I've had my Smart for about 2 weeks. It holds 2 people, easily. My DH, at 5' 11", can stretch his legs straight in front of him in the passenger seat. There's a lot more room than you would think in the rear for groceries, suitcases, family dog, etc. The seats sit high and the car feels quite roomy inside. So roomy that I forget I'm in such a tiny little thing until I look back and realize there's nothing there!
Although I hope to never test the safety of any car, it has air bags front and rear (driver and passenger) and you're surrounded by a steel cage like the ones used in race cars. A recent safety test only gave it a 3 out of 5 rating (although it still passed the test) on rollover potential but, unfortunately, it didn't test how you would actually fare in a rollover. All other ratings were 4-5 which is excellent.
Road noise is not a problem, it's about the same as my previous Toyota Matrix. The ride also doesn't feel any bumpier than any thing else (although I'm sure that luxury cars are smoother, I wouldn't know - I've never had one!) So far, with only 500 miles (city & highway) on it, I'm getting close to 40 mpg. Premium is recommended, but I'm reading that lots of owners are using regular, with no difference in performance or mileage.
The transmission is manual with an automatic clutch. You have 3 choices; put it in automatic and go, use the shift knob, or use the paddles on the steering wheel. The full automatic mode starts out with slow, rocky shifts, but the more you drive it, the smoother it gets as it learns your driving habits. The real beauty of it is that it can driven in automatic but can be towed 4 down. Blue Ox makes a base plate. I've heard that there are others, and that Smart is about to come out with one, too. We had the BO installed last week and have towed it 1x with no problems. I plan to use it as a daily driver until I retire next year, then it will be mostly used as a dinghy.
The biggest drawback is that all service is suppose to be done by a dealer, and I live 2 hours from the closest dealer. It uses special oil and filters (recommended oil changes only every 10,000 miles) but other owners are converting their cars to make it easier. Heck, I won't mind driving to the dealer once a year for oil changes, and only having to do it that often makes up for the higher cost of the oil and filter. Some people are having maintenance/repair work done by their local Mercedes dealers. As far as overall reliability - that remains to be seen, but, for me, the benefits of the car outweighed any concerns.
Thanks, for the report on the Smart Car, With the high price of fuel it sounds like a great toad. Thanks to the Moderator for allowing us this thread on the Class A forum, knowing that there is a Forum for Dingy vehicles. Scott
Scott & Kathy & Pebbles our little Dachshund
2004 Travel Supreme
Actually, this thread IS about Class As! ("Smart Car inside a Damon Outlaw") That is, unless you don't consider a Damon Outlaw a Class A... :-)
Ray
SRWJR wrote: Thanks, for the report on the Smart Car, With the high price of fuel it sounds like a great toad. Thanks to the Moderator for allowing us this thread on the Class A forum, knowing that there is a Forum for Dingy vehicles. Scott
Triker33 wrote: Smart Car USA Version
The smart fortwo pure coupe starts at $11,590*, the smart fortwo passion coupe starts at $13,590* and the smart fortwo passion cabriolet starts at $16,590*.
* Excluding tax, license, registration, destination charge and options
Engineering and testing continues to take place on the vehicle that will be produced for the United States. The vehicle is designed to achieve 33 city/41 highway mpg according to 2008 EPA standards. The mpg rating for all vehicles will decrease in 2008 due to new calculation methods that the EPA has adopted. These methods involve measuring mpg while taking into account real life driving conditions such as start/stop city traffic, air conditioning, heating, etc. The gas tank of the smart fortwo is 8.7 gallons.
8.7 GALLON GAS TANK!!! that cant be right, the UK Smart Cars only hold 3 Gallons! If my Smart Car held that much GAS it would cost £44 to fill up thats $88!!! and it would do 600 miles on 1 tank full!!! my Smart is doing 76 miles to the gallon
* This post was
edited 04/11/08 02:41pm by dazza *
I like it!
That's a cute and practical little car. Damon should have a special. Buy an outlaw and get a garage with a car in it.
I would definitly put the heavier axle towards the front of the MH.
You should have your MH axles weighed with the car inside. Does Damon recomend that you can carry that much weight in the garage.
Is it a WH or a Ford?
I really like that idea with gas prices going ridiculous.
Did you have this in mind when you decided to buy the Outlaw?
Lots of people bad mouth Damon but they're pretty innovative. Now the Newmars and Tiffins will try to make a toy hauler.
Triker33 wrote: Smart Car USA Version
The smart fortwo pure coupe starts at $11,590*, the smart fortwo passion coupe starts at $13,590* and the smart fortwo passion cabriolet starts at $16,590*.
* Excluding tax, license, registration, destination charge and options
Engineering and testing continues to take place on the vehicle that will be produced for the United States. The vehicle is designed to achieve 33 city/41 highway mpg according to 2008 EPA standards. The mpg rating for all vehicles will decrease in 2008 due to new calculation methods that the EPA has adopted. These methods involve measuring mpg while taking into account real life driving conditions such as start/stop city traffic, air conditioning, heating, etc. The gas tank of the smart fortwo is 8.7 gallons.
8.7 GALLON GAS TANK!!! that cant be right, the UK Smart Cars only hold 3 Gallons! If my Smart Car held that much GAS it would cost £44 to fill up thats $88!!! and it would do 600 miles on 1 tank full!!! my Smart is doing 76 miles to the gallon
U.S. Gallons, not Imperial Gallons! In U.S. Gallons the Smart only gets about 32 mpg. Really, not impressive for such a tiny phone booth on wheels. It also wouldn't shock me if the UK engine was smaller than the US engine. The engine over here is made by Mitsubishi, I think it's one litre in displacement.
Joel & Bonnie
3 teen boys and 3 dogs
2006 Monaco Diplomat 40PDQ w/4 slides, 40.5', Cummins ISL 400
Toad: 2001 Town & Country, Falcon All-Terrain, Roadmaster EvenBrake. Rallies Attended: 8;Gatherings Attended: 3
I bet it gets better mileage than you think. There's a big difference in claimed MPG from '07 to '08. I think it's like 8 or 10 MPG difference from the '07 Smart to the '08.
I'd miss the living area sometimes but at the races a garage would be nice. I'm not sure my wife would like crawling up the ladder to the bedroom tho. Making the bed must be lots of fun too.
I can't ever take a toad now because I'm always pulling motorcycles or a boat . Even if we pulled the Smart, we could drag it across the Rockies, no sweat @ about 1800 lbs. Would'nt even need brakes for it. AuOh I might get in trouble for saying that.
today's paper had an article which said that the Smart Fortwo minicar received one of the lowest crashtest scores among 2008 car models for protecting passengers.
maybe I won't order one afterall.
bumpy
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