Jeramey Jannene

Smart Cars Hitting The Street

By - Jan 25th, 2008 01:59 am

The Smart Car fortwo, arguably the smallest car on the market at 8-feet-long (the Prius is 14.6-feet-long), has hit the US market for the first time this month.  Streetsblog has a shot of one parked sideways amongst the rest of the cars on the street in NYC.

While I’m in no way in favor of cars, Milwaukee is far from ready to be a car-free paradise.  Sure certain neighborhoods are far better than others, but without a car certain people would struggle to get around, especially in the winter.  We, as those who want to live a low cost, environmentally-friendly car-free lifestyle, need to walk before we run and getting smaller, quieter, and more fuel-efficient is one component of that.

In to the picture steps the low-cost Smart Car, finally available on the US market.  While not more fuel-efficient than the Toyota Prius, it’s smaller and cheaper.  For urbanites that need a car infrequently the Smart Car might be the perfect match.  It’s easy to park, quiet (neighborhood friendly), and gets pretty good gas mileage at nearly 40 miles a gallon.  The car has a suggested retail price of just under $12,000.

An electric model is on the way, which is more attractive from an environmental standpoint, but will contain a $35,000 price, which might be too much for the average consumer to stomach.

As far as space goes inside the vehicle, I road in one in Germany and found it plenty comfortable, more so than say climbing in and out of a small pickup truck.

I won’t complain if all my neighbors replace their cars with Smart Cars.  Just think of the asphalt we could save.  More bike lanes anyone?

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2 thoughts on “Smart Cars Hitting The Street”

  1. Nick Aster says:

    I drove these in Europe years ago and they’re actually great. You really don’t feel like you’re in a tiny car. Still, I think the European versions were much more efficient. It’s a pity it took so long to get this version legal here and a greater pity that it seems to be dumbed down.

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