Like our friends over at CurbedSF, we're intrigued at the prospect of one day owning a Smart minicar. (Smart cars are set to go on sale in the United States beginning in 2008.) As regular visitors to this site know, Telstar Logistics will go to great lengths to find a parking space, and in the urban jungles where we operate, the Smart looks like the ultimate off-the-shelf parking solution. Plus, we've seen lots of them in the wild during trips to Europe, and they simply look, well, smart. There's much to be said for a car that actually manages to make a Mini seem Maxi.
Yet as red-blooded Americans who grew up riding in the back seat of an supersized chunk of American iron, one question nags at us: How safe is the Smart in a crash?
The answer, it seems, is rather safe indeed. That's because beneath its thin skin, the Smart hides a steel skeleton that does a gallant job of shielding passengers from direct impact forces. But don't take our word for it; check out this Smart crash test video produced by a British TV station a few years ago:
Call us impressed, with two caveats:
First, the Smart that's coming stateside will be a redesigned model that's slightly different from the ones shown here. But let's just assume similar levels of safety performance will carry forward, even though the 2008 Smart has not yet been tested by the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.
More importantly, side-impact collisions are a particular hazard in the urban grid, where clueless red light-runners are a constant threat. (Indeed, our previous command vehicle, the venerable E54129, suffered mightily in a T-bone collision under precisely that scenario.) We would have liked to see the results of a Smart side-impact test as well. Apart from that, our minds are now much more at ease at the thought of one day adding a Smart to the fleet.
(Tip of the helmet: CurbedSF)
LINKS:
SmartUSA (The Official American distributor of Smart cars)
Smart cars (Flickr photo group)
(Photo top: Radio controlled Smart crashes into a pedestrian dummy. Crash test at Airport Telgte, Westphalia, Germany. Photo from mompl)
They've been on sale up here in Canada for a few years. I live in one of the coldest spots in the country, Winnipeg. I see people driving them year round, in -40C icy roads, with no problem.
Posted by: ian | 20 July 2007 at 11:02 AM
I was thinking about this (http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/env_motorcycle_-_worldas_first_fuel-cell_motorcycle.html) for a while, but this entry has me at a serious stalemate.
Posted by: Jon Haeber | 20 July 2007 at 01:24 PM
I was thinking about this (http://www.mobilewhack.com/reviews/env_motorcycle_-_worldas_first_fuel-cell_motorcycle.html) for a while, but this entry has me at a serious stalemate.
Posted by: Jon Haeber | 20 July 2007 at 01:25 PM
Here's the updated link. For some reason typepad couldn't parse that URL :-)
Posted by: Jon Haeber | 20 July 2007 at 01:26 PM