The SMART Fortwo is available in Canada for a base price of C$19650, which comes to approximately $17700. It is an interesting little car, but with only 40 hp There was a thread here recently that it has good crash test. I wonder when will it be available in the US. Can I be brought over from Canada to the US?
http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/mc/06fortwo.htm

yea but then zap modifies them for US road use and ups the price to like 35k... the cars are supposed to be $10k cars in the UK .. i wouldnt pay 15k for a fortwo

I've driven one a bit - I have friends in both the city and the country with Smarts. It's a neat little car for suburban or downtown use and can keep up freeway traffic reasonably - acceleration is probably better from 0 to 30mph than my 300sd but the 300sd sure feels more stable at 80 mph!

It's fun to drive - lots of road feel - a bit like a four wheel motorbike if you see what I mean.

NOT recommended for driving in heavily rutted, deep snow. Tried this once, not a good idea. Potholed gravel roads are also a bit of a challenge for it, for rural users.

Crash protection is quite good and certainly superior to a small to mid size car designed in the early 90's.

I'm going out for a test drive this saturday. Link to the dealership.

There IS NO POSSIBLE WAY I'm going to dump $26995.00 into that little egg. I'd rather spend that kind of dough on a 99 E300. I'm only going to see how it handles.

Cool! Let us know! I'd never spend that much either, imagine the W126 fleet I could have for $26k!

They claim they're easy to park, well so is my SD, I just back up against the other cars and push them out of the way!

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

That looks like a really great car but I can't imagine people spending 26k on it.

Scott

__________________
Scott
1982 Mercedes 240D, 4 speed, 275,000
1988 Porsche 944 Turbo S (70,000)
1987 Porsche 911 Coupe 109,000 (sold)
1998 Mercedes E300 TurboDiesel 147,000 (sold)
1985 Mercedes 300D 227,000 (totaled by inattentive driver with no insurance!)
1997 Mercedes E300 Diesel 236,000 (sold)
1995 Ducati 900SS (sold)
1987 VW Jetta GLI 157,000 (sold)
1986 Camaro 125,000 (sold - P.O.S.)
1977 Corvette L82 125,000 (sold)
1965 Pontiac GTO 15,000 restored (sold)

for some reason i want to just punch the president of ZAP.. he must be some oil exec overpriceing them for personal gain but saying all the money is going into R&D

Why do they sell them for $26K? Because people are STUPID enough to pay that much for the 60MPG sticker. Every single one they get on their lot will have no problem finding an owner.

I saw the ad for them in Auto trader. (There was no price in the ad.) Until I saw the price on their website, I was really semi-serious about getting one if they were in the 16-19K range.

FYI, for another $2K I can go buy a NEW C230.

i could see 15k for a fourfour or how ever its spelt. as long as it has a diesel

Well, the test drive was fun. I got there at 8am, the test drive was over by 8:30am and it took me until 9:45am to pull out of the sales office. For 60HP it has some decent go power (A 300D in good tune could still out accelerate it). However, it is THE CHEAPEST $27K car I've ever seen! Rear drum brakes, cloth and plastic everywhere, enough boot room for about 5 bags of groceries, EVERYTHING is DOT-ized, 1/2 the features of the Canadian/European models, cr@ppy tranny, 85mph speedo, and the list goes on... EDIT: Also, there are no pillar or side curtain airbags. Only the steering wheel and passenger bags. EDIT 2: He also told me it's a good idea to carry a spare door key because the car AUTOLOCKS after a set time without the key in the ignition.

My biggest gripe besides price is the tranny. It's NOT an "automatic". Its a clutchless manual or "Manumatic" 6-speed. The ECM controls the clutch/throttle. In "auto" mode, there is a L-O-N-G pause while the tranny shifts. Not the .1 seconds like other brands tout, it's a full .5 second shift.

And for the demo car with 825miles already on it, he wants to give me a whopping $199 price break! He went on to tell me that to DOT-ize it and ship it here costs them $6700 PER car.

I'll say it again, people must be STUPID to drop $27K on this egg.

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Nice little car but...
A coffin on wheels!