Quote:
Originally Posted by dieseljeep
This car talk can really get crazy!
I went to a garage sale several years ago and some stuck up looking broad stopped as well, driving one of those death-traps, a so-called Smart Car. I was driving my old Toyota Prius. I remarked the my car gets at least 5 MPG more than that thing you're driving and it has a little more room in it, plus it's safer.
Naturally the bimbo mentioned the costly batteries.
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I say a lot of things I think could be considered crazy, I just roll with it.
This makes me think of how the Ford/Chevy/Dodge 4X4 guys are always taking cheap shots at one another. They could debate the strengths and weaknesses of each indefinitely, and/or use compromising photos of the object of their derision as the basis for Pinterest memes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M
They'd have a hard time selling me on one of those "smart" deathtraps as a golf cart let alone as a car.
A year or two back I remember this commercial where they tried to show the strength of the bodyshell by balancing a Suburban on top of its roof...As an engineer, I thought "okay you've shown me your ad agency is good at deceiving dumb people. Now show me what that soda can does under REAL crash conditions" There have been various cases of people balancing cars as heavy as a suburban on four chicken eggs...Just because it can take a static load don't mean it is worth a damn in an impact at highway speeds. A real demo would have been to park it nose against a concrete wall and ram a Suburban or a semi truck into it at at least 50MPH and show that the passenger compartment is fully intact...Though I'd reckon it probably takes that impact like a chicken egg (SPLAT!).   |
Considering that I'm not a Smart enthusiast but I know a few things about them, I can take an objective stance on this.
I used to think a crash would easily turn one of those things into an Origami sculpture, but then I found out about the cage around the passenger compartment. There is a video of one slamming into a concrete barrier at 70MPH; the passenger compartment help up fairly well, save for the big hole in the driver's side footwell. The doors still opened, the damage hindering movement of the driver's door somewhat but the the other door was not affected.
I don't think any vehicle or its passengers would survive getting sandwiched by a semi moving at a good clip. Many moons ago I heard a story of a similar accident involving a 1971 Mercury Montego. If I'm not mistaken a drunk in a 5-tonne truck pushed the Merc into the wall of a bar, caving in the wall as well. The owner had recently done a bunch of bodywork on it in preparation for paint. That was in 1978 according to a photo I saw of the wreckage.