http://www.cnn.com/2006/AUTOS/06/07/pluggedin_fortune/index.html

We've had these in Canada for the past year or 2, not impressed. ugly and as cramped as they look. Can you imagine getting nailed from behind in one of these, at anything over 10 mph? I hear they'll be introducing a stretched 4 door version in '07.

Merging into rush-hour, expressway traffic with the new SMART car, would be an adventure.

They meet all the safety standards and will merge into traffic better then any early Hyundai or Metro ever did. My concern here would be the winter and the narrow wheelbase for the country roads.

Woohoo, 70MPG! I think I'm gonna get one.

I never had any trouble at all merging in and out of traffic with my new back then '87 Chevy Sprint ER, 3-banger, 5-speed hatch corn-popper commuter car that got right at 50 mpg running 70 mph all day long!!

I checked EPA's historical gas mileage chart and found out that it got right at 72 mpg when driven easy on their mileage test back then.

I paid all of $6,300 for it new!!

Don't tell me they can't make a cheap high gas mileage car!!

I'd buy a new one in a heartbeat!!!

pdq67

A few people my wife works with have them. For city commuting I think they would be just fine. I ride my Hog in traffic so this thing is no more dangerous than a bike. Good for a student or someone on a tight budget. One guy who owns one says he has had it up to 130 KM (80 m.p.h. for our American friends). I think it would be like going 80 m.p.h. on my garden tractor.LOL

I've seen quite a few here in Toronto. For comuting in the city they make sence. I have seen them on the highway and they don't seem any worse than some of the old early Japanese cars (Datsun 1200). I'm sure that those little Smartcars are a lot safer than any old swing-axle VW bug (and I like old bugs too!) We never got the old Honda 360 like in the U.S., but the original Austin Mini was sold up here through 1980; it did not disappear after '67 as in the U.S.