Smart Cars for the college bound and beyond
By Susan Wilson
Smart Cars have come to America! What’s so great about a SmartCar? How about great gas mileage, fun to drive and between $11.590 and $16,590 depending on model chosen.
Smart Car dealerships aren’t everywhere yet, but they certainly have branched beyond Southern California and New York. Why even little old North Carolina has several dealerships although none in the Mountains.
Smart Cars are built with the environment in mind. Every part of the car was engineered for efficiency and eventual recycling. For example, most car air systems have at least 20 different parts. The SmartCar has one molded piece.
The dashboard and the wheel covering are made from recyclable synthetics. The door panels can be easily removed and recycled like the “Thing” from Jeep, the model that would allow you to remove and reattach the doors at your whim.
The Smart Car can be bought in one of three available models. The Smart forTwo Pure coupe, the Smart forTwo Passion coupe and the Smart forTwo Cabriolet. All three models have come with a 3 cylinder, 1 liter engine.
The car is not only easy on the wallet with the initial purchase but also with subsequent gas fill ups. Smart Cars get 40/45 on the highway and 33/41 in the city. The cars will reach a top speed of 90 mph but seem to do best going 70 mph on the highway.
The Smart is 8.8 feet long and 5.1 feet wide and tall. Not big by normal American car standards, but then it only costs a fraction of the price and gets a lot more gas mileage.
These little cars meet all of the safety standards of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The cars have front and side airbags and a “tridion safety cell” made of steel. The car also comes with anti-lock brakes and and Electric Stability Program.
When I graduated from college, (in a year that shall remain undisclosed) my parents bought me a new car for graduate school. I got a Ford Fiesta (Fiasco) since it was inexpensive, and got good gas mileage for the time. Less than 5 years later, the brakes in the car had been replaced twice, the transaxel had fallen out and finally the transmission plunked down in the middle of Peachtree Street in Atlanta during rush hour. The car was safe as long as you didn’t drive it.
Smart Cars look to fill the same requirements that my parents and I had back then – inexpensive, good gas mileage, and “safety features”. Unlike my old Ford, the Smart Car has a good track record in Europe where it has been on the road for a while now.
Whether used as a cheap third car for city commutes, or as a first car for graduates from high school or college, the SmartCar truly appears to live up to its name.
For comments from current Smart Car owners, you can check here.
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