Anyone drive one of those Smart cars before?

[Elixer]

Today, on a major highway, this person in a Smart car was trying to merge in, and pretty much caused mayhem with semi's swerving to avoid hitting it, air breaks going off, cars swerving around the trucks going into the banks... it was a mess.

How are these things allowed on the highway? They can't get up to speed fast enough, and as trucks pass them, it basically causes the Smart car to veer to the right.
It looks like it has about the same amount of power as a moped.

Anyone here have any actual driving experience with them? Have you ever taken it on a busy highway?

 

[tweakmonkey]

I drive one every day. It’s electric and it’s not slow. The new ones are turbo 3 cylinders and they’re pretty zippy too. The old ones are pretty slow but I thought it could do 80 mph... why wouldn’t it be allowed on the highway? There are way slower vehicles out there. Like my Westfalia van.

Sounds like you saw a bad driver.

 

[XavierMace]

I drive one every day. It’s electric and it’s not slow. The new ones are turbo 3 cylinders and they’re pretty zippy too. The old ones are pretty slow but I thought it could do 80 mph... why wouldn’t it be allowed on the highway? There are way slower vehicles out there. Like my Westfalia van.

Sounds like you saw a bad driver.

2017 Smart Fortwo

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 10.2 sec

No, it's slow. That's the new dino burning "zippy" one as you call it. Smart says the electric is 11.7 second. The previous gen was a leisurely 13.6 seconds. That means the "zippy" one is on par with a Prius which are pretty universally known for being slow. I will give you it's faster than a 36 year old VM Vanagon. Although I believe the later Vanagon's got down to the 14 second range which means they aren't that far off. Accent, Yaris, Rio, Civic, Golf, are all under 9 seconds.

 

[Rifter]

Ive taken one around the block a few times, used to work in a tow yard so drove all kinds of vehicles on occasion. And it is slow, for sure, no doubt about it. Felt about as fast as a 60's or 70's 4 banger econo box.

 

[tweakmonkey]

On my way to work today, I merged onto a highway in front of two box trucks, next to an 18-wheeler, behind a ~2000 Suburban, and I had a mid-90s minivan a few cars behind me. I'm sure a Smart is faster than most of those. My point stands - if someone can't figure out to merge into traffic with even a 13 second 0-60 car, they're a lousy driver. Let alone 10! It's not the car's fault. They just aren't planning or pressing the gas pedal. A smart or Prius is fine for driving on the highway, especially when you consider all the slower trucks, trailers, 80s vans and trucks, eco boxes from previous generations and so-on. It's a car built for the city to be sure, but it's plenty fast enough for highway driving.

Here are some 0-60 runs from my car this morning. About 9 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DOqZbDD0bo

This car's strong point isn't 0-60 really, more like 5-50. It's much quicker from that speed range vs many cars that might have faster 0-60, and there's never lag or downshifting when pressing the pedal, flat power curve.

 

[Yakk]

They are slow, and very prone to side winds since electronic stabilization can only do so much. Imho they are dangerous on the highway, but at least most of the risk is to the people in the car itself.

 

[snoopy7548]

They'd be excellent city cars, but I've seen a few here in Massachusetts. Not sure how that works in the winter, but I guess they manage.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I would blame the driver instead of the car here .... They are slow and ugly, but, they are far from the slowest thing on the road.

 

[snoopy7548]

Yeah, 0-60 in 10.2s isn't bad at all. My Versa does it in 9.4 seconds and I have absolutely no problem getting up to 65mph before the on-ramp ends. Most of the time I'm stuck behind some slow ass in a car that's nearly twice as fast as mine. It's not the car's fault in this case.

 

[tweakmonkey]

They are slow, and very prone to side winds since electronic stabilization can only do so much. Imho they are dangerous on the highway, but at least most of the risk is to the people in the car itself.

There is wind buffeting on the earlier cars but it's no worse than driving a van, uhaul etc. The new (2016?) cars work great and you can drive with 1 finger. They're a lot more stable.

Might be a little dangerous due to its size but it's a hell of a lot safer than a motorcycle

 

[Yakk]

They'd be excellent city cars, but I've seen a few here in Massachusetts. Not sure how that works in the winter, but I guess they manage.

The feedback I get from people in Canada who tried them in winter is they do Not handle winter & ice very well. Then when something happens you're also paying Mercedes garage rates (Smart cars are serviced by Mercedes dealership garages at premium rates) so repairs can add up a lot more quickly.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

2017 Smart Fortwo

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 10.2 sec

No, it's slow. That's the new dino burning "zippy" one as you call it. Smart says the electric is 11.7 second. The previous gen was a leisurely 13.6 seconds. That means the "zippy" one is on par with a Prius which are pretty universally known for being slow. I will give you it's faster than a 36 year old VM Vanagon. Although I believe the later Vanagon's got down to the 14 second range which means they aren't that far off. Accent, Yaris, Rio, Civic, Golf, are all under 9 seconds.

https://www.topspeed.com/cars/ford/2007-ford-focus-ar17535.html

13.6 seconds. That was the car I was driving around until last May, and I was able to merge on the highway just fine.

That sort of acceleration was par for the course until fairly recently, when manufacturers suddenly decided to turbocharge all the things and bolt them to transmissions with more gears than a mountain bike. But even in an older vehicle, if you have to floor it and pray to merge on a highway, IMNSHO you're doing it wrong. Probably not planning ahead far enough.

 

[dtgoodwin]

On my way to work today, I merged onto a highway in front of two box trucks, next to an 18-wheeler, behind a ~2000 Suburban, and I had a mid-90s minivan a few cars behind me. I'm sure a Smart is faster than most of those. My point stands - if someone can't figure out to merge into traffic with even a 13 second 0-60 car, they're a lousy driver. Let alone 10! It's not the car's fault. They just aren't planning or pressing the gas pedal. A smart or Prius is fine for driving on the highway, especially when you consider all the slower trucks, trailers, 80s vans and trucks, eco boxes from previous generations and so-on. It's a car built for the city to be sure, but it's plenty fast enough for highway driving.

Here are some 0-60 runs from my car this morning. About 9 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DOqZbDD0bo

This car's strong point isn't 0-60 really, more like 5-50. It's much quicker from that speed range vs many cars that might have faster 0-60, and there's never lag or downshifting when pressing the pedal, flat power curve.

I agree. It seems a frequent thing that people posting how cars are "dangerously" slow when they cannot accelerate from 0-60 in less than 7 seconds. Do we forget in the 70's and 80's many cars were close to 20 seconds? Yes, the freeway speeds were slower then but the biggest thing I see is drivers who not only enter the freeway going much slower than traffic is moving but fail to also view the merge until the last second. I used to drive a '81 VW Rabbit diesel with all of 52 HP. I recall many times being so heavily loaded my rear suspension was on its stops, yet I could merge safely even on an uphill on-ramp. Yes, I had to be very conscientious of where I was and even had to ride a little off the side after the merge ended, but I never forced anyone to have to suddenly brake to avoid me.

I think many drivers have lost the skill of merging properly thanks, in part, to the high horsepower of modern cars.

 

[HarryLui]

It's the person driving it, not the car.

My 73HP Insight without a working IMA battery is one of the slowest acceleration car sold in US in recent years, you wouldn't believe how many people I still pass on the on-ramp.

People tends to think it's ok to enter 65mph+ traffic at 40mph...

A women riding in my 1.9L Saturn SL2 once asked me, "What's that noise?"
"That's the noise my engine makes while revving at 5000rpm"
"Can you not do that? I don't like that noise", She said as I was trying to merge to on the I10 in LA with a super short on-ramp with 4 people and a trunk load of stuff... right, I'm going to listen to her.

 

[ChronoReverse]

It's a "slow" car but the problem is entirely the driver.


My own anecdote is someone I know complaining her car was slow and couldn't make it up a hill without slowing to a crawl (it was a Yaris). That surprised me until I asked for me details and found out that she doesn't ever use more than half throttle. Because she doesn't like to, apparently.


I mean, sure the cars are objectively slow relatively speaking but there's no reason they can't accelerate to highway speeds and merge in.

 

[snoopy7548]

It's a "slow" car but the problem is entirely the driver.


My own anecdote is someone I know complaining her car was slow and couldn't make it up a hill without slowing to a crawl (it was a Yaris). That surprised me until I asked for me details and found out that she doesn't ever use more than half throttle. Because she doesn't like to, apparently.


I mean, sure the cars are objectively slow relatively speaking but there's no reason they can't accelerate to highway speeds and merge in.

Sort of reminds me of a George Carlin bit...

By the way, use everything on your car, you know what I mean? It’s yours, fuck it, you paid for the car, use everything, man. Flip your sun visor even on a cloudy day, who knows, flip it over here, flip it up and down, flip it on the side like the French people do. Flip the other one, even if no one is there, open the ash tray, push in the lighter even if you don’t smoke, turn all the knobs, have a lot of fun. Put your hand out the window, tell people to stop, you have power, power, stop, hold on, you stop, oh. And then let one person go, okay, you can go. Not you, you go. Okay, hey, fuck it, have a little fun, you paid for the car, you know what I mean?