Better then a Smart car?  By  wheelbender6 (Read 2,334 times)

Sorry, sky. When they first were announced I thought they would be a great thing. Then I found out their gas mileage isn't really all that great, plus their cost isn't all THAT cheap. And they barely hit interstate speeds, at least none that I've passed here (unless every single Smart driver drives interstate at about 55 mph?) And if one goes head-on against me in my Taurus, I'll be through the Smart before it ever gets done crunching Taurus hood and engine and gets to me.

So no offense, but not smart in my book.
Then again, you're still hitting what? 30-something mpg, while my fat boy trundles around 17 (for now).
Then again again, I can haul a six-foot painting in the back of my wagon. You? ;D

>'Kat

Plus, the smart is road tested, upto 120kmh hitting a concrete wall and not budging!
The plastic plating will get crushed, but the frame of the smart is >60% high strength steel, which is the same as the Chevrolet Sonic, and Cruze.
Most chinese cars, eventhough they are bigger, are weaker than the smart.
Making the car so small, the engineers had to use high strength steel to make sure the driver and passenger where well protected within the cage.
So you'll not die from riding 40MPH full on another car riding 40MPH from the opposite direction.
However you might die from the G-forces.

The Dirigo project was based on the 3 cylinder diesel Kawasaki mule engine and front drive axel long with a transmission from a scrapped Ford Ranger pickup and a swingarm from a old Kawasaki 750 motorcycle. Only does 75 mph but gets an average 78 mpg while its at it.

The crash test videos of Chinese cars/trucks are an eye opener:


Some claim that they are safer driven in reverse so the back of the truck gets destroyed and not the front. The total pancaking of the entire 4 door passenger compartment of the truck left little doubt that a 40 mph event was not survivable.

Nope, sky, never driven one. Nor ridden in one. I don't know anyone "real world" who owns one. I'm just basing on what I've observed. And if yours can go 80, then why do the various Smarts I've passed on I-435 all--yes, I'm using the absolute all as in every one of them--all go only about 55?

The mileage info was from an article when they came out, quoting the figures. That's what first disappointed me, 'cause I had expected something a lot better than somewhere in the 30s.

You mentioned the Metro. My friend had a Suzuki Justy 3-cylinder that he just adored.

>'Kat

That vid is of a chinese car of the 1980's. The automotive industry has evolved since then!

That test was said to have been of a new vehicle done 5 years ago. 2013 subtract 5 years is 2008 not 1980.

I work with people who lived in China, Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and other parts of Malasia and they verified that the video is still represantative of the vehicles sold new there that are not from the American or European markets.