I think I pulled one of those out of my wife's grill the other day.
I thought about getting a GEM car, then decided to tune up the bike and shed some of the middle age spread.

Keith, you could just strap it to the roof, upside down...

I believe Penske has the US distribution rights to the Smart Car. So I didn't think it was the Mercedes Dealer, next door building the Smart Dealership, But Penske, which owns the Honda Dealer on the other side. Either way, it's an awful big building for the single, puny car they have sitting there...

I'll have to look closer next I'm around there, I thought they were selling them out of the MB building.

Isn't that the Wii car?

You make it go and turn by just getting in and moving your big fat butt around.

A Corolla or Civic will get 90% of the economy of that car but actually has a little bit of room....

Same here. The Mercedes dealer is next door to my BMW dealer. I have yet to see one of these on the road though.

So thats a Smart Car. I've seen a couple around town. Interesting, but not anything that would work for my family.

How much does one cost?

That isn't the problem:

90% of 71.3 mpg=64.17 mpg. Where are you seeing Corollas or Civics getting that kind of mileage?

Thread has been officially de-railed.

I say "officially" because it was FLB who started it, he is an official here right?

After five pages and a couple of subject changes I consider 'em fair game for a nudge off the rails...

Besides which, if somebody is hiding some 60+ mpg toyoda's I wanna know where they are!

When they release the CDI, where do I sign? Keeping the truck and getting another diesel car in the next few years and the Volkswagon TDI has been on my mind as an economical car to drive for a decade or so...

And driving it for a decade kind of gets this thread back on track.

And would that be classified as "too little" car?

Mr. FLB: The 40mpg gas version is what I was referring too.

Let's do some statistical analysis since the board has been doing that all thread long.

15,000 miles a year, 70mpg, that's 214 gallons of fuel. At $3.50 for diesel, that's basically $750 in fuel.

Now, the gas version gets 40mpg, so that 375 gallons of fuel. But it's a cheaper fuel, so let's say $3.10 a gallon. That's $1162. A difference of $412 annually, or about $35 a month.

Let's say the diesel version costs $1000 more for the technology. It takes 2.5 years to make up the initial difference. This is not including any additional maintenance that might be required.

Okie, given that, a Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic gets 38mpg. Over the same 15,000 miles, it costs an additional $61 dollars a year to operate over the gas smart car, or $473 per year over the 70mpg diesel. Yet, the car is twice the size.

Obviously the spread increases a little if you climb over 15,000 miles. But this is basically a one passenger car, so you're going to be a commuter for that to make sense.

Also, not sure what the cost difference between a Smart Car is and a Civic/Corolla, or a Fit/Yaris.

Both Honda and Toyota have proven reliability, too.

I say dumb, impulse buy.

Then again, it's your money.