The first time I ever saw a SmartCar was over in Yurp, back in the early 2000s. I loved the idea of a “city car” — still do, in fact — because living in downtown Chicago at the time, I could see its wonderful utility.
It made even more sense for Yurp’s teeny lil’ city streets.
For those of you who’ve only ever lived in the suburbs or on farms, it’s easy to dismiss the SmartCar as just a little toy. For city dwellers, though, this is a godsend.
Yeah, it doesn’t hold much more than a driver and a passenger, or a driver and a couple shopping bags — but that’s really all you need in the city. (For the record, both I and Connie could fit inside, but only if I pushed my seat forward because we couldn’t fit side by side #KimShoulders.)
And of course it fails the Kim Storage Test in that I don’t think you could fit a rifle case inside — although I never tested it because at the time I wasn’t shooting rifles that much #Chicago #NoGunRanges.
Also, at the time the SmartCar launched, there was no Fiat 500 on the market. But now there is, and to me the 500 represents the ultimate compromise between “too small, really” and “still too small, but less so” or even “acceptably small, because you can fit a rifle case in it”.
All this was triggered by the news that the SmartCar is going to be relaunched, as a Duracell car only. Of course, I wouldn’t touch one because a.) it’s going to be built (of course) by the Chinese, b.) because it’s hideously ugly — see the linked article but you have been warned — and c.) because I already own a Fiat 500 via New Wife, and see no reason ever to sell it.
But it remains a decent option for people living in tight spaces — hell, at least it gives protection from the weather, which is more than its competitor does.
The first time my wife and I saw one was in the parking lot of a Tom Thumb in Plano. The owner had left his Rottweiler in the car (it was December and chilly, and windows were cracked). The owner must’ve been in there for at least half an hour because the dog was barking like mad and in a frenzy, tearing the interior to shreds. The wrap on the steering wheel was hanging in tatters, the seats were shredded with bits of foam everywhere, you could even see where he’d gnawed on the console. We had budget cell flip-phones without cameras at the time, otherwise we’d have documented that shit. We wanted to wait to watch the owner’s reaction, but we were in a hurry to be somewhere else, so we just picked up our meds and left. The dog was still at it…
Personally, I wouldn’t have been too surprised if the owner had taken the dog out of the car in a rage and shot it right there in the parking lot, and left the carcass behind. That had to have been thousands of dollars in damage if everything was replaced on an obviously new Smart car.
Someone should have shot the owner.
There are no bad dogs, just bad owners.
A couple years back, those were popular among the granola & Birkenstock set. My standing joke was that they were “escape pods for real cars”. 😉
I have a BMW Isetta 300 in storage that I will begin to restore soon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isetta
When I moved it to Michigan it fit perfectly in the 8′ bed of my Ford F-250 truck. It required four strong guys to lift it into or out of the bed. When I stopped for diesel, or fast food I would be asked what it was and I claimed that I was using it as a spare like a lifeboat on a ship. People who loved GM or Chrysler would say something rude about Ford trucks. I will start by buying a 6 volt battery to try to get it running. When it is restored I might take it to a car show in Bay City or grocery shopping in Standish or Pinconning, but not on the expressway. Minimum speed on the expressway is 55 MPH which is about the top speed with a 18 HP single cylinder motor.
In 2004 I visited Germany & a friend I’d worked with and we stopped at a SmartCar dealership to take a look at the tiny things. He pointed out a sporty looking model that looked quite like a sports car rather than the rounded off box version. Then he told me it had only a 70 hp engine! Hardly the sort of car that could take on Germany’s autobahns. Maybe that’s one of the reasons the SmartCar ceased to exist.
I always thought my Jeep Wrangler was a near perfect city car (as well as off-road vehicle) – not too big and could take on city-sized potholes!
“…hell, at least it gives protection from the weather, which is more than its competitor does.”
Yeah, but the Vespa has better tits.
They are the bees knees in the old quarters of European cities with their narrow streets and tiny parking places, but since I’ve seen the aftermath of an accident involving a Smart Car, I would not drive one where anything moves faster than 25 mph. They do make effective crush zones when located between two real cars in a rear end collision.
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1e64rg/this_is_minor_accident_in_a_smart_car/
If you’re driving even close to 25mph on city streets, you pretty much deserve everything that happens to you.
I made the mistake of looking at the new car in the linked article. It looks like a “classic” SmartCar mated with a Fiata (Fiat 124 Spyder, which is a rebadged Mazda Miata, in case someone didn’t know), and the doctor painted the entire thing in periwinkle after dropping it on its nose.
As an aside, a decade or more ago I passed a large pickup truck driving the opposite direction in my town — with a Smart ForTwo parked in its bed. I still laugh when I think of it.
The Fiat 500 is now–or at least last time I checked–a battery only vehicle.
Which, if you live in a city like Chicago or San Francisco AND you have the power to have your own charger isn’t all that bad. At leas as long as you don’t want to use it for long distances.