Autoweek First Drive

[08-4-2]

The bias is so thick it is hard to glean any useful information.

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...023/latestnews

[SmartBob]

"just stay off the highway" is B.S. It's no worse than any 4 cylinder 2 seater or motorcycle. You've never heard of anyone having an accident due to truck draft. Common sense says steer clear and get passed the trucks. I've read a bunch of articles that say our Smart does fine on the highway. Same old crap about the tranny, too. You'll get used to it and like it from what I've read.
My 2 more centavos

[Peddlecar]

The transmission is actually exactly what I want. I prefer a manual, but my left knee is easily aggravated by using a clutch. So I'll operate it in manual mode and let the computer do the clutching.

Now if I wanted a true automatic, then I might not be as satisfied, but then my gas mileage would be 10% less, and that would be truley a deal breaker.

[Lewis]

They drive the smart fortwo every day on the autobahn and do just fine (believe or not there ARE trucks in Germany) - thank you Autoweek. I have seen them pass me at the 90 mph top speed (Germans just seem to press the gas to the floorboards and keep it there) and the fortwos look perfectly stable.

The pimple faced post teens working for the car rags don't have the skills we 60 year olds gained driving VW beetles on the highway so the idea of a little planning to pass and compensating for the draft of trucks is alien to these kids who grew up driving SUVs with ABS, traction control, EBD, stability control etc. and expect their cars to drive themselves.

To some of us this kind of driving is actually fun!

Grumpy old man rant now off :-)

[a2jack]

Lewis,

I agree with you, most younger drivers have had no experence with light weight vehicles, as there haven't been any made in the USA in years. (Geo and Festiva excepted).

I had a neighbor ( a car nut yet!) call to warn us about the death trap car we are about to buy. He had read this Autoweek article.

A lot of new drivers (to micro cars) are going to be buying the Smart. I wonder how many will be aware of that big blast of air, all pushed up in front of the truck they are about to pass? Or that huge, rolling vortex trailing behind the one they are coming up on.

Light, slab sided cars do get bounced around in the wind. For a "thrill a minute" drive an old VW Microbus cross country among the winds and trucks.
(At least we will have some power in the new 451).

In short, we need to inform our newbes, right here on this forum, that the Smart will require a different way of driving than they are used to in their last
car, truck or SUV. We don't want to lose any members here.

A2Jack.

[Lewis]

I agree with you 100% A2jack- with the belief that the Smartcar is simply DIFFERENT to drive not better or worse. There can be fun in accommodation (i.e. driving a car that you must adapt to the road circumstances) rather than the current ethos where cars and SUVs produce thrills by dominating the road conditions with size, technology and power.

[08-4-2]

I'm not so concerned about truck wind. I can't recall a time that I've been unsettled by air around a truck, although the really light cars I've had were very low to the ground. Here in the bay area, I'm far more likely to pay heed to winds on bridges, trucks or no trucks.

A few more horsepower is always welcome and I have yet to have the privaledge of driving a smart. Thinking of it as a "city car" makes me ambivalent as this whole city/hwy paradigm doesn't reflect the "urban" reality of around town driving with the carpe diem needs of the highway, punctuated by sluggish traffic.

The interior seems very spacious and well put together. I'd rather have it than a Fit or the other cars that I'm not interested in distinguishing from one another.

Still, there is my curiousity of how it will do on the highway. I knew its acceleration wasn't a selling point when the FAQ answer to "How fast does the smart go?" was answered with 90 mph. While this is accurate, it seems evasive. And while my current VW supposedly does 0-60 in 11 seconds with the automatic, I'm just wondering how tractable and responsive the smart is.

The price is right and it definately seems like the way to go until some manufacturer actually starts delivering real advances in fuel economy. Let's face it, the current Prius isn't for everyone.