small but terrible?

Smart two-seater

The Smart ForTwo is here to finally get driven down the land of the free and the home of the Escalade. In case you want to get behind these wheels and drive anywhere exotic in the past few years, to places such as Europe or Canada, you must have seen the original Smarts scooting around and dicing up traffic like motorized pygmies on speed. You may either thought, "such things would never work in America," or "have I seen those in America? How I wish gurl!"
Soon enough we’ll possibly know which camp is right, because Roger Penske is bringing the second-generation Smart two-seater - in coupe and ragtop forms - to his vast dealer network. He further promises that a $99 deposit will get you a Smart of your own within six months. Hitherto, 30,000 people have signed up for that deal. This hence signifies that the Age of the Microcar is off to a favorable onset.

How about those who haven't plunked down a deposit? Anyway, will it testify its cost with its size and engineering? Will it be smart alternative to more conventional compact cars like the Chevy Aveo or the Honda Fit?

When you climb behind the wheel of this car that measures 40 inches less from nose to tail than a Mini Cooper, what must you expect? With its height, will passing along with an eighteen-wheeler on the highway cause me to wet my pants?

It may look scary, especially when you are bound for a drive on the highway. With this two-seater coupe, you feel like you got the slow car at the go-kart track.

With a 70-hp three-cylinder hanging over the rear wheels, it does not have a surfeit of power; nevertheless, it will climb to an electronically limited 90 mph. The setback somehow is this: at highway speeds, you are constantly at the edge of the performance envelope. It would be like driving a race car while looking far down the road and planning how to exploit every final drop of performance at your clearance. For example is when you are approaching a hill, you will click the left paddle and drop the five-speed sequential manual transmission from fifth down to fourth to spike the revs before you hit the incline. Once you wait until before getting there, it will be too late. Hence, momentum is a precious commodity in the Smart ForTwo.

Choose your line, when you are driving this cute coupe. This is important since at 80 mph, you do would not want to make a lot of steering corrections. In most modern vehicles, 80 mph on the interstate is already an exercise in dullness. This time, you can set the cruise control and try not to fall asleep. Remember that when you fell asleep, you might get crushed to death by an eighteen-wheeler!

There is fun to be had in Smart-for two! It doesn’t lie in the traditional metrics like acceleration or outright grip. Think about the Ferrari that measures its semiautomatic shift times in milliseconds – you can actually complete a customer-service call to Banga-lore whoel the Smart mover from first to second. The suspension? Your Smart contains soft springs that it can squat like 600 hp Camaro under throttle, though 60 mph is reached in about 13 seconds!

Though it is just small, you will still get contented with it performance. Indeed, size does not matter. But hey, you still need to consider other important feats. And always maintain situational awareness at a higher level than in most other cars. You may not be relaxed with this small coupe, but you will never get bored.