Why I Bought a Smart Fortwo and Sold My Mini Cooper

This past weekend the Sunday New York Times reviewed and generally panned the U.S. introduction of the Smart car's Smart Fortwo. Lawrence Ulrich, the reporter, asserted that you would be better off buying a Honda Fit or a Nissan Versa, (he forgot to mention the Toyota Yaris). He also extolled the virtues of the Mini Cooper (one of which I have owned for over three years) relative to the Smart Fortwo.

Why? In short, for $15,000 all-in, you can get the same basic mileage, more passenger and storage room, and not be driving a 70 horsepower 3 cylinder stylized excuse for a riding lawnmower which takes 14 seconds to go 0-60 on the highway and is plagued by wind noise at high speeds.

Let me make the use case for the SmartCar.

First, do not take it on the highway. Second, do not attempt to go 60 miles per hour in it, even though you could. Third, none of the cars mentioned above can park in challenging, space constrained urban environments the way the Smart Fortwo can. Fourth, the other cars are not stylish or visually appealing—in fact they are visually disappointing. Fifth, I am selling my Mini Cooper because it gets 14.9 miles per gallon in the city, and I never drive it on the highway. Sixth, I am not getting a Prius because I live in a city where parking is difficult and the Prius, in addition to also being stylistically unappealing to my taste, has no parking advantage. [Remember, the Mini Cooper has the parking mojo and the looks but drinks gas like a BMW M5 in the city....]

Most important for my use case—I live in San Francisco, which makes all of the above very important.
I completely agree with the New York Times that the Smart car is contra-indicated if you are switching between the city and the highway, and most people are not able to switch cars depending on where they are going.

The Smart Fortwo gets 33 miles per gallon in the city, more than twice the mileage of my soon-to-be-history Mini Cooper. I will commute to my office and do all of my city driving in the Smart Fortwo. When I go to Marin or San Jose, I will drive a different vehicle built for the highway.

Result: I will reduce my gas consumption by 50%. My use case isn’t everyone’s, but if we all find ways to do our part, we could collectively be amazed at what happens. When it comes to energy conservation, every little bit does count!

Comments

[J. K. Bounds]

You should probably compare apples with apples. Your 3-year old supercharged Mini got 15 mpg city. We're sorry, perhaps you should have read the many reviews of that car that made it clear fuel efficiency was not that vehicle's forte. The Honda Fit does as well as the Smart, can be used for all modes of travel, and will carry as much as a small minivan to boot. Even the MINI after a complete redesign in 2007 routinely gets 30 mpg city and 38 highway --- in a car not predominantly designed for fuel efficiency. Your parking advantage in the Smart somewhat evaporates if cities don't adapt and make pull-in parking for small vehicles in parallel spaces legal --- which was the NYT reporter's complaint.

I'm not down on fuel efficiency or even on making sacrifices for the sake of conservation. But many of us are extremely disappointed with the Smart; wearing sackcloth and beating yourself in the head only to get mediocre efficiency is not going to change Americans' profligacy. The reality is that the Smart does not deliver fuel efficiency commensurate with the compromises most people would be forced to make. It seems pretty unlikely it will be around in the US market for long. Frankly it seems likely to just convince Americans that the sacrifices required to be more responsible are simply too great as they leave the Smart dealer to go buy that midsize-SUV.

[bob kaufman]

I just put a reservation in on the passion, keep in mind last weekend coming back from hot rod weekend at the beach,my 99 corvette with 6 speed manual tranny got 28.1 mpg at 72mph average for the two and a half hour drive. the point is,I will drive this neat looking car to save some gas when I can. Hey, I'ts no vette but,I'll keep them both.

[Pascal Levensohn]

Hi Bob

It's pretty impressive that a vintage Corvette will get better highway mileage than a Lexus hybrid. I agree with keeping both. By varying your useage pattern to optimize for the best city mileage, you will materially reduce your total consumption. Let's keep moving those aggregate statistics down!

[bob kaufman]

I don't consider the 99 vintage, I own a 72 vette but took it off road for a while. That is vintage. The 99 got 28.1 mpg only because in 6th gear it was only tached out at 1500rpms.

[Parma Vic]

I don't get it. 3 cylinders and it gets ONLY 33 MPG. The Chevy Cobalt gets that kind of mileage and can get that on the highway and through downtown.

The local channel reviewed one the other day and it had a very loud exhaust note. Kind of like a lawn mower.

This is a niche product. Not a complete solution and for the size the mileage is terrible. In the suburbs this thing would get eaten alive by people on side roads who think they can beat it. And they're right.

So think about how many times you'll get cut off by a $$$ BMW or Lexus laughing at you and thinking they have the right-of-way no matter what. You'll be having the breaks repaired all the time. And those small tires will unravel just as quickly.

Goog luck.