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I have driven a Smart car through Car2Go (https://www.car2go.com/US/en/ https://www.car2go.com/US/en/), and it is an extremely unpleasant experience. The car ha

I have driven a Smart car through Car2Go (https://www.car2go.com/US/en/ https://www.car2go.com/US/en/), and it is an extremely unpleasant experience. The car handles terribly, and to reach the low price point, the entire interior is made out of cheap, Happy Meal toy plastic. I have also heard that maintenance is a pain and parts are expensive because of the low market share. I really don't understand who the hyper-cheap vehicle market in America is aimed towards. If you have less than $8k to spend on a mode of transportation, there are plenty of used beaters available. Repurposing an existing car will also make it more environmentally friendly than a brand new device.

justonepost 9y ago
Agreed, bizarre. There's a glut of used cars on the market. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-used-analysis/u-s-used-car-glut-is-a-dealers-dream-automakers-nightmare-idUSKBN1880KE https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-used-analysis/u-s-u...
- deleted 9y ago
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seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Does anyone remember the Geo Metro? It did ok enough back in the 90s, I remember my mom getting one when the family wasn't doing too hot. Used cars in the USA are tricky: you have a severe chance of getting a lemon with no decent warranty. Also, financing is much guarded on used than new. In Japan, they make cars over 5 years old prohibitively expensive to maintain. In China....well....you really can't trust anything used, they have ways of dressing up a total to look completely undamaged and even new.
blueish 9y ago
Interesting, I have an opposing viewpoint. I'm living in Vancouver, and don't have a car. The car2go system is very useful here, as great as transit is, it's hard to head home late at night or making grocery trips, which is where the smart cars come in. They may not be the most luxurious car, but they are still amazing for driving in the city. You don't need to go super fast (as you usually don't have the chance), and the "cheap" plastic they use for the interiors isn't as bad as you make it out to be. It's certainly not the choice I would make for a car, but they work really well in the city.
dragonwriter 9y ago
> I really don't understand who the hyper-cheap vehicle market in America is aimed towards. The car in the article is being released in China, which is a somewhat different country than America. And the Smart that you open with complaints about is neither germane to the article nor a hypercheap, sub-$8K car in America (it's actually more expensive than a number of larger, heavily-selling subcompacts); it's small even for a subcompact, which can be a selling point for some buyers (if you are garaging it in an urban environment where space is at a premium, the value of the square footage freed for other purposes can be quite high compared to other cars.)
acrooks 9y ago
I am a heavy car2go user, and have been for several years. The previous generation fortwo was certainly a very unpleasant ride. Shifting would take literally seconds, uncomfortable suspension, and a not good entertainment system which would freeze up regularly. car2go however has been replacing their legacy fleet with the new generation fortwo which is an amazing change. I find that the new cars are quite good to drive - all of my gripes from the last model are solved. I cringe on the days that I have to drive the old model, but the current one is great. Even better are the Mercedes CLA and GLA that car2go now offers but sometimes the nimbleness and size of the fortwo is hard to pass up :) Overall though I can say that the current fortwo model is an order of magnitude better than the last and it's certainly worth trying out if you were put off by the last.
whyenot 9y ago
I owned a Smart car for two years. It's not unpleasant at all. It was my daily driver. I drove from San Jose to Los Angeles in it and up in the Sierras over 9000 feet. The interior is plastic. What were you expecting, Corinthian leather with wood accents? I didn't notice any handling problems. It does handle differently than a larger car, but it's not a large car. There was a problem with the automatic transmission not always being very good about changing gears, but my model came with shift paddles, so I didn't tend to use the fully automatic mode too much. The biggest issue with maintenance was that there aren't a lot of dealerships to take it to, so depending on where you live, it can be a hassle. There certainly were problems. For example, the clear plastic roof developed crazing. The lack of a spare was annoying. The biggest issue for me is that drivers in other cars didn't tend to see me, especially on the highway. I actually was both rear-ended and side-swiped in it. Eventually I traded it in and bought a 4wd truck that was helpful for my work but only gets 19mpg and is a lot harder to park.

justonepost 9y ago

Agreed, bizarre. There's a glut of used cars on the market. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-used-analysis/u-s-used-car-glut-is-a-dealers-dream-automakers-nightmare-idUSKBN1880KE https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-used-analysis/u-s-u...

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

Does anyone remember the Geo Metro? It did ok enough back in the 90s, I remember my mom getting one when the family wasn't doing too hot. Used cars in the USA are tricky: you have a severe chance of getting a lemon with no decent warranty. Also, financing is much guarded on used than new. In Japan, they make cars over 5 years old prohibitively expensive to maintain. In China....well....you really can't trust anything used, they have ways of dressing up a total to look completely undamaged and even new.

blueish 9y ago

Interesting, I have an opposing viewpoint. I'm living in Vancouver, and don't have a car. The car2go system is very useful here, as great as transit is, it's hard to head home late at night or making grocery trips, which is where the smart cars come in. They may not be the most luxurious car, but they are still amazing for driving in the city. You don't need to go super fast (as you usually don't have the chance), and the "cheap" plastic they use for the interiors isn't as bad as you make it out to be. It's certainly not the choice I would make for a car, but they work really well in the city.

dragonwriter 9y ago

> I really don't understand who the hyper-cheap vehicle market in America is aimed towards. The car in the article is being released in China, which is a somewhat different country than America. And the Smart that you open with complaints about is neither germane to the article nor a hypercheap, sub-$8K car in America (it's actually more expensive than a number of larger, heavily-selling subcompacts); it's small even for a subcompact, which can be a selling point for some buyers (if you are garaging it in an urban environment where space is at a premium, the value of the square footage freed for other purposes can be quite high compared to other cars.)

acrooks 9y ago

I am a heavy car2go user, and have been for several years. The previous generation fortwo was certainly a very unpleasant ride. Shifting would take literally seconds, uncomfortable suspension, and a not good entertainment system which would freeze up regularly. car2go however has been replacing their legacy fleet with the new generation fortwo which is an amazing change. I find that the new cars are quite good to drive - all of my gripes from the last model are solved. I cringe on the days that I have to drive the old model, but the current one is great. Even better are the Mercedes CLA and GLA that car2go now offers but sometimes the nimbleness and size of the fortwo is hard to pass up :) Overall though I can say that the current fortwo model is an order of magnitude better than the last and it's certainly worth trying out if you were put off by the last.

whyenot 9y ago

I owned a Smart car for two years. It's not unpleasant at all. It was my daily driver. I drove from San Jose to Los Angeles in it and up in the Sierras over 9000 feet. The interior is plastic. What were you expecting, Corinthian leather with wood accents? I didn't notice any handling problems. It does handle differently than a larger car, but it's not a large car. There was a problem with the automatic transmission not always being very good about changing gears, but my model came with shift paddles, so I didn't tend to use the fully automatic mode too much. The biggest issue with maintenance was that there aren't a lot of dealerships to take it to, so depending on where you live, it can be a hassle. There certainly were problems. For example, the clear plastic roof developed crazing. The lack of a spare was annoying. The biggest issue for me is that drivers in other cars didn't tend to see me, especially on the highway. I actually was both rear-ended and side-swiped in it. Eventually I traded it in and bought a 4wd truck that was helpful for my work but only gets 19mpg and is a lot harder to park.