For a car that first arrived on the market (in Europe) ten years ago, there is some pretty impressive technology in there. Rear-engined, dual spark, 6-speed sequential manual gearbox (yes actual SMG, not this tiptronic stuff that is actually a tricked up auto), Tridion safety cell (designed around F1 construction – ie. solid cell with wheels et al. to absorb impacts and deform) ABS, ESP, EBD, EBA, Hill start Assist, Traction control. Polycarbonate roof (yes – same stuff as bullet proof glass). Now cast your mind back to a ten year old commodore or falcon. I believe they’d only moved on to four speed auto’s a couple of years before and abs was an option. I’d also like to see a ten year old commodore or falcon take up the fifth door test. 100kmh into a concrete barrier.

I suggest people go take one for a test drive and judge for yourself. If you don’t like it then, fair enough. I know which keys I’ll be grabbing when I’m heading out the door.

I find amusing the hostility towards smart car showing in this blog. Did you actually bother to go for a test drive? Have you checked their website? For those who think there is no place for it in Australia – have you checked the enthusiast websites for smart owners in the US (that has similar oversized, inefficient, poorly designed cities as we do)?

Or are you just hostile towards the niche owners – geeks, gays, private enterpreneurs? Huh?

Now about our city: hardly any city in the world apart from Tokyo and New York can compare with London as far as cultural offer is concerned. So comparing Sydney with London is not only unfair but illogical. Sydney is a pathetic excuse for a city because it is not planned and managed as a city. It is rather a cluster of disconnected communities if you ask me. To have “a city” you need to have not as much beautiful surroundings and a few landmark buildings, as coherent planning, infrastructure that keeps the pace with city`s needs (good, reliable and priced in an encouraging way public transport – to connect the city`s tissue – vide Melbourne), a cultural policy accompanied by pecuniary effort and a real host who oversees timely implementation… All that unfortunately does not exist in Sydney at the moment… It`s in the state of chaos!

There is one thing that city of Sydney could learn from the smart car. I remember when I lived in Switzerland some 20 years ago, every bus was very quiet and it had a device that would cut off the engine at each stop automatically. The smart has the same device. If we are to keep this third world style public transit solution called bus, we should look at changing the fleet towards one that polutes less with sound and emissions. If we are to use cars for commuting and getting around we should look at the smart car and stop our engines idling away for several minutes each time at the loooong lasting red lights.

We could also have a look at the production cycle of the smart car (which seems quite eco friendly) and the amount of fully recyclable parts that it carries.

We may not desire the smart car, but there is certainly something that we can learn from it for our benefit, is there not?

More stringent limits are placed on diesel vehicles than are applied to petrol. This is because The Euro 6 HC and NOX emission limits for diesel vehicles are more stringent than Euro 5, even though they’re the same for petrol.

This is why when you look through the website, brilliant cars such as the Citroen C4 HDi EGS (4.5L/100km) is down the list when it should be up the top. All diesels are discriminated against because they are being measured to a different standard

Of course, the website also doesn’t take into account the carbon cost of producing and recycling each vehicle. Makes me wonder if the money to build and maintain this website was provided by the Prius marketing dept.

Then bugger of back to where you came from you Pommy git.