The Smart Fortwo: a viable 2nd car?

In and earlier post I looked at the tiny Smart Fortwo car. I said it reminded me of a glorified golf cart. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say glorified lawn mower, without the blades. It takes 20 seconds to go from 0 to 60 mph. It only has 40 horse power. Not exactly my first choice for driving on the freeway. Yet for driving around town, it might be fine. It gets 60 mpg!

Clearly it would not be an ideal car for everyone... but what about two-car families? Would this car be a good second car? You could have a regular sized car for family outings, large shopping trips, etc. Then you could have this car, which might be fine for one person commuting to work, or for a quick trip to the store for a gallon of milk, or a visit to the Dentist, etc.

A lot of people have concerns about safety with this car because it's so small. Here is a crash test video, where the car hits a concrete wall at 70 mph:



The manufacturer claims that the frame of the car that protects the passenger area is like the hard shell of a nut; difficult to crack.

It's a terrible crash in the video, with massive damage, yet the passenger area was very protected. No human would be likely to survive a 70 mph crash into solid concrete in any vehicle, but the test is an impressive demonstration of the strength of the Smart Car frame. See the video for more details of the Smart car's safety design features. The video play time is 5 minutes and 39 seconds.

So, will this be YOUR second car? ;-)


UPDATE 06-26-07:

Here's a link to a blog devoted the introduction of the American Smart Fortwo:

smart fortwo blog

Check it out for more info and links. It has a forum, too.
     

Would you drive a Smart Fortwo?

This tiny car is currently available in Canada, and will be here in 2008.



Maynard at the Tammy Bruce blog says in his post,
Greens vs. Conservatives vs. Maynard:

[...] Mock me if you will, but I think this is neat! It's small, but it actually has plenty of headroom and foot room. And you can park it anywhere. If people started driving these things, our freeways could hold twice as many cars. I'll have to take a close look when they show up.

These little cars get 60 miles per gallon! They also have all kinds of safety features, but still... the video asks a lot of the awkward questions, so it's worth watching, it's about 5 minutes long. Also visit Maynard's post for more details and related links.

Is it really just a glorified golf-cart? I used to think about the Ford Fiesta that way, but it looks huge in comparison to this. Do you think there is going to be a significant market for this mini-car in the US? I really couldn't say, it will be interesting to see.