If you live in the San Francisco Bay area, I'm sure you're probably familiar with the little golf-cart looking car called the Smart ForTwo. These trendy little things are gas efficient, eco-friendly, and easy to drive, but are they safe? Today's video demonstrates just how potentially dangerous these things are in an accident, so pay attention.
It's been noted that this video has an affiliation with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, although this claim has been disputed by some Web viewers. Regardless, this video is neat as it shows the testers setting up the crash test dummies for placement inside the vehicles. Then shortly after the 3-minute mark, the Smart ForTwo is pitted in a frontal collision test versus a Mercedes E-Class sedan. And even if you know which car is the safer of the two, you should still pay attention to the outcome as the amount of potential damage to a would-be rider in a so-called "Smart" car is hard to realistically comprehend without seeing it for yourselves.
For years, style was absent without an excuse from American subcompacts. But the days of slab-sided, no-frills hatchbacks may soon be history.
For decades, something was missing in the small cars designed, built and sold in the United States. It was gone for so long that most American consumers probably didn't know what it was.
But to Ralph Gilles, Chrysler Group's chief designer, the missing ingredient was obvious. U.S. subcompacts lacked emotional appeal.
"Small cars of the past were not necessarily done with passion," he said.
Generations of Detroit designers seemed to say: No one buys a small car for its styling, so why bother? Uninspired, appliancelike econoboxes? What else did you expect?
American subcompacts had none of the attributes found in the cool, quirky and even elegant small cars created elsewhere in the world, from the original BMC Mini to the first Peugeot 205 to the modern Citroen C3.
U.S. automakers were forced to churn out small cars to raise corporate average fuel economy averages, so they could keep selling big trucks. Small-car design? An oxymoron.
But consumer preference has shifted -- the result of higher gasoline prices, new fuel-efficiency standards and concern about climate change.
"Small cars and vehicles powered by four-cylinder engines have been on a steady increase since 2004," said Ford Motor Co. sales analyst George Pipas.
U.S. fleets must average 35.5 mpg by 2016, compared with 25.3 mpg this year. Combined with stricter emissions standards, it means the number of small-car nameplates for sale in the United States will increase.
And when a market segment gets crowded, automakers must rely on styling to set their vehicles apart from the crowd.
"It's not business as usual for small cars here anymore," said Moray Callum, Ford Motor's design director for cars.
The expanding lineup of new small cars means styling will get a lot more creative and appealing, just as it did with mid-sized cars recently. (Think of the modern Chevrolet Malibu, the new Ford Taurus and the current Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.)
... Read moreThe value-packed, sporty and well-equipped Smart ForTwo Passion coupe includes a panorama roof, alloy wheels, air conditioning with climate control, three-spoke leather sports steering wheel with shift paddles, power windows, electric and heated side mirrors, and AM/FM radio with CD player.
The car debuted last fall at the 2008 LA auto show. Check out this review by Cars.com's Joe Wiesenfelder.
Bigger really is better when it comes to driver safety in a head on collision. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, minicars and microcars take a lot more damage than their midsized counterparts do in 40 mph car-to-car collision tests.
The IIHS this week published its findings, and posted a Web video on YouTube.
Although smaller cars are a lot safer than they were just a few years ago, they crumble and buckle in head-on collisions. The smaller, lighter weight cars are also propelled backward during a crash, causing further damage to the car.
According to the test findings, the Honda Fit, Smart ForTwo, and Toyota Yaris (shown in the video) are good performers in the frontal offset barrier test, but all three are poor performers in the frontal collisions with midsize cars.
Renting a smart Fortwo for by the minute, hour, or day is one of the newest forms of transportation heading to Austin, Texas.
(Credit: Daimler)It's impulse shopping meets car rental. Car2go, a car-sharing concept from Daimler, will launch in Austin, Texas, in fall 2009. The service will enable members to use their mobile phones to locate and rent one of a fleet of 200 cars near them without advance reservation.
The business model is similar to other car-sharing programs (such as Zipcar) in the U.S. with a few exceptions. The company's entire fleet of rental vehicles consists of Daimler's fuel-sipping, two-seater smart Fortwos. Registered members can rent the cars via their mobile phones and unlock the car with their membership card and pin number. They return the car to "any space not subject to parking fees or restrictions may be used--such as those along the side of the road or within designated parking areas," according to the company's press release.
Without the obligation of returning the car to the same place a driver picks it up, Car2go may offer a viable alternative to a taxi. Prime parking spaces will be designated for Car2go smart cars at train stations and other locations, and a ground team handles the logistics and maintenance of the cars.
Like Zipcar, the hourly rate includes all taxes, insurance, miles, and gas. Unlike Zipcar, Car2gos can also be rented by the minute, not just the hour or day.
The pilot program will begin with a defined group of users--potentially Austin city employees--and will expand to the public if it's successful.
With Hyundai's announcement of a bargain-price Accent, the cheap car market in America starts to get crowded.
(Credit: Hyundai Motors America)The cheap car price wars are heating up with Hyundai's announcement that it is dropping the price of its Accent GS three door to $9,970, knocking the $9,990 Nissan Versa 1.6 from its short-lived position as the least-expensive car in America. With a single $20 separating the two vehicles, let's take a look at the specs and see how cheapskate champions compare.
The 2009 Nissan Versa 1.6 beaten by a mere $20 difference in MSRP.
(Credit: Nissan Motor Co, USA)Starting under the hood, both vehicles are equipped with 1.6-liter four-bangers. Nissan's 107-horsepower engine is just edged out by the Hyundai's 110-horsepower mill. Both qualify as Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicles (ULEV) and--when mated to its five-speed manual transmissions--fuel economies are similar, at 26 city/34 hwy mpg for the Versa and 27 city/33 hwy mpg for the Accent.
The biggest difference is the vehicles' body styles. The Versa 1.6 is a four-door sedan, while the Accent GS is a tiny hatchback. The Nissan has more people carrying space and offers easier entrance and egress for backseat passengers, while the Hyundai offers the utility and flexibility of a hatchback.
The rest of the spec sheets pretty much mirror one another. Both vehicles feature about six airbags apiece, tire pressure monitoring systems, 14-inch wheels with hubcaps, and five-speed manual transmissions. Neither vehicle has air conditioning, power windows, or power locks at that price point.
So, what's the $20 price difference of these two vehicles worth? As it turns out, it's about three horsepower and a pair of doors. On paper, the two cars are fairly evenly matched and their prices are virtually the same. Personally, I think the Accent looks better, but I also think our CNET Car Tech Chevy Aveo is cute, so there's no accounting for bad taste there.
A new challenger appears! The Smart fortwo.
(Credit: Daimler/Smart)Perhaps it would be better to compare these vehicles to the next most expensive car that I could find, the $11,990 Smart fortwo Pure, which for about $2,000 more than the Versa 1.6 loses two seats, one cylinder, about 40-horsepower, and lacks a proper gearbox. It also sheds close to 1,000 pounds of weight and gains 6 mpg city and 8 mpg highway, so there are some pros to be found. There is, of course, a substantial waiting list for the Smart, which may deter some buyers.
At best, comparing the Versa 1.6 and Accent GS to the Smart fortwo Pure is pure entertainment--the Smart really is in a class of one in the American market--but there's a method to my madness. Compared with the other trim levels in their respective lineups, the Accent and Versa look exceedingly spartan, but they are both twice the car of the more expensive fortwo Pure, which is selling like hotcakes. When you put it into that perspective, these cars are a pretty good deal for about $10,000.
Click to view more photos of the 2009 Smart fortwo Brabus.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)Smart has revealed a new version of its fortwo at the 2008 LA Auto Show, the fortwo Brabus. Brabus being the German tuning house most famous for their close ties with Mercedes-Benz. If the idea of a performance variant of the superthrifty fortwo seems a bit odd, you're not alone. We're looking at with a bit of skepticism as well.
Particularly because the fortwo Brabus features no more power than the standard 71 horsepower fortwo, choosing to boost performance in the suspension and aesthetic departments instead.
The fortwo Brabus will be released in limited quantities and made available only to current participants in the Smart reservation holders, who can choose to upgrade their reservations to Brabus status for an additional cost. The fortwo Brabus is only available in black or silver, and can be had as a coupe for $17,990 or as a cabriolet for $20,990.
The Smart ForTwo is one of five finalists for the LA Auto Show's Green Car of the Year.
(Credit: Daimler/Smart)Five finalists were announced for the 2008 LA Auto Show's Green Car of the Year award. Only one of them can be crowned king, but which will it be?
There are a broad range of green technologies represented in this year's field: clean diesels, gasoline-electric hybrids, and a tiny, thrifty gasoline engine.
Will the winner be the Volkswagen Jetta TDI, which we've heard so much about over the past few months? Perhaps it will be the newly announced BMW 335d, with its 50-state-compliant clean diesel? Representing gas-electric hybrids are the Saturn Vue 2 Mode Hybrid and the Ford Fusion Hybrid, with their all-electric low-speed modes. Tossed into the mix is the Smart ForTwo, a car that takes the less-is-more approach to reducing emissions and consumption by shrinking the car and the engine.
At this point, it's anyone's guess who the winner will be. Check out our gallery of the finalists for the LA Auto Show 2008 Green Car of the Year and stay tuned for our coverage of the 2008 LA Auto Show for the crowning of this year's winner.
Daimler's car2go service utilizes a fleet of Smart fortwos.
(Credit: Daimler/Smart)Daimler, maker of the Smart fortwo, has just launched a new car sharing service called car2go in Ulm, Germany. The service is similar to the Zipcar or City CarShare services where users sign up for the service and are given use to a distributed fleet of vehicles for a fee. In this case, we're talking about a fleet of 50 Smart fortwos. What did you expect, Maybachs?
To start, users sign up on the car2go Web site, as of yet unpublished, or meet with a representative. Once in the system, an electronic tag is applied to the user's driver's license. Users can reserve a vehicle online or hire a car on the spot where ever they find an unreserved vehicle by touching their tagged driver's license to a sensor on the vehicle. The tag allows access to the car2go Smart cars via what we assume is RFID. Once in the vehicle, the driver enters a PIN to gain access to the keys, which are stored in the glove compartment, and drives off.
Users access the vehicles with an RFID chip attached to their driver's license.
(Credit: Daimler/Smart)Daimler claims that renting a Smart is now as easy a using a mobile phone and has even adopted a per-minute pricing structure similar to prepaid wireless phones. Users can go anywhere in the city of Ulm for 19 cents per minute. There is no joining or service fee beyond that. Once done, they simply park the vehicle in any legal parking spot within city limits and swipe their license to end the rental. Vehicles are cleaned and refueled periodically by car2go staff, or users can fill up using a prepaid gas card in the glove compartment. Daimler offers free minute credits as an incentive for returning vehicles with a full tank.
Each of the vehicles includes a GPS navigation system and, of course, GPS tracking to allow Daimler to monitor vehicle location.
Users pay at a rate of 19 cents per minute.
(Credit: Daimler/Smart)Of course, the service is still in its earliest pilot phases. Only Daimler employees can use the 50 car2go Smarts, and then only within Ulm city limits. Daimler has expressed plans to expand the fleet in Ulm and possibly open the service to the public as early as spring 2009.
That's gotta smart.
(Credit: IIHS)Forget the death-trap jokes: The pint-sized Smart ForTwo, has earned a full five-star crash rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for frontal and side impacts. More than 3 feet shorter and almost 700 pounds lighter than a Mini Cooper--and only a third as heavy as a BMW X5--the ForTwo is the smallest car the IIHS has ever tested. Nevertheless, it scored a maximum safety rating from the IIHS in the standard frontal and side impact crash testing, which involves both a 40 mph frontal offset crash and a 31 mph barrier impact. The IIHS findings follow last month's results from the NHTSA, which gave the ForTwo four and five star ratings for frontal and side impacts, but which found a tendency of the ForTwo's driver door to unlatched during testing, increasing the likelihood of occupant ejection.
Following the release of the IIHS ratings, SmartUSA was quick to emphasize the ForTwo's tridon safety cell--essentially a reinforced steel cage--which it says is designed to "activate the crumple zone of the other vehicle involved in the accident and distribute the impact energy throughout the body of the vehicle."
The IIHS' crash safety tests are conducted using a dummy in the driver's seat fitted with injury sensors that assess head protection countermeasures and the vehicle's structural performance during the impact. Despite the ForTwo's maximum ratings for front and side impact, the IIHS did point out that the absence of a front-end crash zone means that drivers involved in accidents in the two-seater undergo a different kind of experience than those in cars with a longer frontal crush structure. Instead of relying on the car's crush zone to weather most of the impact, the ForTwo relies more on its internal restraint system to protect the driver. "We recorded a high head acceleration when the driver dummy's head hit the steering wheel through the frontal airbag," said IIHS President Adrian Lund in a press release, suggesting that the dummy maximized the use of space in the car's cabin to "ride down" the impact.
You can check out the IIHS video of the crash testing here if you're interested in watching the ForTwo taking a hammering.
