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Why stop at one? I own six. I've got my remote starter configured to start all of them, and anywhere I go, I take all six with me. That's right, I drive all of 'em at once. I drive one a block, then I ride my Segway back to the next one, and I drive it a block, and so forth. I move all six one block at a time, and when I get to my destination, I roll up on the sidwalk, break out my road flares and traffic cones, and make my own private parking lot. Then I leave them all idling.

Oh yeah.
 
Shame you guys dont have smart cars in the usa.

i think we have them since last year or so.

They are a 2 seater small car, they actually come in open top too, and a sport model :p

that's the problem. smart USA have test drives at places like whole foods' (a grocery store) parking lot, but the soccer moms don't fancy these little cars cos they can hardly hold a week's worth of groceries.

they look cute, though. my neighbor has two smart cars parking in front of his garage, which contains two gigantic SUVs. :D
 
No, they aren't. At least not in the US, just like pick-up trucks and SUVs they are NOT classified by the government as cars.

Yep, they are not classified as cars. I have a Land Cruiser as a company car and the business gets tax incentives from the gov b/c it's over 6,000 lbs gross vehicle weight. I think it's counterproductive, but go figure. Hopefully by 2010 the gov gives tax breaks on cars that get 50+mpg instead. My SUV gets around 12-14mpg. 15 mpg if I go downhill for 300 miles.
 
The Smart is now in the US. A little commuter thingie, sure, but we tend to have more open road/long haul driving, so it'll be a limited market. What's forgotten in Europe is that what they call countries, we call states. What they call states, we call counties. What they call counties, we call a short commute. ;)

Actually, i believe a state and country is pretty similar really, for example here we still have the terms like "enemy of the state" and so forth, same thing different name, sure we have different languages, but so does Quebec (i know its canada but they are similar to usa). We have a centralised government now for europe as a whole so the EU as a whole is kind of like a united countries of europe, not too dissimilar from united states of europe..the difference is trivial.

Not to mention america has straight roads mostly, europes roads can be quite bendy and out of the way, so commuting can some distances can sometimes be quite a nightmare.

As for long haul driving, your argument is soooooo wrong, the smart car has far superior MPG than any american car, youd get a LOT further on a lot less juice driving a smart car, so if your doing long journeys, surely its smarter to use something that has better fuel consumption.

I love the idea of the Smart, and I'd buy one in a heartbeat. Trouble is, I need 350-400 miles of unsupported (as in, open desert) travel at 80 mph/135 kph between stops sometimes.

Huh? it could do 80 easy, probably even 90. Depends what model you get, i think americans are so used to fuel guzzling oversized beasts that the second you see some small european car you picture it being some granny ride from home to the grocery market, seriously come on guys, think of it like a sports car, as in the fact its only 2 seater, apart from that its shorter and more fuel efficient and can do quite reasonable speeds.
 
Huh? it could do 80 easy, probably even 90. Depends what model you get, i think americans are so used to fuel guzzling oversized beasts that the second you see some small european car you picture it being some granny ride from home to the grocery market, seriously come on guys, think of it like a sports car, as in the fact its only 2 seater, apart from that its shorter and more fuel efficient and can do quite reasonable speeds.

That's something of an exaggeration. The Smart is not really designed for high speed driving, and it certainly isn't a sports car. The wheels are too small and the center of gravity too high. It has some value as an urban vehicle, and that's about it IMO.

And I am not speaking as a lover of American gas-guzzlers who doesn't appreciate smallness. My "big" car is a Mini Cooper and my around-town vehicle is electric.
 
That's something of an exaggeration. The Smart is not really designed for high speed driving, and it certainly isn't a sports car. The wheels are too small and the center of gravity too high. It has some value as an urban vehicle, and that's about it IMO.

And I am not speaking as a lover of American gas-guzzlers who doesn't appreciate smallness. My "big" car is a Mini Cooper and my around-town vehicle is electric.

I meant think of it as sports when you consider its 2 seater, otherwise its smaller and obviously wont drink/perform like a sports car, its just the form factor i think people have a problem getting over.

But it could definitly do 80mph on a straight, infact ive seen them do more than 90, check out google, i think the sportier model does around 100mph.
 
The Smart is a great city car, and seeing as the US has lots of medium to large cities, I think there's a great market for them here. But they aren't suitable for people who will be doing mostly highway driving - for those people a better car would be a diesel...oh wait, nobody is selling those here yet. :mad: Fortunately they will be in the next few months

I'm jumping into this discussion late, so apologies if I unnecessarily stir the pot, but re: Hummers:

H1: Big. Huge. Mil-Spec. Great for true cross-country travel, if you own a big chunk of land, or if you have a 105mm howitzer you need to tow around.

...or buy it as a status symbol and prepare to make friends with various hip-hop stars, wealthy rednecks and the Governator. ;):D

H2: Unnecessary. Buy an F-250/GMC 2500 or Yukon/Suburban instead if you really need that much truck...they are just as capable and (dare I say it) more practical.

...or buy it as a status symbol - In which case it screams "I'm a poser and couldn't afford an H1". :eek:

H3: Extremely unecessary. Get a well-equipped compact 4WD pickup (Tacoma, Frontier, Colorado, Ranger) or a Jeep Wrangler instead.

It's nothing more than a status symbol that says "I'm a poser and couldn't afford an H2". :eek:
 
This was just too ironic to ignore!...I got a ride home the office with a friend just now and we narrowly avoided being hit by a guy in an H3 who ran a stop sign, realized it at the last minute, slammed on the brakes, lost control and did a 180 into a snowbank right in front of our car. :eek:

Remember kids - 4WD doesn't help you stop any faster!
 
I meant think of it as sports when you consider its 2 seater, otherwise its smaller and obviously wont drink/perform like a sports car, its just the form factor i think people have a problem getting over.

Maybe, but I don't think it's just the form-factor. I can tell you, even driving the relatively huge and powerful Mini on US freeways can be a slightly terrifying experience. It's like navigating a steel canyon sometimes -- one must take a very defensive attitude. I've also driven some of the smaller and less athletic subcompacts available in Britain on the motorways and felt really exposed.

TH1: Big. Huge. Mil-Spec. Great for true cross-country travel, if you own a big chunk of land, or if you have a 105mm howitzer you need to tow around.

Ah, thank you -- finally a solution to my howitzer problem!
 
This was just too ironic to ignore!...I got a ride home the office with a friend just now and we narrowly avoided being hit by a guy in an H3 who ran a stop sign, realized it at the last minute, slammed on the brakes, lost control and did a 180 into a snowbank right in front of our car. :eek:

Remember kids - 4WD doesn't help you stop any faster!

Actually slower, extra weight :p

Not to get off topic but ABS really annoys me. It is very dangerous in some situations and in some cases unnecessarily increase your stopping distance.
 
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