I just drove one for an hour.

What do you guys think?

The one I drove was over 17 grand.

17,000 and 33/40 mpg? No thanks. It takes about 2 seconds in between each shift also, even when in manual mode.

Japanese motor, German car, Assembled in France, 1% north american parts content. At least thats what I was told by someone who read the window sticker.

Turbocharged 3 cylinder 1L engine. 5 speed tranny.

Only advantage I seen with the thing was that if you lived in a real city and only drove in the city, it would be great to park.

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This is what I think of them.

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^ As much as I thought that before I drove it, I looked at the videos online and it has a solid cage and a great safety rating. Sure, its like a brick hitting a brick but for what the car is I was impressed at the videos on youtube and what not.

Just about any car hitting a semi is going to look like that.

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Im personally not a fan of it, but I think that cars like that will start to be more and more common in this country.
IMO, the smartcar is overpriced (you could buy a Chevy Aveo or a Toyota Yaris for $12,000-$13,000 and have a bigger car and in the case of the Yaris have a car that gets almost the same fuel milage) and a car like that should be able to get better than 40 mpg. I mean, you could buy a Focus, Corolla, Civic or Cobalt and get almost the same MPG (33-37 mpg)and are much bigger cars.
I know that Toyota is developing a car very similar to the smartcar, called the, "iQ" and no doubt many other automakers are working on similar projects.
As far as it only have 1% North American parts content, that shouldnt be a surprise. Cars like that are very common in Europe and Asia, but arent at all common here in the states. Why have the parts made in North America and them ship them all the way to Europe when you could just buy them in Asia or Europe and ship them a much larger distance.

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