Karl on Cars

I just took a Zap-imported Smart car for a spin up PCH. It was the four-two model, meaning it's only eight feet long and it weighs a mere 1,500 pounds. Horsepower is rated at 60, and another staffer got 47 mpg driving across California, though that was mostly freeway driving. You can read our first drive on the four-two, and we'll have a full test on this car up soon. We'll also have a story on Zap itself. This is the company in Santa Rosa (about 50 miles north of San Francisco) that is selling everything from electric scooters to ethanol powered sports cars from Brazil.

Driving the four-two only re-affirmed what I already knew after owning my Sonett and Mini Cooper. Basically, as long as a vehicle offers adequate interior space you can quickly forget about its exterior dimensions. Every time I drive my Sonett I simply enjoy the responsive handling dynamics offered by a 2,000 pound car. And every time I get out of it I look back and think "Man, that thing is small!" Well, double that effect and that's how you'll feel after driving a four-two. The doors are large enough to make entry-exit easy (they actually make up the bulk of the car's profile). Legroom and headroom are also plentiful, so within minutes you stop thinking about how the back of the car stops less than a foot from your head. Obviously safety will be a concern for many, but Smart claims to have a "tridium safety cage" that protects the occupants. To me it sounds like some kind of Star Trek maintenance device used to work on the Enterprise, but you can decide its effectiveness for yourself after watching the crash test video on YouTube. Price from Zap is $24,000. DCX is saying the cars will be around $15,000 when they start officially bringing them in next year, but I sense a Prius-like demand situation, at least initially, so selling prices will probably be right in line with Zap's $24,000. 

It appears small really is the next "big thing."