Edmund's sarcastic attempt at a long term review

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Permalink Reply by Seumas Warren on June 22, 2009 at 1:23pm

One of my co workers is 6'5" and I let him drive around the office park in my smart. He said he had been in bigger cars that didn't offer as much room as this little thing and that he was comfortable enough to have a car like this for everyday driving. He also weighs in at around 250. I too have also had dismal mpg then for no reason other than where I bought my gas. I got much better mpg when I used my regular station. I know for sure that any gas with ethanol blended in gets worse millage than without. But seems like everyone is putting that crap in to their gas these days, no way to avoid it.

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Permalink Reply by mr bad example on June 22, 2009 at 4:14pm

now that it's warmer out, i'm breaking 60MPG in my commuting, for giggles i drag race, running the smart to 5500rpms, and still return 50+mpgs with 10% ethanol fuel. i used the AC a few days ago and that knocked me back to the upper 40's :( but on a 12 mile commute, that's only a few hundreths of a gallon, another ounce or two... but 12 miles on less than a quart of gas on a 4 wheeler with AC and stereo is still pretty good.

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Permalink Reply by al eds on June 23, 2009 at 2:12am

Whatever people say Smart is a great vehicle.

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Permalink Reply by Ian Pellant on June 23, 2009 at 3:03am

Yes: smart is a great vehicle... much bigger on the inside than the outside.
I was passenger in a Honda CRV yesterday over part of the trip we did last weekend... not much room in it for the front seat passenger compared to the smart. The CRV uses about twice as much fuel. Interestingly, the first half of the trip I was back seat passenger and being near the rear axle, the CRV ride was about the same as the smart. Front seat is more between the axles so the rough roads were more cushioned; so: if anyone asks about the ride in a smart, just say it's like cutting the rear end off a larger car, move the rear axle forward, then add more room in the front.

Fuel prices in Australia have dropped to around AUD1.20.. say about USD4 per gallon. That really shows at the pump when I topped up the CRV for $45. The smart costs about $20 for the same distance. Can't beat that when only two people are travelling.

It won't be until we have realistic fuel consumption tests and the figures published that some of the journalistic confusion will be cleared up. With the current laboratory tests performed by the manufacturers, published / sticker fuel figures for any new car are wildly over-optimistic and comparing them is foolhardy.

For real, smart mpg figures, follow the threads on this site... and expect them to vary a lot due to different driving conditions, and the pumps and fuels used. There are more rorts at the pump than there should be.

PS: it's smart, not Smart.

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