Autoblog review smart 09 OUCH!!!!

[fpage77]

Originally Posted by conchobar

Until the average Joe Blow calculates their own MPG, I will never expect people to be impress by my 40mpg average.

People are stupid and don't know how to calculate MPG correctly. My dad thinks his Hyundai Elantra gets 50 MPG and said I should have got one of those crap wagons.

[forestacademy]

Originally Posted by conchobar

Whats wierd is, I have yet to read a reviewer complain about the lack of cruise control.

It just shows they never drove the car enough to even think about it. They were most likely to chicken to drive it on the Highway
If it didn't have wipers and it didn't rain while they were testing it that most likely would not have noticed that as well

[SmartJoeMN]

Originally Posted by conchobar

Whats wierd is, I have yet to read a reviewer complain about the lack of cruise control.

To busy trying to think of witty things to say about the transmission to even realize all the other things the car has/doesn't have.

[a2jack]

Autoblog's format is much like the church choir, call and answre only. no topics are ever initiated by the posters. This site, like most auto mags,
toes the industry line.

The Detroit auto industry has long tried to undermine the concept of little cars. Chief among their tools has been the company Global Insights. GI has been one of GM's PR outlets for years.

When Smart was first introduced to the US, almost every press article written, or on radio or TV included a quote from GI pretending to be some independent auto authority and thoroughly trashing the Smart car.

A writer from Autoblog dug up an anti-Smart piece he had written for the Detroit News (about the first intro of Smart at the Detroit auto show. BTW the car did not make it into the main building but sat outside )

The article was then planted in the LA Times (undated) just days before the first Smart road tour opened in Glendale (LA) California. That review was republished all over the US as part of the public response to the unveiling of Smart car. A2Jack.

IHS Global Insight // Automotive Industry Analysis, Forecasts, and Data

[bigcritter]

Originally Posted by The Rigger

I didn't buy my car (or my motorcycle, or my house, or my anything else, for that matter) to satisfy anybody but *ME*.

Exactly right!!! As a very wise Uncle of mine used to say, "I'll only get 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night worrying about it!"

[sato7]

The issue is not that someone has written a BAD review, the issue is that nobody has had the guts and impartiality to write a good one!
we cannot deny the fact that our smarts have some shortcomings but what car does not?
I would like one of these guys to do a long term test on a smart. and not a week but more like a 6 month or 1 year term. one of the main issues is that they are testing brand new cars with a NEW clutch and tranny. Give em a car with 2000 miles on it and I know the issues would be much less pronounced