Smart fortwo plucks the fuel-efficiency strings in many people’s hearts. How fuel efficient is it really? The smart fortwo models are getting pretty good mileage at 33 mpg city and 41 mpg highway. However, one could expect a little more fuel economy out of a super-compact two passenger vehicle that looks like a hatchback that has had the back half cut off. Also, the smart fortwo is a gasoline engine, no different than a Toyota Yaris or a Honda Fit.
In comparison with sub-compact cars, the smart fortwo is equal in price, immaterially better in fuel economy, and much smaller. An additional difference is the smart fortwo requires premium fuel whereas traditional subcompacts do not. This reduces the overall cost savings of the smart fortwo’s higher gas mileage. In fact, when one considers the overall cost per mile for each vehicle, the Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit are only $0.01 per mile more expensive to operate than the smart fortwo cars given the premium fuel requirement.
Smart fortwo is getting better gas mileage and is $0.01 per mile cheaper to operate, but there are a host of other factors to consider:
- Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit hold five passengers compared with the two passenger capacity of the smart fortwo vehicles
- The Yaris and Fit both have about twice the amount of passenger volume, more hip room, and include cargo volume (smart fortwo cars do not have cargo volume except for a miniature glove-box type storage bin in the more expensive models)
- Smart fortwo cars lack many standard features that are present on the Fit and Yaris including power steering, air conditioning, and audio system
Once you have added power steering, air conditioning, and an audio system, the most affordable smart fortwo model (smart fortwo pure) is well over $13,000, which is in the same price range as the Fit and more expensive than the Yaris. Smart fortwo is also a Daimler-Chrysler product, or what used to be Daimler-Chrysler, and this fact troubles me on another level. Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, and myriad other brand names this manufacturer’s vehicles are sold under, are notorious for being mechanically unreliable. While the smart fortwo is new and there are no good repair and maintenance data as of yet, I expect that this vehicle will have mechanical issues much like its larger Chrysler cousins.
All in all, the smart fortwo is a cool idea that falls a little short of my expectations. Something as small and non-functional as the smart fortwo needs to be getting significantly higher gas mileage than other non-hybrid vehicles before it would make sense to purchase a smart car. As it stands right now, you would be better off buying a standard subcompact because there really aren’t any fuel savings and at least you can go grocery shopping in it without the bags on your lap.
Smart For Two Pulse image courtesy of Flickr user Earl of Omniscience
14 Comments
I’ve only seen people drive Smart cars in Manhattan. Somehow they seem perfect for city driving – consider the advantage when parallel parking!
These cars seem like the inverse of Hummers – small and efficient – but just as humorous to see people drive in.
My first experience with the Smart car was when I first went to Germany back in 2004. It was neat at first because of the novelty factor, but then it just was kind of blah.
Andrew hits the nail on the head, this car makes perfect sense for city ownership due to its size and that’s about it. However, good luck driving aggressively in a city littered with potholes, aggressive drivers, and tourists that do not know how to walk, in a car that has no power steering. I mean come on.
Like many break through technologies, the product is always better in theory than in execution. There just is not enough car here (no pun intended) to justify the expense. Either this thing needs to cost 8 grand, or it needs to get 60 mpg to be worth it.
This car looks real safe in the event of an accident. A car shouldn’t be able to roll forwards or backwards easily, only on it’s side.
In this car you are the crumple zone!
Besides the safety factor or lack thereof, the SmartforTwo looks like the most uncomfortable piece of **** ever. It’s a glorified Matchbox car!
Rinestone…. People who drive in glass Yaris’ should not throw stones!
Well I guess let me put it this way. My car is already uncomfortable enough as it is, especially on long road trips. I can’t even fathom what it must be like to drive a car smaller than mine.
probably wouldn’t be “smart”…would it?
“The bottom line is, you can’t repeal the laws of physics,” Rader said. “You can have all the airbags and all the safety features that currently exist, but you can never make a small car as safe as a bigger, heavier one.”
Probally the best quote for the fact of the matter.
Pardon my ignorance, but is that a movie quote? If so, which movie?
I’m all for the environmental-green-global-climate-whale-spotted-owl-tree-frog-save-the-cock-roaches stuff. But I would not be caught dead driving that thing.
If Loraina Bobbet had just bought one of these vehicles for her husband she would have acheived the same ends as those she is famous for.
This car really makes a statement.
It looks like the head of what Loraina Bobbet cut off.
John Bobbet could have just had this thing reattached.