Smart Car vs. Suburban

[bjarvis]

Last May, while in Vancouver with kent4str, tdjohsn and rlegters, I saw a Smart Car for the first time. It's an amazingly compact bit of work. While I wasn't able to sit in it to judge fully, it struck me as being fairly roomy inside, at least more than I'd expect for such a tiny machine. I took some photos at the time, but the lighting in the garage sucked and I didn't have anything to show scale.

On Sunday, that changed.

As kent4str, cuyahogarvr, Woody and I left the Air & Space Museum in Dulles, VA, we saw another Smart Car, this one in the parking lot during daylight adjacent to a Suburban! What a comparison of scale!

	Smart Car vs. Suburban 01
	Smart Car vs. Suburban 02
	Smart Car vs. Suburban 03
	Smart Car vs. Suburban 05

I'm not sure I'd want to own one --kent4str probably wouldn't fit and there's no room for cargo-- but it's kinda neat.

Comments

[pectopah.livejournal.com]

There are quite a few of these in Montreal. For city driving, they are really good and they have diesel ones, so they probably use very little fuel. I understand that they are more crashworthy than they look (being designed by Mercedes-Benz and all..) I would not want one in the US, though, too many much larger vehicles.

The advantage to having a motorhead husband ...

[allanh.livejournal.com]

Randy tells me that the Smart Car was designed to be small enough to fit TWO of them into a standard parking space on a street ... at a 90 degree angle to "regular" size parallel parked cars. Mercedes Benz has been waffling on bringing the things into the U.S., because they're afraid of damaging their luxury cachet/reputation by being perceived as an "economy" car maker.

Considering that the Smart is evidently more than reasonably reliable, cheap, and gets very high mileage (nearly as good as a hybrid), it's an otherwise quite logical choice of vehicle.

[ciddyguy.livejournal.com]

I've seen the pics of these and I think they are cool in concept.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

You see SmartCars(tm) all the time in Toronto. There's even a win-a-SmartCar contest being run by Smarties(tm), the multi-coloured chocolate button candy [whose candy-ecological niche is filled by M&Ms(tm) in the US]. Cute efficient cars AND chocolate, it's a winning combination.

I don't own a car, and unfortunately Mr Avis doesn't have any SmartCars in its fleet in Trawna (they do carry the Toyota Echo(?) - which is sorta like a SmartCar that grew a back seat). But I may have to go to the brand X rental folk and try a SmartCar soon. Brad-my-cute-gay-banker, who wants to own one, says they look like a liquorice-allsort-on-wheels, and it's true. and they're great.

(weren't you - brian - the one justifying your household's purchase of a SoccerMomMobile not long ago? Is the pendulum swinging?)

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

(weren't you - brian - the one justifying your household's purchase of a SoccerMomMobile not long ago? Is the pendulum swinging?)

Nope, I was merely quoting the one of our household who was justifying his choice of SoccerMomMobile. All things considered, I'd prefer to ditch one of our vehicles --either the Caravan or the Civic-- to become a one car household to save on maintenance & insurance, but Kent isn't keen on the idea.

[moofedct.livejournal.com]

Vir from Babylong 5 to Ivanova: You see, we have six.

ramsjb: You see, we have six...vehicles.

1) 2005 BMW X5 (Mitch's personal vehicle)
2) 2005 Toyota Tacoma (Mitch's company-provided vehicle)
3) 1998 Ford Windstar (ramsjb's personal vehicle)
4) 2003 BMW K1200GT (Mitch's personal motorcycle)
5) 2003 BMW K1200GT (ramsjb's personal motorcycle)
6) 2001 Harley-Davidson Sportster 883 (ramsjb's other personal motorcycle)

You ain't got it so bad. For all this, we still only park one vehicle on the street.

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

I can't help it - sometimes I have to haul stuff, sometimes I have to haul people. We hadn't had the new SoccerMomMobile for three days and we'd already used it to haul 6 to dinner, then folded the seats down to haul the new BBQ grill for the trailer. It just makes sense for me to have it - especially since I commute via subway and it sits in the driveway most of the time, rather than burning fuel.

And it's not "justifying" - it's merely explaining...

[cuyahogarvr.livejournal.com]

As a recent "haulee" in the SoccerMomMobile, hear, hear. Quite comfortable and the bells and whistles are fabulous!

[moofedct.livejournal.com]

Personally I love my minivan. It's very comfortable to drive for me (I have a very hard time getting comfortable in the driver seat and that has caused me to not like driving for the most part) and you can haul, haul, haul. I have even curled up in the back and napped.