Wall Street Journal says construction workers like the tiny, Mercedes Smart car
Wall Street Journal recently wrote a very positive article about small cars. The article is titled Tiny Cars Make It Big and starts off by saying "Finally, small is gaining some critical mass. After decades of lackluster sales in the bigger-is-better U.S. auto market, tiny cars are surging in popularity -- even as the overall auto industry declines." The Journal article includes a video (above) where a reporter goes to a construction site and asks construction workers if they would buy and they seemed open to the idea.
BMW's 1-Series, Verve, Mini Clubman, Yaris, Fit and Aveo were also mentioned in the article. There were also several comments in the video about the safety of the the Smart, which is expected to get a 4/5 star rating in government crash tests. As automakers try to reach the new 35 MPG CAFE standard and Americans become more concerned with fuel economy and the environment, our cars will get smaller. The question still remains, are we ready for small cars?
Gallery: 2008 smart fortwo
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
smart_hack 9:29AM (2/10/2008)
Ha! "BMW's smart" It's the Mini mini.
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Stéphane Dumas 9:44AM (2/10/2008)
the next question will be how much smaller we could go?
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Joseph 2:08PM (2/10/2008)
Lascelles,
I hope that the "BMW Smart" is a joke.Mercedes makes Smart.
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Lascelles Linton 11:33AM (2/10/2008)
Changed from BMW. That's the second time I did that at least. I am not totally sure why I keep making that mistake. Might have something to do with the fact Mercedes does not brand Smart a Mercedes Smart but just Smart.
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Throwback 12:14PM (2/10/2008)
I still think the transmission will be this cars downfall. The sooner they address that the better for the car. That was the one thing that made me cancel my order.
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Wise Golden 4:13PM (2/10/2008)
I'm glad to see small cars are recieving improved sales. I am also glad to see that larger cars are getting better options to improve economy (GM only, not the rest.) As for me, I'm in a fairly heavy car (4400 lbs,) but it's a hybrid and it gets 38.5 MPG which is better than EPA rating on the smart car (smart epa is 36 combined.)
I really can't see that these cars are going to do well in a collision with an SUV -- not trying to be negative. I think after the first crash occures, and the photos hit the net, smart is going to be out of business in this country.
I think people are going to stick with better small car options like the civic, the prius, the yaris, the escape, ect.
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Dave 5:32PM (2/10/2008)
I would think that the gas mileage should be better for such a small car. I would rather have a Honda Civic, better gas mileage, a little bigger and probably safer.
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Rick Zmiejko 6:50PM (2/10/2008)
The Smart requires PREMIUM FUEL! What's up with that???!!!
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MikeW 10:26PM (2/10/2008)
The United States is an automotive third world. [thanks big 3]
page 26
http://www.smart.com/-snm-0135035552-1199771141-0000024731-0000000003-1202699304-enm-is-bin/intershop.static/BOS/root/root/media/ap/gg/nm@sgjo=dmpgshuj$sj$sjw@ltilmrrebrfl/smart_fortwo_brochure_0108.pdf
The naturally aspirated Smart only takes 95RON fuel.
The Brabus turbo model takes 98RON.
Seeing as our third world can not guarantee high quality/high AKI gasoline, this is why they just say 91 or better AKI, so if the premium fuel is ever adulterated, you'd never know.
(Because your are purchasing more AKI than you need, and you'd have residual fuel in the tank)
Look at what Audi had to do for the US (see page 4)
http://allroadfaq.com/downloads/technical/Audi_S4_engine_english.pdf
So Audi created a 'mutt' program because they could not assume that everyone can find 98RON fuel for the S4, and our 'mid-grade' isn't up to Euro mid-grade standards.
So it is averaged for something in between, say 91.5 AKI
also at the time, the 5hp18 (or was it 19 by that time) could only take so much input torque.
and yet the 10% ethanol does nothing to fix this, except cost you 3.5% in mileage.
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Mattias 6:05AM (2/11/2008)
Just compare...
Aveo crashing:
http://www.autobild.de/mmg/mm_bildergalerie_573766.html?tab=0&page=13
Mercedes Benz A-class:
http://www.autobild.de/mmg/mm_bildergalerie_573766.html?tab=0&page=5
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Steve 1:02PM (2/11/2008)
MikeW explained the premium fuel thing in large part but I have to point out that all Mercedes cars require premium fuel.
And yes, people are definitely open to the idea of a small car at this point. I think with all the new, cheap small cars coming soon to markets around the world, we will see a lot of Americans buy these as second or third cars. After all, a minivan is great for getting several kids to school, but when you're commuting, driving a huge car alone is probably starting to seem a little absurd to many people, what with gas prices these days. I know I'm starting to feel wasteful driving my sedan alone to work every day, so I assume at least some of the vast number of SUV drivers feel that way.
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MikeW 5:01PM (2/11/2008)
Mercedes' 3 valve engines only took 95RON.
That is part of the reason (and a new camshaft) that AMG was able to get an extra 27hp from the 4.3, in the C43 AMG, way back.
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