Smart City Coupe and Roadster now in RP!

[OTO]

pink: Evo's 6-8KpL of premium gas while the Smart is 25-27KpL regular unleaded gas. Sure the ForTwo/City can't seat more than two and isn't ideal for trips out of town (Tagaytay/Subic/Los Banos/Baguio) but most daily drivers only have at most another person in the car. Come to think of it why drive a big car to buy a burger at McDo if you dont have too?

Also in terms of safety it passes EU safety standards and will soon be sold in the US where they have the strickess/highest safety standards around.

With less mass to contend with comes the benefits of reduced braking distance. Evos due to their mass & power need special brakes (Read: Brembo) to counterbalance the 276 ponies under the hood.

Ungas: Any idea on the price the Banawe shop is asking or if it's still there? Where is this shop near too. It would help if you have a name.

niky: The nice thing about the Evo is that even if it is a performance car it can still take seat 3 more people and have room in the trunk for the grocery. A tall order for stock performance cars. Only thing comparable with a Scubby STi, and that's it. Everything else are double or triple the price for the performance.

[OTO]

Just to give you folks an idea. This is how Smart car would compare to a Hummer in a street parking environment.

[empy]

Originally posted by niky
If I wanted a two-seat convertible:


Starts at Php 700,000 for the kit, just over 1million fully assembled with AC and radio, and enough power and grip to leave an EVO far far far behind.

what is that, a fake caterham 7?? :confused:

[niky]

It's a Westfield Mega-busa (with a GSXR engine) or -bird (with Yamaha Blackbird engine)... it's on sale here in the RP for around 1m fully assembled.

Hehe... but the Westfield gets better mileage and costs less than a brand new Evo. I'd take it over the Smart... but it probably would send you straight to your chiropractor (back pains and a sore butt) within a week if you tried to use it everyday.

The Smart may be a practical and safe commuter car, but the price is staggering. It would take you something like twenty years to make up its price difference in gasoline as compared to a Jazz, which is almost as economical, bigger, SAFER (Honda's Fit/Jazz platform is extremely rigid and crashworthy) and more powerful/engaging to drive.

The Smart Coupe would make a nice toy, though, if you had enough extra cash to consider buying one on the whim... and a lot cooler to be seen in than the ever-present EVO.

[kiper]

pag bumili si hens nyan.. aatrasan ko sya.

masyadong mahal for the masa..taya muna ko lotto.

[OTO]

It's understandable that the Westfield has better fuel economy and it's more affordable. But the thing's design for track days/racing and wouldn’t be suitable as a daily drive. The Evo is more tolerable as a daily drive but not as comfy as say a Civic SiR.

The Smart ForTwo is priced in the US to be P675K. I don’t know how much the Jazz is so… Also how's the fuel economy of the Jazz for city/highway? Smarts wouldn’t be considered roadworthy in Western Europe if it didn’t pass their crash test requirements. The Smart has a steel frame that absorbs front-end impact but no cockpit crumple. What’s interesting is if you get hit head-on the car collapses behind the doors near the back wheels. There is a crumple zone but its behind you instead of in front. This car has been around for so long so the problems (of safety) on the early ones would have been resolved long by now.

The short wheelbase ensures any side impact will hit an axel and not intrude into the passenger cabin. There's one American land vehicle that's notorious for fatal side impact. I wont mention it cause I might offend owners. I can say this though it isn’t a SUV. DaimlerChrysler knows that people would consider (because of its size) Smarts as unsafe "toys" so they really worked hard in making it safe. Now after years later you can find Smart cars in all EU states driven by regular people who want a small & fuel efficient runabout to get to work within the city and occasional intracity travel. I think any Smart car is better than an "otong gawa sa lata".

The Canadian variant's crash test result can be seen over at http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/jk/040908.htm

Also when you consider safety you have to consider two things and these are active safety (can you avoid the bad things to happen in the first place?) and passive safety (can you survive when bad things happen?) In both counts the Smart passes.

No arguement on the power as the Smart ForTwo does 0-100km in 18-19 seconds so medyo hirap siya sa onramp ng Skyway. The Evo does it in less than 5 seconds. Top speed for the Smart ForTwo is 135KpH while the Evo is 250KpH. As for engaging ok naman siya. Its pretty close to being a go cart due to the mass & size. It response and corners well. Remember I mentioned active safety well it's in my opinion and experience that it can avoid quickly any accidents that the driver sees coming its way. Only way I see you hitting anything is if you're falling asleep or under the influence of alcoholic or some narcotic.

In the end it for most people numbers dont mean a thing. It's how comfortable they will be in a car that's important.

[Ungas]

Originally posted by OTO
...Ungas: Any idea on the price the Banawe shop is asking or if it's still there? Where is this shop near too. It would help if you have a name...

I don't remember names that good. Shop is located inbetween Retiro & Del Monte. I did notice though, sometimes the unit is displayed and other times it's not.