It was drizzly and gray on Saturday morning in Chicago. Yet that didn’t stop Nick Musial of Rockford from driving 80 miles to stand in line for an hour and a half.
He got to Summerfest at Clark and Armitage well before the gates opened and was prepared to wait until noon for the chance to take a quick loop in the smart car that was making a pit stop in Chicago.
smart cars
Did you miss smart in Chicago? You still have a chance to catch it close by at some future “street smart” stops:
- Milwaukee: June 28 – July 4
- Indianapolis: July 6 – 11
- Detroit: July 18 – 26
- St. Louis: Oct. 5 – 11
For more details and schedule updates, visit www.smartusa.com.
The smart fortwo two-seater is slated to come to the United States in Q1 of 2008 as a 2008 model, so the automaker is in the middle of a 50-city “street smart” road show to introduce U.S. consumers to the brand.
And, judging by the line that started forming at 10:30 a.m. and the plethora of double takes and queries that were lobbied at the smart crew stationed at Summerfest, I’d have to say there’s plenty of interest.
One man, who had been loitering by the display since 9 a.m., wanted to see if the car would fit in his garage. A woman, who walked past the line of cars parked on Clark Street, had been following the brand for years since she’d encountered it in Europe and was anxiously waiting for its arrival in the United States.
Musial said he was attracted to the car because of the estimated 40 mpg combined fuel economy and its compact size.
“I could get a Prius for 26 grand,” he said, “But this costs half as much.”
The fortwo will have three different trim levels: The pure, which starts under $12,000; the passion, which starts under $14,000; and the passion cabriolet, which starts under $17,000.
“And we’re not talking about $11,999,” said Ken Kettenbeil, director of communications for smart. He said that when the brand talks about starting “under” $12K, $14K and $17K, the idea is to have it “comfortably” under, and not just a dollar off.
The pure model will be absolutely basic. No air conditioning and no audio system with the under $12K price. However, the vehicle will be wired for audio, thus both air conditioning and audio can be installed as options.
The passion, however, comes pretty well stocked with air conditioning, an audio system and a standard iPod input jack. The cabriolet adds a power-operated canvas top that slides back into an area above the cargo hold.
Prior to the consumer drives, media had a chance to tool around Chicago and get a feel for the car. I had 45 minutes to loop around … and try my hand at parallel parking the car.
At first I tried the regular parallel park, and I was amazed at how easy it was to maneuver the car into place. Then, because I could, I perpendicularly parked. I squeezed into a small space between two cars, sliding the front bumper of the car up to the curb. When I got out and looked at the tail end, I did stick out about 6 to 12 inches over the smaller cars parked next to the smart car. But, this is no more than a Hummer H2 or Chevrolet Suburban sticks out next to smaller cars.
I texted a picture to a friend in the Chicago Police Department and asked: Would you ticket this? When I caught up with him later, he laughed and said: Probably. But, what if it wasn’t obstructing traffic in any way? He responded with a: Weeeeeellllll. But no definitive answer. I’m going to follow up on that one.
Driving the smart was an interesting experience. I knew I looked like a golf cart in comparison to the large SUVs and sedans on the road. People gawked, pointed and gave us a thumbs up sign. The odd thing is that I didn’t feel small. Honestly.
The sit height of the smart car is high enough that you are eye level with the other cars on the road. While you won’t see eye to eye with an SUV, you don’t feel dwarfed by it either. To prove the point, I hopped on the interstate for a short stint, and still didn’t feel overwhelmed.
The model that I tested had an interesting five-speed transmission that could be operated in automatic or manual mode with a press of the button. With the automatic mode, you can feel a slight lag with each shift. With the manual mode, you are more in control of the shift and can make the transition a bit smoother. The test car had paddle shifters on the steering wheel that were both easy to reach with my smaller fingers and easy to operate. When I was in manual mode, I used the shifters to upshift, but let the car downshift itself automatically.
Even though the smart car comes with a 1-liter, three-cylinder 71-horsepower, rear-mounted engine, I thought the acceleration during my brief drive was perfectly peppy. I had one instance where I needed to move quickly, and I didn’t feel at all underpowered.
The interior of the vehicle is both compact and attractive. Everything is within easy reach, and I found a perfectly good driving position. But Kettenbeil, who is 6-feet tall, said he also found a good driving position in the petite car. And when I got back from my test drive, another media member who is 6-feet, 6-inches was just pulling in after his test. He said the driver's area was a bit narrow, and he bumped his left knee against the door. But in terms of driving position, he felt comfortable as well.
This isn’t terribly surprising, though. Except for the 8 cubic-feet of cargo volume (12 cubic-feet if you want to stack your stuff all the way up to the roofline), all of the space in the car is centered around the driver and passenger.
With that in mind there is a lot of justifiable concern centered around the safety of the vehicle. But for such a small package, there is some big safety involved. First and foremost is the tridion safety cell that surrounds the two occupants. The front and rear crumple zones in the vehicle collapse to absorb energy in event of a collision, and the tridion cell then transmits the remaining energy throughout the surface of the car. Additionally, the smart cars come loaded with a bevy of standard safety features including: anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control, corner braking control, brake assist, traction control and four airbags.
While this car is smaller than any other vehicle out there with a length of 104 inches, it has standard safety that beats pretty much any other vehicle.
The only downside to this vehicle as far as I can tell is the fact that it’s supposed to run on premium fuel. You may get 40 mpg, but it’s going to cost you to get it. Kettenbeil said you could put regular fuel in the tank, but your mileage would suffer. It’s kind of a Catch 22, if you ask me.
Smart is set to arrive Stateside in the first quarter of 2008, and Kettenbeil said the aim is to hit the January side of the quarter rather than the March side.
There will be 75 smart dealers across the United States, three of which will be in the Chicago area. The dealers will either be standalone, or they will be paired with a Mercedes-Benz dealer as DaimlerChrysler is the parent company of smart. According to Kettenbeil, the Chicagoland dealers will be announced within the next two months.
Other than the premium fuel issue, I liked smart in every other way. It drives well, looks great and is guaranteed to squeak through even the tightest of spaces.
Finally, a car that I think is perfect for Chicago.
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