I come from a Smart family. Smart Car, that is. There are only a handful on American roads, but one belongs to my sister-in-law, and another to my mother. Indeed, Mom officially got the first Smart delivered in Arizona, and named it Alistair. When the Mrs. and I were in Phoenix for a wedding last weekend, my parents were out of town, but everyone else in the family encouraged us to take it out for a spin. So we parked the pickup and became Smart drivers for a day.
My impressions: It's been said before but it really is surprisingly roomy in the driver's seat. Mrs. Phoenix had a problem with passenger-side legroom, until we found out that the seat was moved way forward. Even after shifting it back, the seat release handle jabbed her in the back of the calf, which was reportedly uncomfortable.
Since the needle was flirting with E, our first stop was the gas station. Even though it requires Premium, the price to fill the tank was refreshing after driving a pickup truck the length of California. Alistair is a convertible, and it was very nice rolling down to the restaurant with the top open and windows down in the warmth of a spring Arizona night.
Less nice is the transmission. The Smart has a pronounced jerk when upshifting. It's a shockingly-long hesitation. Once you get used to it, it still surprises you every time with just how long you have no power. It's even worse when it goes from 1st to 2nd while cornering, like after a stop sign; you get halfway around the corner and just hang there for a second. My brother advised that it's best to ease off the gas just before it shifts, and I admit it works fairly well, but I think it's basically psychological. By making the loss of power less sudden, and less involuntary, it seems less drastic. But it's no substitute for smooth shifting. I'd prefer a manual.
However, Alistair had plenty of zoom. We drove from Arrowhead all the way down to Mesa, freeway all the way, and actually found ourselves in the fast lane more than we expected. It keeps up great. Of course it parks great.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says, and I'm sure Smart would agree, that the car is very safe in a crash. And that's good, because it feels like a crash magnet. It's not that I felt small in traffic. It's that people around us drove stupid, because they couldn't help staring. (and slowing down If you get a Smart car, everyone will talk to you. At stoplights. In parking lots. Pretty much any time you have the window open. Based on our limited sample, 80% asked what the mileage is, the others ask if we like it. In both cases, we had no clue and couldn't answer.
Final opinion: Cute car. Adorable. Comfortable. Economic. But not for me.
