Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
I bit my tongue the first time. 36HP should be enogh for anyone.
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Sorry, once again very late to the discussion (I mainly dip into EM to update my fuel fills and forget there's a forum!)
The problem isn't inherently the power figure, so much as the power figure in context of other traffic. With this car's 54bhp (and weight somewhere in the high 700kg range, or call it 1700lbs) I'm far from a road block for other vehicles but the performance is pretty marginal sometimes, and even in the UK, a lot of other road users treat small cars like dirt, so it's nice to be able to put some distance between other cars sometimes - my Peugeot, at just over 100bhp and weight of 890kg/1960lbs, plus a manual gearbox and much better handling, feels way more comfortable in modern traffic.
I've thought about this often, but while I'm not an advocate for low national speed limits (such as the 55mph once used across the US), I'd think nothing at all of owning quite low-powered cars. I quite enjoy slow stuff, but only when there's no other traffic around...
There is one other issue with the Smart's power, and that's its poor aerodynamics, so economy really drops off significantly at higher speeds in a way my old Honda Insight did not. Both are capable of around 70mpg (imperial) at 70mph on flat ground with no wind. But while the Insight might drop to 50mpg up a grade at that speed, it's not unusual to see the instant mpg in the Smart drop to say, 35-40mpg. Ditto if there's a headwind, what would normally be an easy cruise can feel like you're really needing to use a lot of throttle to maintain speed.
I've now done about 14,000 miles in the car and I'm probably coming to the end of my time with it. It's been an interesting experiment. My main goal was to satiate my curiosity having owned the Insight - could the Smart have been a better choice?
The answer, I think, is no. The Smart does some things very well indeed but others very poorly, whereas the Honda was more consistent across the board. I think the issue too for the Smart is that in terms of per-mile cost, one of the 1-litre, petrol, conventional small cars on offer in Europe (such as the VW Up, Toyota Aygo etc) would actually be a better choice most of the time. They might not be as economical
in extremis but they require less technique (and less effort) to extract their best economy, drive and perform better, and of course are generally more practical too.