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As I was saying yesterday, I’ll be driving my [top-rated] Volvo until the duck tape doesn’t hold it together anymore, thank you.
PS
Smart Car weighs in at 2,315 lbs.
Volvo XC70 weighs in at 4,092 lbs.
Whose passengers are most likely to walk out unharmed in an accident?
As Doug’s commenter said,
If it’s not the impact that kills you, it’s your insides coming unglued that will. The Gs in a crash are not absorbed by a crumple zone, they are absorbed by your body’s internal organs. G forces will go somewhere.
Suicide clown cars are for clowns.
f = ma cannot be repealed no matter what you do. You want a car about the size and mass of the 2009 Honda Accord, which BTW the IIHS rates 5 stars in all categories, to be minimum safe. This car weighs in at about 3500 pounds, unladen. Better yet is one that weighs 4500 pounds, to be safer. OF COURSE THAT ASSUMES ALL THE LATEST SAFETY GEAR IN INSTALLED.
More to life than fuel mileage, like your life and the lives of your loved ones.
No problem. Simply mandate that the smaller cars weigh the same as the bigger cars. And with essentially mo-ped sized engines the car will reside forever in the driveway and have a perfect safety record.
The Smart was designed for European city-dwelling singles who have access to public transportation anyway. They are people who never have to transport anything bigger than their Blackberries and perhaps a small bag of organic arugula from the traditional street market, which could be bruised by the hoi poloi one finds on city busses. It is really a symbol of their moral superiority and has nothing to do with real transportation needs. It probably also doesn’t hurt that it’s a Daimler product. I don’t know that safety plays much of a role for its intended audience, since they will mostly find themselves going 10 mph or sitting still in traffic jams.
sitting still in traffic jams
If they’re lucky.
One truck runs a traffic light and rams into them, and it’ll be sayonara, suckers.
Expat beat me to it. The Smart is not meant for real driving, just for puttering around small urban areas with slow, light traffic.
Doesn’t it set off anyone’s lightbulbs that the same country that makes the Smart also makes the Mercedes S600? The point is that it’s a vehicle for specific circumstances, not one for all of your driving. There’s no way in hell I’d drive one of those on any road with more than two lanes and a speed limit higher than 35.
Some people like smaller (and admittedly more vulnerable) cars for speed and maneuverability. If you want these advantages and don’t want to take the many risks of driving a motorcycle, a small zippy car like a Miata or a Cooper is the way to go.
Unfortunately, ‘smart cars’ aren’t speedy or maneuverable. I’ve never driven one, but it looks kludgy and top heavy. In an urban environment, one needs a car that can make a u-turn quicker than a cop can turn around – which the smart car probably can’t do. So what’s the point?