[BlackCanoeDog]

 

[kntr]

Family? You must have a small family.

 

[pimpbot]

Nice!

Where do you put the bike?

 

[cth978]

good for you for buyimg somethng to help the enviroment but i must say those are god awfully ugly.

 

[nachomc]

That's a neat go-kart. Can you run it on an indoor track?

 

[BlackCanoeDog]

Where do you put the bike?

There is a class 1 hitch available so you can then add any hitch mount rack. Smart also makes there own bike rack for it. I have also seen quite a few pics of Yakima Q-Towers and bars mounted on the coupes. We'll continue to use our Subaru for transporting bikes. Am also lucky to live within easy riding distance of the 3 or 4 main trail heads we frequent. This is a 3 cylinder turbo diesel. A guy I know locally has had one since they came out in '05 and told me that if he restricts his speed to 90K/hr on the hwy he gets 70 mpg (Imp. Gal) and also gets 50 mpg just driving around town. Tank was just under half empty a few nights ago and I filled it up for $8.29 (-8 Has a sequential clutchless 6 speed shifter or you can just drive it in Auto mode. Makes a good 2nd car for my spouse and son to enjoy some open air motoring and is a hoot to drive.

 

[ChromedToast]

I always found the name of those quite ironic.

 

[$ally Hu$tle]

if that's a family addition, you must not like your family very much..

 

[Dodgysam]

I love smart cars!

Id so buy one except they are stupidly expensive for what they are, and especially over here.
Also i think id be bigger than the car.

Id still drive one though and it'd be hilarious to turn up to the trails with my DH bike on the back of one of those.

 

[JohnJ80]

I was surprised at the cost and the relatively low gas mileage for a car of that size (31/41mpg). What do you actually get for mileage?

J.

 

[BlackCanoeDog]

I was surprised at the cost and the relatively low gas mileage for a car of that size (31/41mpg). What do you actually get for mileage?
J.

This one is an '05 diesel, not sold in the U.S. As I posted above, We have an acqaintance who has owned one for 4 yrs. He gets 50 mpg in town and as high as 70mpg hwy.Remember also a US gal is only 0.83 of Imp gal. used in Canada. I have heard the gas ones introduced in '08 do not get near the mileage of the diesel. Diesel fuel is typically cheaper than gas also.

 

[JohnJ80]

The numbers we have on the brochure here in the office list the current model at 31/41MPG for US Gallons. That isn't very good for giving up all the space. A mini cooper will do just about those numbers and is bigger. Heck, my BMW 535 xti wagon averages 25mpg and gets' 28-30mpg on the highway. The rumor is that the new diesel there will get 40mpg on the highway.

J.

 

[BlackCanoeDog]

The numbers we have on the brochure here in the office list the current model at 31/41MPG for US Gallons. That isn't very good for giving up all the space. A mini cooper will do just about those numbers and is bigger. Heck, my BMW 535 xti wagon averages 25mpg and gets' 28-30mpg on the highway. The rumor is that the new diesel there will get 40mpg on the highway.
J.

Sure, I would enjoy a Mini also. But that costs considerably more money. This is a second vehicle that is to be used primarily as a runabout and some enjoyable topdown motoring on our rural roads. Space is adequate, in fact generous for two and nicely handles our requirements 80% of the time.
Frankly I'm not interested in having another of those 'my car is better than your car' posts. Fact is everybody likes different things and is why there is lots of choice in the market place. Just posted the pics up to share...actually quite taken aback by the rude comment made by Sally Hustle, WTF?

 

[JohnJ80]

So what are the real numbers? That's all I really want to know.

That wasn't a comparison for the purposes of "who has a better car" but examples of other cars that get pretty good mileage that are not far off from the claimed numbers of the Smart Car. I really can't believe they are as low as they say they are, so I'm interested to hear what people are really getting in real world usage and not hearsay numbers ("I have a friend who...."). Since you said you had one, you seemed like a reasonable person to ask. That's all. No offense intended.

 

[BlackCanoeDog]

So what are the real numbers? That's all I really want to know.

That wasn't a comparison for the purposes of "who has a better car" but examples of other cars that get pretty good mileage that are not far off from the claimed numbers of the Smart Car. I really can't believe they are as low as they say they are, so I'm interested to hear what people are really getting in real world usage and not hearsay numbers ("I have a friend who...."). Since you said you had one, you seemed like a reasonable person to ask. That's all. No offense intended.

Ours is a 2005 diesel sold in Canada, not available in the US.
We have had the car less than a week so I can't personally help. The "friend" runs a very successful ISP Wireless and Computer business, very detail & numbers oriented. I have no reason to doubt his numbers. Having driven with him I know he uses the tips outlined in the manual to maximize fuel economy. He claims 70mpg highway by keeping it at 90K/hr, and claims 50 mpg around town. Again, this is a 2005 diesel available in Canada and Imp gallons ( 1.204 US gal ) Here is a link to some threads on Club Smart Car that discusses this issue. I see first 2 posters claim on the plus side of 70. Probably if you go to the end pages you will find data for the gas version sold in '08-09. Or possibly another thread dedicated to the gas model ( 451 = gas, 450 = diesel )
http://clubsmartcar.com/index.php?showtopic=14814
http://clubsmartcar.com/index.php?showtopic=16740
John, here is one specific to the 451 model, first poster shares your concern
http://clubsmartcar.com/index.php?showtopic=12601

 

[kntr]

My 91 4 door Mazda 626 gets 36-38 mpg on the hwy and 33-35 mpg in town. I can haul 5 people and tons of gear. It only cost me $1000 and it is still going strong.