Smart ED electric car

[HXGuy]

This seems like it could be a real option...$17,500 after federal incentive and 90 mile range, should be coming Stateside in the spring.

http://money.cnn.com/gallery/autos/2012/10/11/smart-ed-electric-car/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thoughts?

 

[LEAFfan]

There's already a thread about it . I would be interested IF it had a QC port, which the 2013 doesn't.

 

[Herm]

90 miles range in the city is probably using the NEDC european testing cycle, perhaps 70 miles in the US but of course YMMV.. I would be more interested in a faster L2 port than in QC.

 

[GRA]

90 miles range in the city is probably using the NEDC european testing cycle, perhaps 70 miles in the US but of course YMMV.. I would be more interested in a faster L2 port than in QC.

EPA has rated the 2013 Smart ED as 112 MPGe city/ 88 Hwy/ 100 combined and 34kWh/100 miles, vs. the Mitsubishi i, 126MPGe city/ 99 Hwy/ 112 combined and 30 kWh/100 miles. So, although the Smart has a 17.6 kWh battery vs. a 16 kWh battery for the i, actual range will be similar (and short). If more i dealers offer the i for the same price as the Smart, no one will buy the Smart unless length is critical, or they really want the convertible.

Oh, and found this in a review:

"The extremely short wheelbase showed us its pitfalls, however, as we bumped along and tumbled over the potholes of New York City. This is what we would consider “off-roading” in a Smart car.

"Drivers six-feet and above won’t feel cramped, but they might miss a red light or two -- the top of the A pillar just above the windshield blocked visibility of traffic lights at a reasonable stopping distance. This was quite frustrating, as the only solution was to crouch down and look beneath the pillar (and our driver was an average height of 5-foot-7.)"

The first issue is typical of any very short wheelbase car; only the 1970s Renault 5 aka Le Car managed to reduce this to manageable levels. For a city car, the issue with being able to see stop lights is more critical, and would be a deal breaker for me (assuming the car otherwise met my needs, which it doesn't).

 

[Herm]

The Smart is obviously a city car.. a crowded city with tight parking. Short trips so some discomfort is bearable. The owner would quickly learn how to deal with stoplights.

 

[GRA]

The Smart is obviously a city car.. a crowded city with tight parking. Short trips so some discomfort is bearable. The owner would quickly learn how to deal with stoplights.

'Some discomfort' needs to be quantified. When I drove a Think Citi for a week in the late '90s, the suspension would crash into the bumpstops while driving in the cratered no-man's land laughingly referred to as 'city streets' around here. Your kidneys and/or back will get quite a shaking up in a short period of time - it was totally unacceptable to me, and I'm more willing to put up with some discomfort than mainstream drivers who aren't supporters of the technology.

As for needing to 'learn how to deal' with stoplights, sure, it could be done. But the irritiation of constantly needing to do so, and the safety issues generated if you don't, make the car unsuitable IMO - you shouldn't need to adapt that much to a car, especially on a matter that involves safety.

To take one example, much as I liked the 1st Gen. Miata, I didn't fit in it; the frame at the top of the windshield was exactly at my eye height. I had to hunch down or else raise up in the seat to see down the road more than about 30 feet, and that's ridiculous when I should be concentrating on driving.

For another example, when I bought my Forester I had the dealer do a straight swap, replacing the (included, more expensive) auto-dimming mirror with electronic compass for a standard manual day/night mirror without compass. The compass was a nice toy and would have come in handy once or twice while driving poorly-marked forest logging roads in limited visibility, although it had an distracting power light that came on every time the car was restarted and had to be manually turned off each time, because it was constantly in my peripheral vision. Irritating.

I could have solved that problem by covering it with some black electrician's tape, but there was a bigger one. The auto mirror extended 1/2 inch lower than the normal one owing to the compass display along the bottom, and it was just low enough to block a critical view to the right front when exiting a parking lot with even a slight downward sloping driveway (as most are), i.e. I couldn't see pedestrians approaching on the sidewalk from that side AT ALL, without performing gymnastics. If I'm going to be driving the car for many years, why would I put up with that, or else knowingly accept a blindspot in such an important area?