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Would never consider one. I've posted on these cars before as my neighbor has one. She bought the car because she wanted something with better mileage and thought it would be better for her small trips.
She's owned the car close to 2 yrs now and it has around 6000 miles on it. The car has been sitting in her driveway since last fall. She has had a number of major mechanical issues along with several minor issues and has been stranded in the car several times. She no longer trusts the car even to drive around town.
Getting back to the mileage thing. Her other car is a 2000 Corolla and the two cars get exactly the same mileage around town with the corolla getting better on the Hwy. The Smart car is also too small to carry even a weeks worth of groceries for her family so again it of no use.
Safety is also a major concern. The cars are so small they get missed in blind spots of most normal sized cars. All of the crash tests being performed are done assuming these little cars will be running into other like sized cars or at least cars with similar bumper heights. Even the Smart VS S-Class video is assuming similar bumper heights. Unfortunately the majority of the cars on the roads are not cars at all but rather but trucks and SUV's with bumper heights far above the bumper of the Smart car.
I drive a Tacoma pick up and I've parked next to my neighbors Smart on a few occasion. My truck is basically stock except for some slightly taller tires but no lift and my bumper sits about even with the base of the Smarts windshield or about 10 inches above it bumper. I also noticed it sits about even with the bottom of the side window. What all this means is in a front or side collision my bumper would contact the Smart car well above it's bumpers or side impact beams leaving very little if any protection for the occupants. .
By comparison my truck is fairly small so consider what would happen if one of these cars hit an larger SUV like a Expedition, Sequoia, or one of the GM monsters. I doubt the drivers of the SUV would know they hit anything. It would be like picking bugs out of the grill.
Seriously. The smart car is too small to haul anything, gets poor mileage for it's size, is a death trap and has major mechanical issues. Would I ever consider buying one.. No... Hell NO. And anyone with half a brain would steer clear as well.
No, my friends and I laugh when we see one. lol maybe if they looked cool... it seems like cars with good mileage are ugly for some reason. They are very dangerous as well and my mustang would tear it to shreds. I wouldn't feel comfortable in a smart car.
I guess some folks don't know that any engine takes so much fuel to just run. You could strip a Smart Car to bare bones and it won't get a whole lot better MPGs.
To get better means a far to small engine to be a car, somewhere around 100cc's. This type of car is only good for around twn and not over 45 MPH IMO. Something that might work on Nantucket.
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. By the way, Avenis is not a small car and this forum is not for Yanks only.
