If you really want to save money on gas, buy a $1000 used car, any car, and use the $14,000 dollars you didn't spend on a new Smart4-2 - on gas and drive a long, long time before you use up your savings.
When the tank is empty I always fillerup...I bought my 4-2 passion because I was impressed with the design.
We just picked up our Brabus Cabrio. After nearly emptying the first tank full of gas, my calculations were impressive. It tached in at 40.19mpg. The dealer filled it up (note: the gauge read 7 of 8 bars as expected). We drove conservatively for 331 miles and filled to full 8.23 gallons. When topping up we gave the car a gentle shake to "burp" the air from the tank and voilà it read 8 bars out of 8. What do you know, it actually works. Then driving on at 80.5 miles it dropped the first bar. Seems to work normally to me. Enough said!
My Smart car is a baby (4 weeks old)...and isn't the diesel version. HOWEVER, it would be interesting to see if the DIESEL has the space/capacity to be converted into what they call a "Greasel" (i.e.: a diesel converted to run on cooking oil)...thereby solving ALL EMISSION ISSUES since there would be virtually nothing in the way of exhaust...except for perhaps french-fry fumes :-)
There is an outfit in Los Angeles tht does a standard diesel conversion (into one that runs on cooking oil) for about $700 US dollars.
Quite frankly, I didn't even know there was a Smart car available with diesel...otherwise I would have inquired and pursued the "greasel" aspect...since I only live about 50 miles away from Los Angeles.
I would be interested in hearing if anybody has "greaseled" their Smart-Diesel...and who the "converter dude" was.
...and by the way, my first fill-up (7.26 gals) at 276 miles showed I was getting 36 mpg CITY DRIVING ONLY. I made a trip back and forth to L.A. going approx. 85 mph most of the way... and then did some more city zipping around...next fill-up of 7.78 gallons netted me 38.9 mph. I'd say the standard advertisements are pretty much "on point".
I've been getting terrific mileage and it gets better as time goes by. On my recent trip to NYC, I drove over eleven hundred miles and spent less than 60 dollars on gas. Averaged an amazing 51 mpg driving the Grand Army of the Republic Hwy across northern PA. I attribute that to following the posted speed limits which were never higher than 55 mph.
I too have noticed that the gas gauge registers outrageous miles for the first couple of bars -- +80 is typical before the first bar disappears. I am getting over 300 miles per fill-up and I always fill it when it gets to one bar, simply force of habit. My driving is normally 50 percent city driving. From reading various accounts here, if you wait until the tank is holding .1 gallon you can easily approach 400 miles per tank.
If you really want to save money on gas, buy a $1000 used car, any car, and use the $14,000 dollars you didn't spend on a new Smart4-2 - on gas and drive a long, long time before you use up your savings.
When the tank is empty I always fillerup...I bought my 4-2 passion because I was impressed with the design.
I got it cause there is really nothing like it. That, and it matches my quirkyness. Everyone around that knows me says "It's you!"
I got it cause there is really nothing like it. That, and it matches my quirkyness. Everyone around that knows me says "It's you!"
The mileage is a nice bonus feature too...
Couldn't agree more! The quikyness is what attracted me to this car.
However, I can't stand if when someone says "It's soo cute" Eighty degrees this weekend with big blue sky . . top down . . . doesn't get any better than this!
I just returned from a drive to Las Vegas last night in my 08 Passion coupe. The route was LV south to Searchlight, to Laughlin, east to Kingman, AZ, to Wickenberg, south to Phoenix, and east to Apache Junction, AZ. (Traffic across Hoover Dam on a Friday afternoon is a drag! So I went the Searchlight way)
Interstate 40 highway cruising at 75 to 80 mph, mountain grades at 65 mph, stop & go traffic in Wickenberg, Sun City, and on the 101 Loop (all construction backups and delays).
I had filled the tank on Tropicana, drove 349.5 miles and didn't fill up until this morning, and used 8.293 gallons. That's a trip average of 42.14mpg.
My best mileage has been a bit over 47mpg driving from Flagstaff AZ to Happy Jack, AZ and back again. Of course that trip was at night driving about 45 mph to avoid elk on the roads. (You don't want to do battle with a 800 lb elk in any car, let alone in a Smartie!)
I do love my little Smart car, but I wish that I could get the 700cc turbo-charged diesel with the 6 speed transmission in the 451. I would start producing my own bio-diesel fuel in my workshop.
I spent some time in the UK four years a ago and worked with a guy who routinely drove from London to Tauton with his 05 Smart. His gas (or petrol as the Brits say) powered coupe averaged 75 - 80 miles per gallon. This gent also had a neighbor who drove the diesel powered '05 Smart coupe and claimed that he once averaged 105 mpg. (US gal or UK gal? I don't know).
But, at that time, I had a '05 Jaguar S-Type rental car. It was a full sized four door powered by a 2.6 liter turbo-charged diesel V-6. I averaged 32 mpg in the city and got 52 mpg on a long trip on the motorways. FACT! Now, the fuel pumps there dispense in liters, so my calculations were based on 3.785 liters per US gallon, not the UK gallon.
I truly believe that the overly strict US EPA emissions requirements are the reason for the reduction in fuel economy with the US Smart as compared to the European Smarts (as well as other cars.) It just doesn't make sense to tune a car to get a 20% or 30% reduction in CO2, Hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxides with a result of a 100% increase in fuel consumption.
That is counter productive.
The smart cdi is an interesting development, but emissions are not the reason that it is not here. Aside from other marketing decisions that effect import decisions, it is a 45 hp engine that goes 0-60 in only 19.8 seconds. It's designed as a city car for European driving habits & is just not practical for enough American drivers to bring it into this market.
As for the mpg differences between American & European versions of the smart fortwo, emissions are a factor but only a small factor. More important are the differences in compression ratio, weight, & the inclusion of mhd on fortwo's in Europe. In addition, the comparisons often use numbers produced with 2 different testing methodologies, which cannot legitimately be compared.
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Eighty degrees this weekend with big blue sky . . top down . . . doesn't get any better than this! 
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