WSJ review Mar 21 2008

[stuberman]

This link does not require a subscription: Daimler's Minicar - More Charming Than Smart

The review is generally fair albeit flawed. I consider Jeff Sabatini's opinion of the automated transmission to be 'off' since I do not find it to have "slow, seemingly random shifts". He also seems to maintain that a car needs to have all capabilities whereas the beauty of the smart is that it is designed to fit a specific purpose and not be all things to all people.

Still it is not a bad review (I, too, live in Michigan and find that the car has no problem keeping up with 85 MPH freeway traffic although the gas mileage drops like a rock).

[SmartPassion]

I can sympathize with his comments about driving a Miata next to a semi.

[robotbill]

I agree with you stuberman. I read this 10 days after driving a smart for 1 1/2hours both street and highway. I am buying this car for a specific purpose. I don't want a backseat that I don't use 99.9% of the time. I have other cars for other purposes.

[idahosmart]

This review was much better than another one in the WSJ the next day. It was poor, as he did not even get in the car. It was obvious he did not want to even review the car, so he only threw out the tidbits of bad press he could find from other sources.

Tom