Five minutes after I picked up my Smart I was on the interstate during Pittsburgh rush hour traffic. The car does take some getting used to. The first 20 minutes were....'did I make a mistake here'...but now almost a month later I have learned how the Smart works and now my other cars seem 'strange'....I do feel the wind a little more....BIG trucks to move the car a little....but all in all now it is not noticable any longer......Just my opinion.
For what it's worth, I think the light aircraft analogy is a good one. These cars are the Piper Cubs of autos, in that they are light weight and influenced by winds (or drafts from larger vehicles.) Just like a Cub or a Champ, they are not unsafe but have to be "flown" constantly. Twitchy is also a good description, similar to taking our classic Mini on the highway; again, not unsafe, but your constant attention is needed. And the smart is much more civilized than the Mini, believe me.
I couldn't disagree more. There is nothing twitchy about the smart, in my opinion. This is not a moniker I'd like to see used to describe our cars.
Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Twitchy is not a negative term in my book, just describes the way this car (and lots of other small cars) handle on the road.
Twitchy is to move with jerkiness. My smart certainly doesn't do that. Did you possibly mean responsive or nimble? For most people, twitchy is undesirable... if a person has a twitch, s/he might go to the doctor.
When talking about our cars, there will be people who evaluate whether to buy one based on our remarks... and I think 'twitchy' does not do justice to its characteristics and can be misleading.
Whalepirot, sorry to hear your disappointment in the handling. I have had no such problems with my Cabrio. I have adjusted to it since February and of course it handles differently from my old Yukon XL, but all in all I'm really happy with her now. We're in sync and because of it I find she handles better than she did when I first got her. Good luck with yours.
At times we forget how good modern cars are. Drive my 1968 drum brake Mustang at 55 mph....you feel like your going well over that and you better pay attention to your braking distance!!
The Smart is just different than the average larger car in the US....
Perhaps the alignment is off slightly...I found on my own car that installing the rear wheels and tires on the front (bought a set of rears from another smart owner) greatly stabilized the handling of the car on interstates. I also now have the advantage of being able to rotate my tires every 6000 miles for better tire economy. Not sure just yet how the car will handle on snowy roads so we'll have to see how that goes next Winter.
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1976 Rover Mini
2003 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
2007 Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec (SOLD)
2009 smart Passion (Gone)
2011 smart Passion
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