Smart Car Configured

Got online and finalized the options for my Smart Car today. An unusual way to buy a car to be sure, but I kind of like the all-internet approach - You don't have to deal with those pesky car salesmen. I chose the all black color scheme - it's the only color where you can get the body panels and the "tridion safety cell" to match. I'm not a big fan of the contrasting stripe typical of most Smart Cars - Having it all one color really unifies the shape and holds the entire design together.

I selected the Cabrio model. Even though it's the most expensive Smart Car iteration, it sounded like the most fun, and the most appropriate for such an unusual vehicle. I'm a big fan of convertibles anyway - I've owned 4 canvas tops before - and we have the ideal climate for them here in Northen California. I checked the boxes for over a thousand dollars worth of options - fog lights, heated seats, alarm system, and those funky periscope instruments seemed like a must. And I had also read somewhere that the electric power steering was well worth ordering so I added that to the mix. Why not - I'm going to live with the thing for a few years, it might as well be the ideal configuration.

The grand total added up quickly. Not sure if this is a completely logical vehicle for the money - but I guess I can always back out and get my deposit back.

Signed Up

Today I registered online for the American Version of the Smart Car. Sight unseen, other than some online photos. I have to say it doesn't look quite as clean and pure a design as the first generation Smart - I guess they thought it needed to look more American, more aggressive, with angrier headlights. But early reports claim it's a much better car than the original – stronger, safer, better driving, and a good eight inches longer. I've been curious about these cars for years and it's only $99, fully-refundable (I think!) We'll have to see what I think in a year or so, when the car is ready for delivery.

Camouflaged

A very leafy Smart Car. An interesting decal treatment on this Smart car made it blend in with the hotel. A company car of the Hotel Manos Premier in Brussels. Not sue what a Five-star hotel needs with a company Smart Car – not for picking up guests at the airport I would imagine!

Brabus in Brussels

Took a couple pictures of a Smart Brabus while touring Brussels. Looks great in its all black guise. Note the wider wheel flares needed to accommodate the more aggressive rubber. In addition to a few other little cosmetic touches, the Brabus model sports increased on-board power, making this Smart especially smart.

Definitely not Smart!

Came across these strange vehicles when walking around Amsterdam. For those who think the Smart Car looks odd, this thing looks down-right bizarre. The awkward angular design appears so steeply upright, so impossibly narrow, and so completely malporportioned that it makes the Smart seem fluidly Ferrari-esque in comparison!

This thing is called a Canta LX. It  appears to be barely big enough for one person, but actually has two seats, side-by-side - you would have to be skinny. The main benefit appears to be that you are allowed to park on the sidewalks with these cars, along with the millions of bicycles.

My First Smart

You knew the Smart car was tiny but this is ridiculous! The only way to get a legal Smart car in America right now is to buy a die-cast metal toy. Smart will begin selling in Canada and Mexico in a few months but the massive US market will be excluded. There must be some misguided marketing reason for doing this - they think all American require gigantic cars. I guess they also want to wait until they get a full infrastructure of dealers etc. in place. There's talk of a Smart SUV model coming to America which sounds like a big mistake - Don't we have enough SUVs?

A Day at the Beach

We took the Smart Rental Car out west. Drove to the coast and just kept going - right on the beach at Weston-super-mare. It seemed to be normal practice to use the beach as a parking lot over there - the sand was hard and wet and very level. That's a picture of me next to the car - it's a tall car. 

I still can't believe we drove around the country with those obnoxious graphics on the doors. We got stares on the motorway but weren't sure if people were more surprised by the diminutive size of the car or the loudness of the graphics splashed across the car.

Traveling Incognito - Not!

Thought it would be fun to find out out how this little car we'd been seeing everywhere actually drives. Rented a Smart Car though the German rental company Sixt out of the Stansted airport, north of London. We were impressed by the spaciousness of the interior and the extremely deft maneuverability. I got a kick out of the funky details of the interior - the protruding dials and vents - it all worked with the lighthearted design theme of the car. I found it surprisingly stable at speed - we easily kept up with traffic on the rain swept motorways heading east. We especially appreciated the "subtle" rental car graphics on the car which advertised the too-good-to-be-true rental rate of five pounds a day (which turned out to be a fraction of the final bill  due to a few pesky clauses in the extremely inflexible rental agreement).  A couple of pictures of the car in the charming old town of Wells, south of Bath.

Sleek Smart Cabrio

Here's a couple of pictures of the Smart Car Cabrio model, spotted on a visit to London in 2003. The design looks sleeker than the coupe - the headlights have been reshaped into a more aggressive form and the taillights have a cool wrap around treatment. The single color frame and body panel treatment really unify the design and the gradually upward sloping crease along the side accentuate the wedge shape. Not sure why they bothered with that lower little vestigial scribed line on the door though.

Smart in London

Smart Cars were hard to miss when I visited England for Christmas 2002. Here's a particularly handsome example in metallic silver and grey. The subtle contrast between the body panels make the car appear more sophisticated and upscale. The quality of the design sets it apart from the crowd. No one makes jokes about the original Swatch watch lineage anymore.

Not So Smart

Spotted this somewhere in Paris. I have no idea what it is, but it's not Smart. It appears to be a little longer than the Smart Car but doesn't have the design refinement and and flair. The quality of construction also seems dramatically sub par. That strange dent  and crease in the rear is actually a designed in style feature of some kind.