Smart for Who

Now here is a silly Christmas gift for the uninformed environmentalist once hippie in your family.






I had a Honda CRX HF during college in the early 90's. I got it used for $700. After $100 for a new clutch and transmission bearing my greasy hands were on the road. It was made in Feb. of 1984 and squeezed between 50 and 55 miles out of each gallon of fuel. With the 10gal tank (not including the reserve) it had a range of 550 miles. Second gear was 1 to 1 which made third, fourth, and fifth all overdrives. The little engine sipped fuel as it turned 1800 rpm at 60 in 5th gear and had only 59 horsepower to offer. It had no back seat but there was enough room in the cargo area for sleeping. I know; I did. It was a success for Honda and the package looked cool, cool, cool.


The Smart is currently being made 25 years after my CRX was built. Like the CRX it is a 2 seater but unlike the CRX storage is paltry. It is powered by a 1 liter engine that produces 20 horse power more than the CRX. 0-60 times, though, are nearly 1 second greater than the roughly 12 seconds the CRX managed. You would think with 25 years of more tech., less space, and slower acceleration it would get better than the EPA rating of 33 mpg city, 41 mpg city. Yea, that's all! With the 8.7 gal tank its range is around 350 miles. Lastly it looks dorky, dorky, dorky.
Did I mention it looks and is dorky?







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