Dallas Smart Car Dealer

Kind of low on the budget but really want a new car? At $11,590 MSRP, the Smart car is probably the cheapest on the market.

Now having said this, don’t expect the luxury of a Beamer or an MB.

The Smart is a tiny 2 seater powered by a 1.0, inline 3 cylinder engine that produces a mind boggling 70 hp.

It has 4-wheel ABS traction and stability control, it does not have a satellite radio, nor does it have a head airbag or satellite navigation or a trip computer or compass. Hey what did you expect?

On the good side, it is a head turner-it’s cute.

Fuel economy is over the top at 33 city, 41 highway and 36 combined. You get 282 miles on a full tank. It’s good enough in traffic and from getting from point A to point B and that’s about it.

Parking the Smart is easy and the seats are very comfortable.

Ride wise, shifting gears is verrry slow and you and your passenger will know it or rather feel it. Handling leaves a lot to be desired and I wouldn’t take it out on an open road with crosswinds much less take it up to its max speed.

Overall, you get what you paid for. It’s good for in city use and that’s just about it.

Smart is a joint venture between Mercedes Benz and Swatch (yes the watch).

It started way back in the 90’s and here in the US the first Smart car was offered to the American public in January of 2008.

Currently there are three models available for sale: the smart fortwo coupe, the smart fortwo passion coupe and the smart fortwo passion cabriolet.

All three models are equipped with the same 3 cylinder, 12 valve 1.0 liter 70 horsepower engine.

The same 5-speed automated manual transmission and the same 9 spoke alloy wheels. Gas consumption is also identical-33mpg for city driving and 41mpg highway.

The differences lie in the level of appointments of each model.

For example, the roof: the Pure has a Solid roof, the Passion a Panorama roof and the cabriolet a fully automatic convertible top.

The Pure doesn’t have a radio but does have a provision for installing one.

The Passion comes with a Smart radio while the Cabriolet comes with a factory installed Smart premium radio and Smart sound system.

Overall, for simply just getting from point A to point B in the city, it will serve its purpose.

See one today at your local Smart Car dealer

Daimler Mercedes-Benz has received more than 30,000 reservations for its Smart Car.

The Smart car is used widely throughout Europe, and was recently introduced into the American market.

It gets 33 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway.

The 8 gallon capacity gas tank goes a long way.

The 1,800 pound car has a steel safety cage and four standard air bags to protect passengers.

It has received the highest rating of good in front-end and side-impact testing by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Bumper to bumper, it’s 104 inches long. A Cadillac Escalade, by comparison, measures nearly 223 inches long.

With a waiting list more than 30,000 reservations the Smart Car landed on forbesautos.com’s “Most Coveted” list.

Considering the safety and economy features, even with the wait there is no reason to hold off checking out the Smart Car.

Less than a year has passed since the Smart ForTwo became available in the United States.
Approximately 14,000 smarts have been delivered to date.

The 2009 smart ForTwo is scheduled to arrive November 2008.

A small number of changes have been reported.

These will include two new exterior colors

• Rally Red will be replacing the 2008 models yellow
• Metallic Gray will replace the current “Red Metallic” option.

Smart will be offering a more intense red interior color option to match the exterior “Rally Red”.

Door storage areas will be netting that gives a more flexible and larger storage area.

A “Loose Gas Cap” indicator light has been added to the instrument panel.

You can now choose between the panoramic roof or a solid roof at no extra charge.

Prices for the 2009 Smart Cars have not yet been confirmed but expect a 2 to 3 percent increase.

Keep your eyes open for the 2009 Smart ForTwo.

Stop-start systems will be made standard on the Smart ForTwo range from September, with a diesel variant due next February. An electric version is planned for 2010.

Start/stop systems switch off the internal combustion engine if the vehicle is stationary—for example in traffic jams or at red traffic lights.

Since the start of production in 2007, Bosch has suppled half a million starter-based start/stop systems to BMW and MINI.

Additional vehicle manufacturers (including SMART) have decided to use this technology, according to Bosch, and are planning roll-outs within the next few months.

Depending on the vehicle concerned, start/stop systems save up to 5% in the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) and produce correspondingly less CO₂. In the urban part of the NEDC, the reduction in consumption and emissions is as much as 8%.

Get current pricing on Smart Cars.