Smart car rolls into Roanoke, USA

It’s five feet wide, five feet tall and eight feet two inches long,” says Wayne Wise as he shows off his new, micro mini car.

He says, when it comes to the smart car, technically the “Smart for Two,” good things really do come in small packages. “This is the most fuel efficient non hybrid car in the United States,” he said.

It’s why he didn’t mind waiting two years to get off the wait list and pick up three for himself. A red convertible will roll in any day.

“We got 60 miles to the gallon on the interstate.” It’s a cheaper ride than the 12-miles-per-gallon he got out of the SUV he replaced.

Wayne says he gets a lot of looks driving the car around town, as did I when he let me take it for a spin around Roanoke. “Everybody waves, snapping a picture with their camera phone.”

There are only two other smart cars in the commonwealth. Wayne says despite the size, cars are safe. “It is really safe. The car is built in a roll case. The material the roll cage is made of is the strongest material known to man,” he said. He says the engine is outside the shell so there’s no worry about it being forced in in a crash.

There’s even room for a weekend bag for your next road trip.

The Smart for Two car meets all U.S. crash and emissions standards. The mid range model has a base price of 13,500 dollars, 15,000 with all the options.

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Smart Car makes energy sense in U.S.

was only a matter of time before the Smart Car was introduced to the U.S. Several different models of similar size from different manufacturers have been available in Europe for years.

I was in Italy several years ago and was immediately struck by the size difference in motor vehicles. Even Ford and General Motors have made scaled-down versions of full-sized vans, which I saw in Europe. Apparently they are not available here, and I cannot fathom for what reason that is so.

When I was in Halifax two years ago, Smart cars lined up by the hundreds in the port and were being shipped for sale throughout the near provinces. It is past time that U.S. consumers have the opportunity to buy cars whose mileage per gallon makes sense.

There are those who predict such cars won't be popular or have an impact. I predict that the dealers won't be able to keep the cars in stock and by the end of 2008, there will be a six-month waiting list for a wildly popular new-look car. As with everything else that makes energy sense, the U.S. is far behind the rest of the world. Perhaps this will help.

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Smart car will be on display in KC area

If you still find a Segway scooter moving on a downtown sidewalk a peculiar sight, wait till you see the Smart car.
What will soon be the smallest car sold in the U.S. will be on display for consumers to check out and test-drive at Oak Park Mall on Sunday and Monday.
The Kansas City area is the latest stop for Smart USA, a Penske Automotive Group subsidiary, in a 50-city road show to generate interest in the two-seater.
Nearly 800,000 of the vehicles have been sold worldwide, but the Smart car will be launched in the U.S. for the first time in January. With fuel prices remaining high and urban traffic congestion unabating, the U.S. distributor of the car built by Mercedes believes the time is right for its American debut.
The car has a rear-mounted, three-cylinder, 1-liter gasoline engine that produces a top speed of 90 mph. It reportedly will get more than 40 miles to the gallon. Prices for its three models start at $11,590, $13,590 and $16,590.
The Smart car is unique, said Ken Kettenbeil, Smart USA’s director of communications.
“Because of this car’s size, price and gas mileage, it’s somewhat in a segment by itself,” he said at Penske’s headquarters in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. “People are always curious about the car’s dimensions and safety. So we thought the best way to address those questions is to bring the car to the customers.”
In fact, that’s basically Smart USA’s marketing strategy. The company has no plans to advertise in print or on television. The company will rely on word-of-mouth buzz, online and in person.
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Utahns Test Drive Smart Cars

It's not often that a new car comes along that's different from everything else on the road. But we spotted one today in Utah County.

You can't buy one yet in the United States, but thousands of people are putting down deposits to get on a waiting list for when they finally do arrive here!

OK, they do look a little weird. But people were lining up at Mercedes Benz of Lindon to test drive the Smart Car. Yes, Smart Car is a division of Mercedes. And these cars have been around for a while.

Steve Weisenberger is a Smart Car spokesman. "It's been around almost 10 years now," he said. "It's being sold in 36 different countries. The U.S. will be the 37th country."

There are three models with three price tags -- $12,000, $14,000 and $17,000.

Other than the options, the cars have identical one-litre, three-cylinder engines, and 71 horsepower under the rear hatch!

"It's held in there by eight bolts, a few harnesses. You can get two guys to actually lift the engine out, set it on a workbench and work on it," Weisenberger said.

Smart Car weighs only 1,650 pounds. Its top speed is 90 miles per hour, and it gets more than 40 miles per gallon! Small, yes. But plenty of leg room.

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Concerns over safety in the Smart Car

The Smart Car is supposed to hit the U.S. next year and there are concerns about its safety.
It's fuel efficient, with the American version expected to get about 40 miles a gallon.
The 1700 pound vehicle is one of the smallest cars on the market and has not undergone crash testing here in America.
But the manufacturer, Daimler Chrysler says there are safety features like a stiff frame, antilock brakes, and side and knee air bags that make it a safe car to drive.
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Get Smart With A Smart Car

Surprising, the name is just so right for this little car. It was originally started by the auto maker Daimler-Chrysler, the people who make the Mercedes Benz and the watchmaker Swatch. So ‘Smart’ is actually an acronym that stood for ‘Swatch Mercedes ART’. The joint venture was set up in a place called Smartville in France. However, Swatch, inexperienced in the field of auto manufacturing and faced with the prospect of impending losses, pulled out. The company that manufactured ‘smart’, a division of Daimler-Chrysler was called ‘MCC’ or Micro Compact Car GmbH but its name was changed to Smart GmbH. It is based in Böblingen, Germany.The Smart Car was an idea so that city drivers would have a car that could very easily be parked, preferably ‘nose-in’ into a tiny space. It was to be a hybrid, taking environmental issues into consideration, it needed to seat only two and it needed to be reasonably priced so the young could afford it too.The car was launched in the 90's and it has over 750,000 customers in 36 countries today. At a time when gasoline prices seem to be soaring and pollution issues are growing in importance, it’s probably time to go smart and the car with its new logo has an arrow incorporated to show forward thinking as well as a C standing for ‘compact’.The cars, according to Daimler-Chrysler, will be launched in the U.S. in 2008 and will be sold by Hybrid Technologies as an electric version for about $30,000. Though it has been labeled a hybrid, in reality, it is be a totally electric car.

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Start your engines for a greener tomorrow

Ottawa’s new green transport initiative could mean a lot more nifty little energy-efficient cars on the roads and a whopping passel of Hummers and the like clogging up the lots of new car dealers. In his 2007 budget this week, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced several new measures designed to encourage consumers to purchase or lease fuel-efficient vehicles and to get their old clunkers off the road. These initiatives include adding an additional $2,000 to $4,000 to the price tag of fuel- inefficient models and offering rebates of up to $2,000 for buying green. Some type of incentive will also be offered to get people to scrap their old heaps, but Flaherty said the details on that are still being worked out. The 2007 models eligible for rebates so far include, at the $2,000 level, the Honda Civic Hybrid, Ford Escape HEV and the Toyota Prius. A $1,500 rebate will apply to the Toyota Camry Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid and the Ford Escape HEV 4x4. Buyers will get $1,000 back on the purchase of a Mini Cooper, Toyota Yaris, Toyota Corolla, Saturn VUE Hybrid, Jeep Compass, Jeep Patriot, Lexus RX400H, Toyota Highlander Hybrid 4x4, Chevy Impala FFV, Chevy Monte Carlo FFV and the Chrysler Sebring FFV. David Daughton of Charlottetown can talk about just how cool it is to cruise around in one of these environmentally-conscious cars. For the last two years he’s been driving the Mercedes SmartCar. This car has the highest fuel economy rating so far, yet oddly enough has been left off the minister’s eligibility list. But officials from Transport Canada say that’s because there is not yet a 2007 model. Tags: smartcar

Smart car comes with interior innovations in plastics

Flax/plastic composite and tailored LFT are used in the 2007 model design.

14 March 2007 – Plastics interior innovations have been applied with the latest 2007 design Smart Fortwo vehicle, involving natural fibre reinforced plastic and the use of long fibre reinforced thermoplastics (LFT).
The previous S-shape asymmetric instrument panel has been redesigned in the interest of occupant safety as a straight design and is now made in a “flax/plastic composite material”.
The structure and cover for a new storage area inside the lower part of the tailgate is made in selectively reinforced or “tailored” LFT plastic, developed by the Swiss company Esoro.
The E-LFT application is produced since January 2007 at a rate of 400 parts/day at Weber Fibertech at its new plant in Markdorf, which is in the area of Lake Constance in Southern Germany.
The new application for the 2007 Smart is the first industrial application for Esoro’s E-LFT technology and Esoro managing director Diego Jaggi told PRW.com that rear seat frames are under developemnt for other automotive OEMs.
With E-LFT parts typically weighing 30-50 per cent less than comparable steel ones and with cycle time below 60 seconds, Esoro says that the technique “makes large scale production of high-strength and lightweight composite parts affordable”.Tags: smartcar