Troy Angrignon (whose name always suggests a Greek play to me) reminds me about the Smart Car’s arrival in Canada. I’ve seen a bunch of these in Europe, and thought they were incredibly cool, nimble little automobiles. Troy seems to agree:
I saw one of these Smart cars down at the Concord Festival on the weekend and had the chance to sit in it. It was incredibly roomy up front for the two passengers. I totally fell in love with this car. There is not much room in the back. Less in fact than I had behind the back seat in my old Jeep TJ. But the car is just so damned cute. I wonder if you can mount bike racks on it at the back???
It has an inline 3 cylinder rear-engine turbo diesel that gets 85mpg (hwy) / 65mpg (city), uses a clutchless automatic 6-speed, and comes in several different models ranging from $16,500 to $22,000 in Canada. They are being sold through the Mercedes network across Canada.
Cute, indeed. The feature I liked most about them is that you can take it back to the dealership and have different coloured panels put on, effectively changing the colour of your car without painting it.
UPDATE: Mr. AhBook writes to say “just for comparison purposes, here is a picture of a Smart Car beside a Mini Cooper that I took in Munich a few months ago.”
DarrenBarefoot.com 
couldn’t help but read about the bike rack — been driving a smart for two on and off for about 4 years now, and yes they have all kinds of accessories! 😉
http://www.smart.com/-snm-0135137740-1094540673-0000021844-0000001165-1096403602-enm-is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/mpc-nl-content-Site/nl_NL/-/EUR/SVCPresentationPipeline-Start?Page=issite%3a%2f%2fsmart-Site%2fsmart%2ecom%2fRootFolder%2fsmart%2fzubehoer%2fsmartaccessories%2fcitycoupecabrio%2fexterieur%2epage
(apologies for the long link and for the language — got this off the dutch smart-website)
this car is indeed as cute as it looks.
Just for comparison purposes, here is a picture of a Smart Car beside a Mini Cooper that I took in Munich a few months ago.
http://www.ahbook.com/bd/IMG_0522.JPG
I really do need to put those pictures up properly one of these days.
I’ve seen promotional stuff on this car for several years, but it seemed like the company was refusing to get off its hands and release the thing in Canada.
I haven’t really compared a great deal, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but $22k seems a bit much for the topped out version. Am I totally wrong? Does it pay for itself in fuel savings, have a wicked audo system, or so many safety features that would make a Volvo look like an ol’ Chevette?
Don’t get me wrong: when I bought my current car, I was really hoping the Smart Car would be available. 🙂
I’ve been wanting a Smart Car for quite awhile now, I was worried with all the reports that only the 4-door models would make it to Canada/North America.
As someone who must commute by car (yes, I must. Sorry, sometimes it’s true) this car interests me. My six year old Honda has 280,000 km on it.
The one thing I’d worry about would be crash survivability.
Looks like the SMART car won this crash with an E Class. It’s safer than you think. Besides your not supposed to crash your car into anything.
http://www.mercedes-benz.ca/mbccustom/smart/safety/images/crash.jpg