October 11, 2004

• I'd be cool in the town I live in (it's granolaville), but taking that on the highway would be suicide. I'd be a wet-spot on the bottom of some H2's tires, safety cage or not. Not because of the safety design, but because I have doubts about nimbleness at high speeds, as well as how fast a 3-cylinder engine can accelerate in the land of V6 and V8 behemoths. Great concept, and it would be great in a large city. I just have my doubts as to how utilitarian it would be for someone like me in the midwest.
• I'd be interested to see the acceleration ratings, but remember, shawnj, that Acceleration=Force/Mass, and American cars usually maximize the Force part of the equation rather than minimizing the Mass part. Motorcycles, on the other hand, can go fast quickly because there's virtually no mass. I think that's the theory behind this car. That said, I don't know the mass or the force, so I don't know how fast it'll go, but I suspect it won't be terrible.
• Over here in Europe, there's also the Smart Roadster, which is just about the smallest sports car that you can get. Personally, I think that it looks like a Lego car, but some people love them.
• I would drive one. The only problem I see is that other drivers won't see the micro-car and smash it. But that is also a problem I deal with everytime I take my motorcycle out for a ride. So, it's a problem I am used to dealing with.
• 0-60 in 20 seconds is nowhere near motorcycle land.
• Oh, look, it's a 3-page article, not a 2-page article. Imagine that. Yeah, 0-60 in 20 is not so good.
• I'd get one in a second, if I needed another car. The "you'd get smashed by an SUV" argument is a foolish one, I think. For one thing, these cars are way more nimble than SUVs. Nimbleness and breaking distance saves you from the majority of accidents. For another, the main type of fatal accident is not head-on collisions, but rather "t-bone" accidents. In such a situation, the oncoming car will hit the most heavily reinforced part of the Smart car, the axles. Compare that to the huge Ford F-150, which is notorious for passenger deaths due to t-bones caving in the enormous door. However, for me right now, the most economical car is the one I already own. Except in the case of getting rid of my POS Jeep Grand Cherokee, you almost never "save money" by buying a new car.
• I'm planning on buying a new car within the next 2 years, and honestly this type of car sounds like a viable option. I'm looking for real gas mileage champs, cars above 50Mpg...I don't really care much for speed or horse power or whatever, as long as it gets me from point A to point B. (see Prius or Scion)
• I saw these all over Glasgow this summer, including one that was parked perpendicular to the curb and was still flush with the side door of the neighboring car. There's no way another car would've fit in that spot.
• I saw one driving around in Vancouver for the first time a couple of days ago. They're now the new hotness where I'm concerned. Bring the Roadster over here, too!
• I care about speed. A lot. I drive on what I consider to be the best freeway in California, if not America - 280 in the SF Bay Area penninsula. 70-80 mph is the average speed, and 90 generally won't get you a ticket because there is always somebody going faster than that. Sometimes that person is me. My daily commute is 32 miles in 30 minutes. My dream is a tiny car that is designed to minimize the amount of gas needed to go 80 mph. If the ForTwo will go 90 mph without straining too much, I'd buy it. In 4 years when my Civic passes the decade mark, anyway.
• the for4 looks pretty cool. i'm in the need of a vehicle that fits me better (6'4", driving a cavalier - sure i fit into it just fine, but i'd like a little more room, etc.). i'd been looking at smaller SUVs but i hate giving up my gas mileage. all i want is enough room to haul some crap around. the for4 looks like it might just work for me...
• I'd rather keep my BMW R80. It only gets around 45MPG but it can blow by just about most of the gas-guzzlers on the road.
• 0-60 in 20 seconds is the diesel's acceleration figure. The gas (petrol) version comes in three different power levels: from a basic one, which is hardly any faster than the diesel, to one tweaked by Mercedes specialist tuners BRABUS (but sold through the official Smart dealer network) which manages 0-60 in 12 seconds. Which is not bad for a car with an engine the size of some lawnmowers'...(Of course, that tuned Smart does rather worse than 70mpg..but still over 40 mpg). Of course, the Smart has been around over here for ages now. It's a practical alternative for urbanites, but then, public transportation is still more practical in our crowded cities. And I must also add that this is a car that makes the Volkswagen New Beetle and Mazda Miata look positively virile. It is most definitely the gayest car in the market (the Roadster is cool, though).
• Also, the fourtwo curb weight is 730 kg or 1600 lbs. The Toyota Echo is about 900 kg or 2000 lbs. I guess that's about as low as you can go while still passing the safety tests to be classified as a car. By contrast, a Toyota Camry weighs 3,300 lbs (1500 kg). And the four4? The engine options are much better (gas only, at least in France), with 0-60 from 13.4 to 9.8. However, it's slightly heavier than the Toyota Vitz/Echo/Yaris, and quite a bit more expensive -- in France, a Yaris goes from 11,000 EUR to high 14s, while the four4 starts at more than 12,000 and ends in the 15s.
• Skeptic - you're right that public transport is more efficient in urban places (driving and parking just aren't worth the bother), but sometimes those urbanites want to leave the city, and this looks like the perfect car to do that. Or to move heavy things about - I can walk every where when I live, but I cannot buy furniture easily. Actually, unless you are a highway speedster (like yentruoc), this care would do great for the suburb to urban commute as well. Not everyone feels the need to speed. (Some of us would rather like to be forced to stay the speed limit, so we we can stop gripping the dash board and praying to St Christopher whenever being driven by certain people).