Anyone has any reviews for the 2-seater and 4 seater SMART?
Why wud u buy one and y wud u not?
if this is not recommended, then wat wud b a convenient car,low maintenance, low gas usage, easy to manourve the small lanes in taipei, to zip around town and occasional off-city drive?
wud? y? u? wat? off-city? manourve? b?
Speak English much? 
Thanks Maoman but this is not an English forum…unless u r trying to solicit for a new student in English since u call yrself BUXIBAN LAOBAN.
got the habit during SMS…
Obviously, u don’t do SMS alot…it’s ok…we r always learning…more for u…gsmlinks.nl/smswords.html
spelling for “manourve” which i was caught between English and French spelling, “maneuver” was what i meant.
Now…will someone tell me more about SMART car not
Spell
More
And
Read
Thoroughly
You can’t drive the Smart car on the freeway. That rules it out for any road trips unless you want to take a few days to get to Taichung.
Y? 2 lo CC!
P.S. Don’t look like a fool. If u wanna use sms, u must use predictive text input. you can type quite fast, and learning how takes less than one hour. u can also type about three times faster and you won’t be very concerned about your abbreviations (abbr.). It is available on many phones, perhaps you have the option at this time. I hated pressing 8 two times for “u”. Now I just push it once. It works a lot like typing Chinese; the computer gives you the most likely word and if it’s not right you can change to the other word or two that it should actually be. It will give you the right word 95% of the time, too. It’s definately worth the minor hassle of learning how. Do it now!
Hi twocs, thank you very much for the info on SMART.
As for your footnote, i know you meant well.
But I also want you to know that I have been using handphones for many years, so long ago before it became popular. SMS for many years and know that predictive text exists in most phones including mine and how to use it. When you are already so familiar and so good in typing, it can be faster than predictive text. Let me share further, I have an unusual numeric keypad for my phone, as I like challenging myself and yet I can type faster than those on the normal ones who use predictive text.
FYI, I am a technology craze too…
Thanks for your advice in not looking like a fool.
Btw, I see you typing ‘u’ mostly in the message, don’t tell me you get the habit from doing too much SMS like me? 
There are two kinds of SMART. One is the one you see in Taipei. That one is 900 CC and can’t drive on the freeway. There’s another one that’s 1400 CC that can go on the freeway. I don’t know about any other cars, but I’d never get one that can’t go on the freeway.
I don’t know that you haven’t, but you should try predictive input. I didn’t do it for a couple of years, but now I can use both. Knowing both I’d never want to do it the old way. I still have to when I try to type an unusual word like typhoon. If you became so fast with standard input, I’d imagine you’d be like lightning with predictive text. Sometimes it takes me less than a second to send a short message to someone.
Speak english? :fume:
Twocs, that Avatar is huge, are you trying to offset the size of something else. Load up times are slow enough and that pic size does not help.
All jokes aside, the SMART car is pretty cool but is not very functional for transporting passengers or cargo. The forfour is pretty sweet too. But they are so expensive here. I would only purchase one if I had another larger vehicle.
Try the ‘Formosa Matiz’ its very economical, great for around town and can handle the freeways without any problems. It was the cheapest new car in Taiwan at one point.
Only downside is Formosa said they were considering pulling out of the car market… I presume this will have a negative effect on prices, on the flip side you may be able to pick one up cheaply.
I’m not sure if it is true that SMART cannot go on the freeways. I’ve seen plenty of them weaving in and out of lanes. I believe the minimum displacement requirement for going on the freeway is >600c.c. SMART as I recall has a bit more than that (but not by much).
In any case it should be those smoke spewing little blue pick-ups going at 80KM/hr in the fast lane that should be banned from the freeways.
I drove up to Taipei yesterday and saw at least 4 of the tiny things on the freeway…The little blue 800cc trucks are freeway legal, why not the little smart?
Still looks like a toy to me. I shudder to think of a high speed collision in one, airbags or not.
Crash ratings are fine for a small car:
“The problem was, with so little car out front, there was nothing left to crush between you and, say, an oncoming Escalade. So Smart designers invented the Fortwo’s main style and safety feature: a bulky steel cell, visible inside and out, that frames the passenger compartment like a roll cage and absorbs the shock of a head-on collision. What happens if some Detroit-engineered behemoth plows into the featherweight Fortwo? I got a pretty good idea, watching a Smart-sponsored crash test with a Mercedes E-Class: The big sedan crumpled, and the Fortwo ricocheted. In a separate test, by the European New Car Assessment Program, a 40-mph impact with a concrete wall failed to dent the safety cell. They awarded the Smart a three-star crash rating - nothing like a Volvo but better than a Ford Escort, which weighs nearly half a ton more than the Fortwo”
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/…icrocar_pr.html
Smart Car vs. Full size E320 (40mph)
If I got one I would have to have the vanity plate “SMARTR”
The safety shell is well and good…But it has one inherent flaw. In order for a shell/roll-cage design to be truly effective, the driver/passenger must be part of the system. In other words, a harness/4 point safety belt. Without these, the occupants are going to fly around the cockpit like ping-pong balls with only standard shoulder lap-belts as they aren’t truly one with the shell. If you’ve done any racing, you’ll understand what I mean.
If I’m wearing standard seat belts, I’ll take the Mercedes/American behemoth/my 4200pound SUV. The photo clearly shows the crumple zone doing it’s job perfectly, as where the crash test dummies in the smart are having a very bad day.
The shell is a fantastic idea, but combined with standard seatbelts would leave it’s occupants with nothing to absorb the shock but themselves and airbags. If the Smart came from the factory with a 4 point harness then I’d say fantastic, but with standard seatbelts the shell is not as effective.
Obviously the occupants will be safer with a 4 point harness. The 3 star results are not only awarded by the cabin being breached but the force put upon the dummies. This is a downtown lifestyle car, not something for suburban America.
[quote=“Connel”]Try the ‘Formosa Matiz’ its very economical, great for around town and can handle the freeways without any problems. It was the cheapest new car in Taiwan at one point.
Only downside is Formosa said they were considering pulling out of the car market… I presume this will have a negative effect on prices, on the flip side you may be able to pick one up cheaply.[/quote]
I just sold my Matiz for NT$200,000 it’s 3 years old.
I bought a Toyota Wish and it’s an awesome vehicle.
[quote=“Bassman”]
I just sold my Matiz for NT$200,000 it’s 3 years old.
I bought a Toyota Wish and it’s an awesome vehicle.[/quote]
How much was the Matiz when new??
“Awesome” and “Toyota” don’t belong in the same sentence, BTW. 