Timothy Lord Looks at Gas and Electric Smart Cars (Video) 66
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Roblimo
from the cars-are-now-smaller-quieter-and-more-costly-than-ever dept.
from the cars-are-now-smaller-quieter-and-more-costly-than-ever dept.
While he was at the International Auto Show in Detroit, Timothy Lord looked at the Tesla Model S, then the CODA electric car. Now he shows us the latest Smart (brand) gas and electric vehicles, including a "concept car" he doesn't think will make it into production.
Bad music; park it anywhere, charge it nowhere (Score:1)
Please stop with the bad music in the videos.
Its nice that you can park one of these anywhere, but can't charge it anywhere except at home. Not ideal.
I get the feeling... (Score:4, Insightful)
that "smart" will be the adjective of this decade the way "on demand", "extreme" and "turbo" were misused in previous decade.
Re:I get the feeling... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Only in this case, "Smart" is the name of a company who makes cars.
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They're owned by Mercedes too.
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80s: Turbo
90s: Extreme
00s: HD
10s: Smart
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Smart is the company name (Score:3)
that "smart" will be the adjective of this decade the way "on demand", "extreme" and "turbo" were misused in previous decade.
Try this same quote with other brand/company names, and it really doesn't make sense. Smart makes small cars in France and this is just some new cars they are trying out. I've seen the all electric smart, and if it didn't cost around $34,000 I might be interested. When I checked the one out that was at the dealer I found that when you buy it you get to set up a plug in power setup for it and your residence. It is a decent idea except that people that are renting wouldn't be able to do that.
Anyway, I've got
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Well, as long as they don't misuse "turbo" as they did three decades ago. I mean, depressing the "turbo" button let the CPU run at full speed, but not running in "turbo" mode was actually artificially underclothing the machine. It should have been called a "Slow Switch", not a "Tubo Button."
You are ignoring that running at "normal" speed was the only way of letting you run DOS programs who relied on the PC being clocked like an IBM AT. and became unusable on anything faster. The Turbo mode was only intended for programs that weren't as brain damaged.
Seems to be it worked on phones (Score:2)
because I have yet to see anything smart about pay nearly a hundred a month to use a cell phone that happens to connect to the net. So the word Smart in automotive brings to mind on their abysmal little car.
They will definitely need something other than Smart... because I doubt you can ever disassociate it from the existing car.
As for these battery only solutions, not going to work. Not until they can be charged without actually having to lift a finger, like pulling into a parking space and having a charge
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Not until they can be charged without actually having to lift a finger, like pulling into a parking space and having a charge plate underneath the car rise up and do the work.
Depending on where you live, you probably have to do the work of filling a conventional car up with fuel.
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Obligatory : http://xkcd.com/1007/ [xkcd.com]
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Mention any issue of national pride, ethnicity to a European and see what reaction you get.
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Looks like the Euro people are the ones without humor. If Chevy made a car saying "American know-how, German nothing", they would be yelled at on dailykos, truthout, and every single rag that isn't Fox Noise.
The problem is that even though Europeans tend to call Americans provincial, they don't realize that a vehicle that is great on the streets of Paris is not going to work in the US in most areas. The electric cars with the 70 mile range are great for European cities, but in the US, not so much.
It boils
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Well, maybe, unless you're murdered
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16334214
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7777635.stm
http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/01/04/men-sentenced-uk-black-teens-murder-infamous-case
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[quote]In England, maybe an obnoxious drunk.[/quote]
Shit he was at the airport when I got there! Tried to just avoid him like everyone else until the true horror of the situation revealed itself. That wilted missive in his hand......it had my name on it!
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Ad campaign aside, the American version of the smart is a gimped heap of junk.
Smart gasoline Europe : 4.7 L/100 km
Smart diesel Europe : 3.4 L/100 km
Smart gasoline US : 6.5 L/100 km
smart diesel US : unavailable
How the hell did they manage to cut the fuel economy by that much?
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Yeah, because Germany (home to the autobahn) doesn't have safety features or emissions regulations.
The truth is that Americans want (not need) horsepower. So while the VW Golf may get 65MPG in England on the smallest engine, they only bring the largest engine to the states. Somehow people have been convinced by detroit that they need 300 HP for a 4 person sedan to get groceries.
My 90 HP TDI gets around just fine and I have no issues on the highway but I despite getting the "Can you take that out on the high
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My 90 HP TDI gets around just fine and I have no issues on the highway but I despite getting the "Can you take that out on the highway" (people really are that dumb).
Hell, my previous car that rolled out of Newark 20 years ago only output 100HP (probably significantly less by the time I bought it) and would still carry you clear to the limiter (171kph).
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I don't know about the "new" "Smarts" but the usual one in Europe is the 2-seater while the US is the 4-seater. The engines surely aren't the same as well.
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No, I'm comparing the same vehicle, the second generation fortwo, which is the two seat one.
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The testing they do to determine fuel efficiency is very different in the US ... most cars come out with much worse stats in US tests?
Having said that my Petrol(Gas) Car was rated at 57mpg (Imperial UK Gallons) Combined- and that's roughly what I get most of the time ...so the Euro stats seem to be correct for normal use ?
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So someone who complains about people making derisive remarks about an entire country is a troll. Slahsdot: FAIL.
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It should be noted that the "German engineering; Swiss innovation; American nothing" ad was not for the European market but for South Africa.
So the question to ask yourself is why would an ad that is respectful of German and Swiss industry and disrespectful of American industry play well in South Africa?
Drop the videos please (Score:4)
If I wanted to watch someone who has nothing to add and only repeats what the marketing driods tell them, I'd watch Fox.
Seriously /. these videos suck donkey. Spare us.
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If the videos bother you, STOP WATCHING THEM
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You'd watch Fox huh? No lambasting of all the other networks that are even worse like NPR, MSNBC, CBS? Oh well, if you're that blinded by partisanship you can only reap what you want.
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Why is your partisanship any less bad than his?
Objectively, he's probably right. They've done studies into how misinformed on current events the viewers of the various networks are. Fox viewers are the most misinformed.
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I can understand why you'd put ideological media like MSNBC on that list, but NPR... seriously? How is NPR "even worse" than Fox? The average NPR listener scores the highest on being able to correctly answer factual questions about world events (such as "have the opposition groups protesting in Egypt been successful in bringing down the regime there?"). FYI, Fox viewers not only scored lowest on such factual questions, they scored LOWER than those who don't watch news at all! (To be fair, MSNBC viewers
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Videos are a good way to cover an inability to write with an avalanche of "um", "uh", and "so...."
Fox #1 (Score:1)
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Am I the only one that wonders.... (Score:1)
Tim E. Lord
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Gotta watch out for those Tim Lords, with their advanced technology...
I don't get the Smart Cars (Score:3)
I looked into these when buying a car several years ago, and was underwhelmed by both their price and their fuel efficiency. Looking at their specs again, they have gotten a little more competitive, but when you can get a much more versatile economy car such as a Toyota Yaris or a Hyundai Accent for similar price and gas mileage why would anyone I want to buy a Smart car?
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I really wish they'd bring back the Smart Roadster [wikipedia.org]. Maybe even as an electric car. That thing should be really fun to drive. Of course by now I need three seats in the car at least, so even if they would restart production it wouldn't make sense for me anymore.
As for why anyone would buy the standard models: they are meant to be city cars and really easy to park. The low mileage is a US "feature" - the US version has a more performance-oriented transmission etc, so the mileage comes out pretty low. The EU
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We have owned a smart since the current 451 model was introduced to the US (2008).
We have been getting 37-38 mpg driving in city conditions. And I am a "spirited" driver that steps on the accelerator too quickly. I haven't checked the highway fuel economy.
Why buy a smart fortwo? The city fuel economy is pretty good (it has had the best EPA fuel economy numbers for a gasoline (non-hybrid) car). It is small and easy to park. It is fun. It has a short wheelbase and RWD and is light (though its strong
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I own a smart and I found an unexpected advantage one day after 2 - 3 inch hail came thundering down when I was staying at a small apartment where I did not have a garage. The plastic body of the smart car took zero damage from the hail, and because I also have a Cabriolet, (the soft top convertible), the roof was spared as well. I did get a two dents, one on each side, on my side rails, but these are replaceable units (you take them off anyway if you want the full top down experience).
These cars are fun
Wait...wait, wait for it (Score:2)
Hydrogen
The only solution which provides single-point pollution control and zero pollution distributed