check out the website, Donna. The cabrios are ..cute.

 

LOL!! Just what we need - yet ANOTHER car -

FYI - got the stuff in the mail you sent - THANK YOU...

Donna

 

if we get one, we'll have 4 cars ..and you're welcome

 

don't know if you guys wanna check out this place in Randallstown, MD.
they're selling 2006 models.
http://www.prestige-motors.com/inven...ml?&make=Smart

 

I test drove a 2005 Smart that has been certified for the US. It costs $29,000, and I really didn't feel it was worth it. The Penske Smarts are supposed to end up being closer to the European price, between $9,000 and $14,000, but I'll believe that when I see it. My advice, would be to get a MINI One diesel. It is quick off the line, reasonably priced and as an R56, a little bigger than your present MINIs. Assuming BMW decides to bring desiel engined cars to the US, the MINI One should come too. The best part is that it will probably get 40 - 50 mpg, which is phenomenal. And it's a MINI, so you wouldn't have to give up safety and handling.

IMHO, the Smarts are cute, city cars. But trying to make one do 65mph on Route 50 would be nerve racking for me. And they were never intended to be driven at high speeds for long periods of time. They really are meant to be driven in the city.

Good luck though!

 

I don't recall at which dealership the SmartCar was for sale. There's quite a few dealerships on this particular stretch of road in Laurel - so many that it's hard to tell where one ends and the next begins! (The dealership is on the right side of Rt. 1S near the Main Street junction.) I'd take a closer look for you tonight, but I'll be at MoS again helping my friend get "Decker" out of the Service Center, then motoring on out to WV. I can get the Laurel dealership's name for you tomorrow, though.

 

I've been seeing Smarts on the road here and there, and one was tooling along on 95 between DC and Balty and having no problems keeping up with the flow of traffic running above the limit. I do hafta say though, when I went by the Smart in the MINI, I felt like I was driving a bus.

So, if more MINI people get Smarts, will there be an annual Smarts On The Dragon as well? With MOTD getting so huge, we might needs smaller cars than MINIs to fit them all in.

 

I saw two Smarts at a dealership on Rockville Pike. The place is called The Ultimate Garage

 

If we were to get one, that would put us at four cars and one motorcycle.....makes you not feel so "environmentally friendly." Maybe I can convince Michael to sell the Bronco.

 

As I understand it the new Smart fortwo is good improvement over the prior one in how it handles and overall feel - if you have driven the last one you may want to retry with the 2008 before you make up your mind. I imagine that, since they are offcially releasing it in the US, it will do better on the highways then the prior grey market you could get here did.

I've got my $99 down - a big reason we have the Mini is its parkability in the city and it sure does make life easier at times, and I think the Smart will be quite fun to drive and park around here

 

And it'll go just as fast as your wagon.... :-)

 

I'd be interested to hear how much huffing and puffing it will do climbing those SF hills.

 

Hey now - my Woody will go 65...almost 70 if I really push it...

Donna

 

Funny, some of the comments against a Smart sound like comments some make about MINI's. Too small, OK in city but not highway...

I think a MINI is big enough, but a classic Mini is too small. Well, classic Mini'd be OK but a Smart too small. Well a Smart is OK but a motorcycle is too dangerous. Wait, a motorcycle's OK but commuting by bike is suicide. Well I did commute by bike for years but a unicylce is madness!

The crash test head on into a jersey wall was impressive. One of them would be awesome for my commute up the lower GW to Crystal City. Perhaps when MINI is paid off I'll look for a micro commuter. I'd still like a simple pure plug in to charge electric. For my commute it'd be perfect.

 

I'm guessing that if the tiny crappy scooters (sometimes with more then one person), not to mention those horrid motorized little yellow tourist pods I see around, can make it around town the Smart will do just fine

And for all those stressing just how slow it is, remember there are plenty of vehicles, old and new, on the road that are around the same (I *think* 12 secs to 60) as well as tons of people in faster ones that drive even slower

 

Are they not many different versions? For example, one article said 60 mpg, the referenced website says 40 mpg. See here
Brabus has been modifying another version.

Plans keep changing. See here. Looking at 17 - 23K cars in 2004 when first announced. But now the prices are different. Dealer distro via Penske ... A lot of unknowns here. I'm just saying that any first year car, most likely, has issues ... if for nothing else to meet US safety regs.

Check out the video on their website. Two large guys could NOT fit in the MINI and fit into the smart car

And that was exactly my point and my "discussion" with my wife. She only cares its small and cute. But or the same or less money, you can get EPA 32/41 mileage (which we know is high) but be a normal compact size, haul 4 people and trunk (and a major track record for reliability)

Decisions ... decisions ...

I know my wife will win Don't need a third car so no need for a Corolla.

 

smarts are cool/interesting looking cars. not sure well they would handle though. definately not like a MINI. i think the smart is taller than it is wide, while the MINI is the other way around.

smart would definately make a good commuter car in the city. i know the MINI is a great commuter car in the city cuz of it's size. so the smart would be even better.

and i just saw davinci code last nite, and the car chase scene with the smart car was pretty cool.

 

Zap MotorCars is just up the road from us in Santa Rosa was the official importer of the Smarts until a it was anounced that Pennske was bringing them over not too long ago.

The Zap Smarts are/were Euro spec Smarts that were imported to the US and then underwent a conversion to bring them to US specs. It was this conversion process that drove the price of those Smarts to over $14,000. Supposedly even at that price, Zap wasn't able to keep up with the demand for the cars. With this supposed demand, AND them being local - I think the only Smart car I ever saw out here was the two in their showroom window...

 

You probably didn't see more grey market Smarts from Zap around because they handled the Smart thing pretty badly in general and did not treat the people on their waiting list very well. As it is I'm glad we did not get one of the altered ones from them, the 08s having a real dealer network and manufacturer support is a good thing.

 

Are they going the have their sales and sevice departmant seperately?, or with the Mercedez like Mini and BMW.

 

It seems like it is going to be seperate from what I've heard - not even sure they know where the dealers are going to be (I suppose the reservations will give them some idea of where the demand is...)

 

Yeah, the car stood up OK considering the speed but the driver would have been dead from the G forces of stopping that quick.

Earl

 

...in any car.

I think it's important to make that clear. Yes, the driver would have been dead regardless of what car it was that went from 70 mph to 0 mph in 1 second.

To fail to make that crystal clear would lead people to believe that it is a limitation in the Smart design, which it isn't.

 

Cute ad for the Brabus version - wish they would bring that over

http://adsoftheworld.com/files/images/Smartbridge.jpg

 

They will be distrubuted by this company
owned by penske. Supposedly a dealer network is being created.