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The Smart Car by Mercedes
The little car than can
by: Bill Zervakos
When Cathy and I were assigned a road trip by AZ3Sixty, a magazine we write for out of Phoenix, we were just a bit more then surprised when told what we would be driving. When one thinks about a vehicle for an all day road trip, size, power and comfort come to mind for me, and our vehicle had none of the above mentioned accoutrements.
To say the Smart Car is little is simply not a definitive enough word to describe this tiny car. When we pulled into the lot of Smart Cars Auto Sales of Phoenix lot, I was struck by just how mind bogglingly small the Smart Car is. Even the dimensions can be a bit misleading because although it’s nearly nine feet long it just doesn’t look that big. And being just an inch over five feet wide and tall, the car is literally a rolling shoebox, and a very small shoebox at that. That is until you get inside, only then can you appreciate the design of the Smart Car.
While at just over 5’ 10” I’m certainly not tall, but I am, shall we say “hefty” and yet there was plenty of room for me to feel very comfortable. So, whether behind the wheel or as a passenger, one quickly forgets that the Smart Car is really a very tiny machine. That said, let me talk a bit about riding in, and driving this car.
We were driving the Cabriolet, with the top down of course, and it was a really enjoyable hour long drive to Wickenburg. Something I noticed right away was the fact that the car is so short, and the windshield is so large, that there is very little of the annoying problem of wind burbling behind you smacking you in the back of the head.
We started our trip on the 101 freeway and while the car performed well enough, it really isn’t a car that I’d want to drive on the freeway every day. It does cruise at 70 mph just fine however there were an awful lot of big vehicles blazing by and there is no question at those times, you know you’re in a very little car. That said, once we hit Grand Avenue, and I know virtually every state or city has its own Grand Avenue so you know what kind of road I’m talking about, the car felt perfectly at home.
One of the quirky things you have to acclimate to is the hesitation when the transmission shifts gears. Imagine if you will, driving a car with a standard transmission and think about taking off in first gear, but before shoving in the clutch, you let off the gas pedal. That feeling of the compression braking throwing you forward that you’d have in that situation is the way the Smart Car shifts every time. The good news is that after driving it for a while, you settle in to it and really don’t notice it at all.
What it does make one mindful of though, is that driving this car is very different than almost everything on the road, and even turbocharged at 61 horsepower you have to drive it accordingly. You don’t just zip around and pass cars on the road, and even when cornering the car decelerates significantly which can be a bit disconcerting until you really get familiar with the car.
We continued our trip out of Wickenburg on to route 89 which is a beautiful stretch of highway that takes you into Prescott. Highway 89 is a really interesting winding road that climbs from an elevation of about 2000 feet in Wickenburg, to almost 5400 feet in Prescott, so you know it was a test for the Smart Car. Add to that the monsoon type weather we ended up traveling in and you know the little car got a pretty stiff workout. The good news is that it proved to be the little car that can. It was the type of torrential downpour that we’re used to often seeing here in the desert. The kind of storm that takes the temperature from the 100’s to the 80’s, while flooding roads and dry riverbeds in a matter of minutes.
We were standing in a doorway of the Rancho Bar7 restaurant watching the water rising up over the curb so we decided to brave the rain and take off towards Prescott. The little car handled the weather like a trooper sloughing off the rain and dealing with the headwinds of around 20mph for miles while climbing up to Prescott without a hitch. The only way we knew the little car was working hard was from the fuel usage. We pretty much had the pedal to the medal most of the way up the hill and even so we figured that we only got about 40-45 miles to the gallon or so. What a problem to have.
Bottom line, the Smart Car is a fun, quirky little car that I think is a winner. It would be great for all that running around town that we do so much of, and we all know that kind of driving just eats up gas mileage. It’s so small that it virtually eliminates parking problems and it’s amazingly fun to drive. There are only a couple of places to buy the Smart Car so it’s important to do some research about the car to find out about the different models because there are actually quite a few options you can add.
A word of caution though, if you’re the type that just hates it when people stare at you or your mode of transportation, the Smart Car may not be the choice for you. This is an eye catcher like no other and we were constantly being honked at and having people snapping pictures of the car all day long. Whenever you park, expect people to come up and start talking about the car and I’m pretty sure this will go on until there are a whole lot more on the road.
I can say this for sure; if this car had been available when I had small children and was driving 45 minutes to an hour each way to work, I would have loved having a Smart Car. I can’t imagine how much money over the years I would have saved by driving a car getting at least 50 odd miles to the gallon. That’s easily more than 3 times the mileage of pretty much anything I’ve ever driven.
So if you’re in the market of a killer little grocery getter, until something better comes along, I think I’d do some serious checking into the Smart Car. It may prove to be a really Smart decision.
Specifications:
Pricing: TBA
Engine: Inline 3 Cylinder gas
Horsepower: 61
Torque: 66 lb-ft
Wheelbase: 74 inches
Curb Weight: 1650
Fuel Economy: 50/65