Honjii's Harangues

Smart Cars?

As gas prices continue to rise I’ve noticed more Smart Cars on the road. They are tiny, funny looking cars that when seen from the side, look to me as if someone lopped the back end off. If they got 500 mpg you couldn’t get me into one of those cars unless every other vehicle on the road was a smart car. Small cars scare the hell out of me, and this one makes the Mini Cooper look big. I was driving behind one the other day thinking that if a bicycle ran into it , this car would be totaled. I also thought I could run it off the road by passing it and blowing on it through my open window.

I did a little reading, and found they do well in safety tests, however the report I read stated

“The big question from consumers is, ‘How safe is it?’” said IIHS president Adrian Lund. “All things being equal in safety, bigger and heavier is always better.

The report also states these cars would be best for driving in dense city traffic where speeds are low and high speed crashes are rare. I think the best use of the Smart Car might be to put it into the back of your SUV while driving on the highway then park and roll the little smartie out for navigating the slow moving city traffic.