Re: The Auto Industy's 2nd Biggest Fear

"Mike hunt" <mikehunt22@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:49mdnR_eneb9aTHanZ2dnUVZ_gudnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The fact is MB has yet to make a profit on the Smart.  Probably great
for 
> CAFE, however.   How 'smart' is one to spend 17K to buy a midget two
seat 
> car when one can buy a four seat Civic, Focus or Corolla for that kind
of 
> money. Better yet one of the others on the market in the 14K range,
simply 
> to save a relative few hundred dollars annually on fuel?

The only advantage of the Smart is size.  If you live in a large city, you

suddenly have more parking options.

As for fuel mileage, I was able to get 42 mpg over 1200 miles in a Smart 
ForFour.  While good, that is obtainable in other cars.  The ForFour has 
what they call a back seat.  I did not try to sit in it though as there
was 
barely any leg room.  Handling was pretty good even on the highway,
cruising 
along with the bigger cars on the Autostrade.