June 2008 News Article on the Smart Car and an New Member

[ACLaw]

Hi,
I want to introduce myself. AC Law. I write for Associated Content. I recently submitted an article predicting the Smart Car would have big years in 2009 and there after as well as ushering in a flood of other mini-cars. I took a real interest in the Smart car but was a little put off by the two year wait for a new one. Anyway, I hope you take a look at the article and enjoy it.

You can view it at AssociatedContent.com Title, A Seismic Shift in the Cars We Drive Starting in 2009


AC Law

[JPaul]

Thanks for joining us, ACLaw. Hope you'll find lots of infos here.
Just a little precision about the Daimler (Chrysler is out of the game now) smart: the $99 reservation deposit is fully refundable! ;)
Hope you don't mind me pointing this out, since it may scare some potential buyers away.
Oh, BTW: you may want to have the picture posted with your article changed, because it is the "older" 450, and not the 451 distributed by smart USA.

Welcome!

[Dunerunner]

Welcome to the forum!!

[pjneedster]

Nice writing ACLaw! I only wish my Smart was getting "an incredible actual 46.3 mpg in the city and 68.9 mpg on the highway." I'm more in the 38 & 45 category.

One of the tag-lines I've developed in showing the car to curious people is that "sooner or later we'll all be driving something like this".

The downside of mini cars is that they really show up the crappy roads and believe me in Indianapolis the roads really suck. An upside of pickups, SUVs & the like is that they can take a heavy road pounding - not for nothing all those burly pickup commercials! Maybe a general move towards small cars will put some taxpayer pressure on local govt to fix the damn roads.

Welcome to the forum!

[Flashman]

Good writing style but need major fact checking.

[Old SGM]

One of the things I tell people about my Smart is, not many on the road at the moment, wait till next year, they will be like those little black ants, they will be everywhere. Last tank I got 41.2 MPG, the car has just short of 1100 miles on it. Before that I was averaging around 38-39 MPG. I do not drive for gas milage, I just go, but I love it when I high MPG. Very few hills around here, lots of short trips, no much stop and go traffic, about 10 miles to work, 5 on surface streets and 5 on the local freeway. I took it to a local Cruise In for Hot Rods and Muscle cars, it drew more attention that many high dollar cars. It was worth the wait.