I scheduled our test drive online to make sure we didn't drive all that way and have to wait in a line or something. We met with one of the sales guys and then someone that knew more of the nitty gritty details gave us a tour and test drive. Let me tell you, these cars put everything into perspective. They are very small compared to the SUVs the US has lovingly embraced, and it blatantly points out how little room you really need (if you don't have kids in the car). And this small that I speak of is in no way a negative in my opinion. You get in the car and you forget that you are driving the smallest car on the market. It had very little difference in "size" feel from my Honda Civic. It feels very secure and stable not like a toy as I imagined. Better proof of my testament is my husband's reaction. He really just went along to make me happy and had very little interest in the car, but after he drove it he was blown away at how nice it felt to drive.
The car is an automatic manual so it has the fake manual shifting provided through paddles similar to what I hear is in the Pacifica. I'm not a car person so I can't give you good specifics, and questions might be better answered on the Smart Car website or you can feel free to ask them in the comments and I'll dig through the documentation we were given, but no promises! Below are some pictures that we took of the Smart Pure and Smart Passion Coupe models.
Me in the Smart Pure which is the bottom of the line model. It comes with automatic locks and that is pretty much it. No air conditioning, no super brake things, no power windows, very pure.
Below is a comparison of the dash in the Pure (left) and the Coupe (right). Of course you can upgrade the Pure if you want some of the features in the Coupe.
Trunk shots. The first is looking from the driver seat to the back of the car and the second is with the tailgate down. The tailgate also has a compartment for storage.
One of the disappointments is the mpg rating. I was expecting it to get 50+ mpg and some stories reported 60-70 mpg before release. The EPA says that it only gets 33 in town and 41 highway according their upgraded 2008 testing. The Smart's website also shows its 2007 rating, before the EPA changed, as 40/45. I wondered how this could be with such a small car, but the nitty gritty guy pretty much answered it when he told us that the US version had to be beefed up to weigh almost 200 lbs more than the UK model.
Driving the Smart made me wish that we had a good reason to buy one, but both of our cars get good gas mileage and we're actually thinking about getting rid of one of them because we don't use two frequently enough. If you're lucky enough to live near a dealership or don't mind driving to get to one, I highly recommend taking one for a test drive just to get a new perspective on small cars.
1 comment:
I think that your experience is similar to the one I got when I first test-drove a Prius. I mean, as a 6'6" guy with another 1" or so of hair, I seriously doubted that I could fit in the Prius . . . but, well, you know the rest of the story.
Have you considered a Prius for your next car purchase? What are your thoughts on the Priei/Priuses/Prieses/Whatever the plural of Prius is?
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