I tested one and here are my impressions based on my roughly hour-long drive...
1. Comfort. The seats felt supportive, but only a long drive would confirm. Ergos are good and the greenhouse is large.
2. Acceleration. Sucks. Forget the "auto" mode and shift it. Even then, it's painfully slow from a standstill, but not nearly as bad at freeway speeds. For heavy stop-and-go or freeway it would be fine. It's the "cut and thrust" of some surface street driving where you'll have to have a thick skin.
3. Handling. For a skinny tall car, it's got good stick. The "low profile" (relative!) tires bite and the steering is pretty responsive. The short (!!) wheelbase makes it pretty nimble but it's pretty stable at speed too. Good work.
4. Storage. Sucks. Not much at all.
5. Safety. The Smart has more safety features and engineering than many cars costing twice as much. The safety aspect would be the reason to pick the Smart over other $20K-ish econo cars.
6. Long term prospects. Not great. MB build quality is suspect and Smart has no rep for quality, either. The little diesel engine is supposed to be durable, but the heaped-on electronics would be worrisome.
For a commute-only car, it makes sense. I could easily drive one on a long commute especially if most of it was on freeways/highways. But, if you need a "real" car to haul groceries, a friend to the airport, or a couple kids to a movie, forget it. The Yaris would be a much "smarter" choice in that case...
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