Saturday 6 September 2008

Smart in Surry Hills


Apparently the inner city suburb of Surry Hills has the highest proportion of Smart cars in Australia. A great idea as the streets are narrow, and parking not readily available. I wouldn't mind taking one for a spin - have you driven one?


11 comments:

  1. Walked past a smart sports car today that looked pretty sweet. But won't be driving one for a while, as I doubt tou can fit a babyseat in them!

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  2. According to a local paper, they just sold their millionth Smart car. Too small for shopping and dogs...

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  3. I would love to take a ride in one of these. I've been fascinated by them ever since I saw my first one in London 7 years ago. I see a few around town here in Phoenix, but we silly Americans (not me) still seem to want drive huge monster cars. Driving one of these among the SUVs and trucks with oversized tires might be a little scary.

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  4. Smart cars seem to be doing the rounds on the blogs.

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  5. I have to add another comment. I was out shopping today and saw a lady putting her bags into the bag of one of these cars. I stopped ask her how she liked and she just raved. She even let me sit in it. The seat is up higher than you would think so don't feel like you are on the ground and sitting inside facing forward, it doesn't fell all the small. Very cute indeed.

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  6. The smart is well known is France, because the factory is near by the german border.
    It is very common to see this car in down town (Paris for exemple).
    This car is made with the technical contribution of Mercedes (owner of the factory)and can easily been seeing on our motorway running 130 kms/hour.
    Already 1 million of this car has been produced since the beggining.

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  7. I've driven one Sally. A friend owns one. He fits the Smart car and a Mazda 121 in the one and only car parking spot allocated to his apartment.
    As Sharon says above, sitting in the driver's seat facing forward, it feels fairly normal. What was strange to me, was the fact that the rear of the car feels like it is(and in fact really is) only inches from the back of the seat.
    The gearbox is strange too. It's semi- automatic but hesitates between gears just like a manual shift.

    ColinP (TT)

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  8. I've driven a 121. My sister had one. She called it "the roller skate". She's now got a Mazda 2 - as does mum - feels quite high off the ground.

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  9. I love Smart cars. They are so cute, and practical!

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  10. My MiL has a Smart and that's the car I usually drive when we visit her in Germany. It's quite easy to get around in. And great for big cities where parking is always a problem.

    When I lived in France, I thought about buying one. That was in the days when they first came out and the big hype was that you could customize the car by choosing different door panels and such. It was a neat idea, although I think it got dropped after a few years.

    The prices at that time were rather prohibitive though and I ended up buying a *real* car for a lot less. I also lived in Rennes, which didn't have so many traffic and parking limitations.

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  11. PS: I have seen two of them in Jackson, MS. Very surprising as we are not really a trend-setting city.

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