Smart Car

ron.dittmer wrote:
Respectfully commenting on the Smart Car.....

I feel the Smart car is ideal for taking along on a trip behind a motor home right on the ground, not on a trailer, solely for simplicity. The Smart is a much better choice over a scooter or other cycle for safety, comfort, and weather. The question you need to ask yourself is..... Does the car meet your everyday need when you are not on a trip? Is it a vehicle you would commute around town in? If your answer is "yes", then you are making a good decision.

As for me on a personal note, I would not feel comfortable driving around my home town area in a Smart car because I am not sold on it's safety. Though it's occupancy cage is well engineered to prevent penetration, the lack of mass along with it's shape has it bouncing around accident scenes like a billiard ball. I fear it would fly into other moving vehicles along with adding fatal "G" forces on occupant internal organs.

I wish I could find that early Smart car crash test video of a yellow Smart against a Civic or Corolla. The impact was a 1/3 driver side frontal test. The "other" car fared typically well with occupant safety. The Smart occupancy cage did great but the car spun multiple revolutions in the air about 5 feet off the ground and soaring away.

That scared the heck out of me. I couldn't feel comfortable with a Smart after seeing that video. Again, that is just me. Everything has risk, even driving a motor home, especially a class A. Each decides for himself what risk he is willing to accept.