the smart car

The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet.
  – William Gibson

 

The last time I want to France, they were everywhere.  However, in 2005, I never would have thought one would be in my garage, but there it is.  About thirty days ago, I walked in and bought a smart car.  I still own a less intelligent car, but as my job continues to evolve, my vehicle needs have changed as well.  I could no longer feel comfortable driving a car which is not only a quasi-gas guzzler, but it was also barely legal in terms of emissions when it was manufactured (and I’ll admit – with the money I’ve been saving thus far, the added expense of owning two cars for one person is nearly non-existent).

 

I got on a waiting list to buy the car, which is about a year long.  However, I walked in to test drive one, and there was an “orphan” – one that was ordered but not accepted – which was nearly exactly what I wanted, so I went for it.  OK, so yellow wasn’t my first choice.  However you can, in fact, switch out the body panels for a new color easily and cheaply (the dealer says $700 for the kit).

 

So far, the biggest impact on daily life is actually how much attention it gets.  People stop me at the gas pump (guaranteed), at stop lights, at the dog park, at the office, and everywhere else I go.  Everyone wants to know about gas mileage.  Its rated at 41 MPG on the highway with 2008 standards (45 on 2007).   I’ve gotten everywhere from 33 to 39 so far.  So, not as wonderful as you might think, but that’s OK with me.  The biggest compliments I get are guys from the construction industry.  Everyone from project managers to laborers are interested in this vehicle because these guys spend $1,000 or more on gas each month, and it keeps getting worse.

 

So why didn’t I buy a hybrid?  A few reasons:

 

1.                  Cost – $5-10,000 more for the hybrid

2.                  Size – I can fit this car in my parking garage (I live in an urban area) without having to purchase another parking space.  And as a work car, I don’t need 4 seats or any cargo space.

3.                  Batteries – I’ve heard replacement costs of these are anywhere from $4-7,000.  What happens to those batteries after you’re done with them, anyway?

4.                  Other reasons the smart is “ecological;” an old article outlines some of those points here.

5.                  It’s a regular combustion engine – less to go wrong, and theoretically the car is designed to be able to be retrofitted with new technologies (fuel cell, for example) as they become available.  Of course that modular design could come back and bite me: “hey, we need to replace the crankcase valve, so we’re just going to have to go ahead and replace the engine module.”

6.                  OK, there’s a “coolness factor” (or something more sick and twisted) that drew me to it…

 

The car takes some serious getting used to on the highway – not because of its size (you actually sit much higher than a normal passenger car), but because the wind knocks your 1800-pound frame around when you pass 65 MPH.  Other than that, it’s a nicely finished out cost effective solution.  Where did the name smart come from?  The design was a collaborative effort between Swatch and Mercedes – hence it is a quasi-acronym of Swatch-Mercedes Art.

 

Here are more articles for those who are interested:

 

• Greenercars.org’s list of greenest cars.  For 2008, the smart Fortwo ranks number 3 on the cars the public can actually purchase.
• University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing page on the smart.  Plenty of other interesting links here as well.
• MoMA’s page on the smart car; you’ll see some conflict between how it says it was developed from the University of Cambridge.
• Of course, all of you want to see one crash…  Have a look here, here, and here