Smart

Smart. (Photo by the so-called “old guy” with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.)

My May 2008 Car & Driver magazine has a roadtest of the incredibly tiny Smart Twofour (pictured); in this case a Twofour Passion, the upscale version if the base Twofour.
It cost a little over $14,000.
A guy up the street bought one (the car pictured), and supposedly he thinks the world of it.
C&D more-or-less panned it, mainly because it’s not as frugal as it looks like it should be.
It gets about 32 mpg, about the same as a Honda Fit, a Toyota Yaris, or a Chevy Aveo, all of which have four seats. The Smart has only two seats. (It’s also in the Aveo/Fit/Yaris price-range.)
The Smart comes off as a glorified golf-cart, although it’s a real car.
It’s finished like a car inside, about as roomy as a Cadillac Escalade, and has airbags (including side-curtain).
It’s tiny but not a golf-cart.
It only has a 70-hp three-cylinder engine in the rear driving the rear tires, which like all are only 15-inch.
Car & Driver also says the tranny, which is automatic (although it can be shifted manually) is laughable. —That mere operation requires incredible concentration.
As a result it’s kind of slow.
And the engine requires pricey 91-octane fuel. The cheapest, which I use in our cars, is 87-octane. My motorbike and the mowers get 93.
But the average city parking space could accommodate three+ Smarts.
Too bad the current rule is one car per parking-space.
I’d be interested if it were All-Wheel-Drive, but it’s not.
Furthermore, where do I put my dog?

RE: “‘Old guy’ with the dreaded and utterly reprehensible Nikon D100.......” —My macho, blowhard brother-from-Boston, who is 13 years younger than me, calls me “the old guy” as a put-down (I also am the oldest). I also am loudly excoriated by all my siblings for preferring a professional camera (like the Nikon D100) instead of a point-and-shoot. This is because I long ago sold photos to nationally published magazines.

“Tranny” equals transmission.