. The reason why the mileage is rated so high is also because the engine is sooo tiny. But that doesn't mean its anything close to being efficient or green. The power plant for this bad boy is a 3 cylinder engine cranking out 71 hp. That's not efficient, its just small. There are refrigerator motors more powerful than this. Its basically like taking half of a V6 engine. This was advanced technology about 40-50 years ago but in today's standards, its incredibly weak and pathetic . A comparable 4 cyl engine w/ almost twice the power could put up similar, or better, mileage figures in a car as light as the smart car. And on top of that, if you actually drove a smart car, you would be be on full throttle just to keep up w/ traffic. This would be incredibly un-friendly to the environment... and Al Gore would not be very happy about that.
So lets review: the smart car is ugly, unpractical, slow, expensive, dangerous, and inefficient. When I come to power, it shall be deemed legal to flip a smart car over when you see one. It doesn't matter if its parked, stopped, or running. In fact, it would be your civil duty to put this car upside down. I mean why not? It would definitely be as beneficial to society as voting and jury duty.
