Brush with Smartness

So after having eyed the Smart Car down the street for a few months, the owner finally stopped by in their car and said hello. So I finally got to see the car up close.

I got in the driver seat and was instantly surprised at just how much room I had. I'll admit it wasn't as wide as my car (I could touch the passenger window with a bit of a lean), but it was still comfortable. No room for a console between the seats - the beverage holder is more forward by the dash. The interior is quite modern. It has a Grundig radio/Cd player (German). The 140km/h speedometer was a little odd, considering the 220km/h+ dials most cars have these days. What was most striking was the view. Even though the front of the car is just inches further than the windshield, the angle of view was still similar to that of a typical compact car. It was the rear view that blew me away. The rear window was so close to my head that I could see the ground just a couple of feet behind the car. No guessing how much room you've got back there - it's pretty easy to see. The whole roof is a skylight, save for a sliding panel that you can position back and forth to block out the sun.

Aside from on the passenger seat, there's only one more place to store cargo and that's behind the hatch. It's only enough room to store maybe 5 bags of groceries, because the 800cc diesel engine is below that. I had a hard time believing there was an engine under there. Speaking of engine, I expected this car to be a real snoozer, but what it lacks in power, it makes up for in torque. Translation - it gets up and goes, it just doesn't top out at very high speed, nor pass at a quick pace. But check this out - it will cost you $18.52 to fill it up at today's diesel prices. How far will that get you? If their mileage figures can be trusted - 628km! I think the truth is a little closer to 500km.

Then we went for a drive. My chauffeur took us out onto the Trans Canada Highway. We didn't set any speed records, but we kept up with traffic. He shifted through the 6 gears using the foolproof sport-shift. This is accomplished either with the stick or paddles on either side of the steering wheel. No clutch and no lifting off the gas pedal! Then he did a neat trick I'm guessing no other car can do - at the next intersection he pulled a U-Turn from our left turn lane to the left lane of the other side of the road, seperated by only a few feet. That was freakin' awesome! It turned a few heads let me tell you.

I would buy this car in a second for tooling around the Calgary area, but alas, the $20,000+ price tag is a bit much for a car with such limited flexibility. It's also a shame that some Smart car buyers are waiting many months for their orders due to limited production and import restrictions. In my ideal universe, our governments would subsidize this and other like vehicles heavily.