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Video Timothy Lord Looks at Gas and Electric Smart Cars (Video) 66

Posted by Roblimo from the cars-are-now-smaller-quieter-and-more-costly-than-ever dept.
Video no longer available.
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.
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Timothy Lord Looks at Gas and Electric Smart Cars (Video) More

Timothy Lord Looks at Gas and Electric Smart Cars (Video)

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  • 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)

    by Tim4444 ( 1122173 ) on Tuesday January 24, 2012 @09:26AM (#38803893)

    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)

      by Tim4444 ( 1122173 ) on Tuesday January 24, 2012 @09:27AM (#38803903)
      *decades - that is the 3 preceding

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by EthanV2 ( 1211444 )

      Only in this case, "Smart" is the name of a company who makes cars.

      • They're owned by Mercedes too.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Dynamoo ( 527749 )
        But to be mega-pedantic, the company name is styled in lowercase as "smart". But, just to be awkward their performance partner is called BRABUS.. in uppercase. I used to have a "smart roadster BRABUS" which is an ungainly mix of upper and lowercase..

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      80s: Turbo
      90s: Extreme
      00s: HD
      10s: Smart

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Who mods this insightful? Its offtopic at best. In this case, Smart is a noun. The branch was founded in 1994, two decades ago.

    • 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

    • 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."

      • 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.

    • 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

      • 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.

    • that "smart" will be the adjective of this decade the way "on demand", "extreme" and "turbo" were misused in previous decade.

      Obligatory : http://xkcd.com/1007/ [xkcd.com]

  • Drop the videos please (Score:4)

    by Maury Markowitz ( 452832 ) on Tuesday January 24, 2012 @09:34AM (#38803971) Homepage

    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.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If the videos bother you, STOP WATCHING THEM

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      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.

      • 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.

      • 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

    • Videos are a good way to cover an inability to write with an avalanche of "um", "uh", and "so...."

    • If Fox is so bad, why have they been #1 for so long? Oh, I get it...conservatives are stupid, how silly of me to forget what liberals think of conservatives.
      • I don't have the data in front of me, but I'm sure the Kardashian's reality show probably had better ratings than 'Mythbusters'; tho I can't think of any argument that the former is the better show.
  • ...if his middle name start with an E.

    Tim E. Lord

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Gotta watch out for those Tim Lords, with their advanced technology...

  • I don't get the Smart Cars (Score:3)

    by pavon ( 30274 ) on Tuesday January 24, 2012 @10:54AM (#38804967)

    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?

    • Was curious about this myself. My Corolla get's 34mpg highway which is 99% of my driving. There is no incentive be it green or financial to own a hybrid/electric. For me though, a car is a car is a car. I do not use it as a status symbol. Folks that do use thier cars as a status symbol may see it different.

    • 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

    • 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

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by 2DGamer ( 980565 )

      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

  • Hydrogen

    The only solution which provides single-point pollution control and zero pollution distributed

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