I have to wonder kind of man you are to need a Hummer to make yourself someone who is supposedly not gay. What are you compensating for?

The size of the vehicle doesn’t make you gay. Just like the size of a vehicle doesn’t make you a man.

“Another thing about solar panels. They are inefficient. Currently the most widely available and affordable solar panels produce less energy over their lifetime than it took to build them in the first place.”

This is completely false information. Sure solar panels could be more efficient. But they produce plenty of power and pay for themselves in power generated many, many times over during their 40 to 50 year lifetime. It doesn’t take much surfing on the web to find lots of examples on the internet.

Stop posting false information.

I can’t imagine anyone getting this in a predominantly driving city like LA or Houston. You need a fast car there, people drive like ****ing crazy in huge SUVs. That’s not the place for a motorized skateboard like the Smartcar

To be honest I think the safety concerns are at least a little valid, although I think Daimler (smart’s parent company) has done an excellent job making the car as safe as possible, and there is lots of internet video footage to back this up, the sheer size of the thing (or lack thereof) is shocking the first time you see one in person. But let’s face it, there are lots of vehicles out there that don’t stand a chance against a Hummer or any other large vehicle, this includes motorcycles, and small cars like the Yaris, to name a few.

I think a lot can be learned by actually driving a fortwo. Smart is currenly doing a “road show” and I got a chance to drive the car in real traffic in Houston Texas. On the short drive a few things became very clear: 1. the gas powered cars they will be bringing to the USA have more than enough spunk to keep up with city traffic. 2. The car is fun to drive, but not in the way that a muscle car is fun. 3. you really don’t feel as vulnerable as you might think, I passed a BMW 3 series and I was actually sitting higher in the smart than the driver of the BMW (driver height has been shown to affect your likely hood of survival in side impact crashes) .

As far as “feeling gay driving the car” that’s got more to do with a person’s self image than it has to do with the car. (unless the car is pink… )

The bottom line is gas is getting more and more expensive and cars like the smart make sense. No the smart isn’t for everyone, it only has 2 seats, like a Porsche Cayman S or a Corvette. If a Corvette isn’t practical for your everyday driving needs because of space, then neither is a smart.

Personally I like the car, it’s not like anything else on the road in the USA. I don’t think it will be a huge seller because it’s soooo small, but I think it wall be a hit, and it will open the door for other small efficient cars, like the Mitsubishi i, or other small European or Japanese cars.

I predict that if the smart is even the slightest bit successful some company will introduce a tiny 4 door within 2 years.

Another thing about solar panels. They are inefficient. Currently the most widely available and affordable solar panels produce less energy over their lifetime than it took to build them in the first place. True there are solar panels that don’t have this problem but they are:

1. Experimental, no where near production ready.
2. Too expensive.

The last part may not be so bad if we centralize our power source and have the government foot the bill.

An electric car is –perfect– for anyone that typically doesn’t drive very far. If they sometimes do they could rent a bigger car for just those times and it would be less expensive over all. Or just have a second vehicle for longer trips. Most Americans seem to have second cars and this is about them having these Smart models in America.

As for hybrids. The average car is NOT something with a V8. You might think so but go to any shopping center and make a list of the cars and if you can tell what engines they have (you may have to look the latter up on the internet).

Most cars have 4 cylinder engines. I said –most–. I didn’t say all. But even if they were V6s, the electric part of hybrids (like the Prius) have tons of torque with the gas engine helping out. So they are NOT slow and people are amazed at how much you can put into a Prius.

Plus they get 50 plus MPG average in real life overall driving. That is much better than any plain gas 4 cylinder or 6 cylinder cars.

As for alternate fuels. These are actually bad for two different reasons.

1) The oil companies will be buying up those companies and we won’t be any better off money wise. They’ll make sure we pay more and more for fuel.

2) The main place they are getting some of these fuels are from farms that currently or used to grow food crops. Guess what. Lower supply of food crops causes the prices to go up. So not only will you be paying more for fuel but also for food.

Great idea? No, it’s a stupid idea.

Another thing about electric vehicles. Depending on where you live there are several ways to supplement or replace your current source of electricity.

1) Solar panels which can be bought using equity loans if you have a mortgage and some equity in your house. Keep in mind that you can write off part of that interest you pay in mortgage payments. Plus there are tax refunds/rebates for solar panels.

2) Wind mills. Yes, you if you live in an area where it is windy you can get windmills that aren’t the big things you see in Denmark. The new “personal” windmills are much smaller and produce a surprising amount for their size.

If you are worried about saving money. Buy either a solar hot water heater or an “on-demand” hot water heater. (You don’t leave your car running all the time just because you might drive it. Why have your hot water tank running all the time when you might use hot water?) Either will save you a money after a few years.

I’m happy to see this vehicle go “electric” if you will. I wish it was a larger car though, because then it would be opening up the possibilities to a much larger range of vehicles. Most car companies will point their attention torwards larger cars and say it’s an implausible with todays technologies.

Seeing as there is not currently any realistic combustible fuels that are not carbon based or a renwable resource (hopefully hydrogen in the future, and electric is close, however it is not well suited to long range or enthusiast applications) the energy released by the combustion of gasoline to make your car accelerate is too great to simply evaporate it into heat through your brake pads.

Regenerative braking is what I consider to be the most important part of a hybrid. And there is currently no better way to do that than to convert kinetic movement back into electricity using a generator. All of this power must be dispensed of somehow, and short of plugging your car into your house to power it (which is not being presented as a solution by todays automakers, who have surely thought of it), the best way to do it is to run it back through an electrical motor to turn it back into kinetic energy. Having an electric motor onboard also allows the gas motor to shut off a lot of the time because any throttle response needed off the line can be substituted using the electrical system.

To complete the circle, whenever the gas engine is running while not under load, it either shuts off or acts as a generator again, so that no gasoline is wasted into creating a non-recoverable energy (i.e. brake pads).

As i’m sure you all have read, there are arguments regarding the overall environmental impact of initially producing the large battery packs and other technology that goes towards producing a hybrid, but all of the hybrid producing companies offer comprehensive battery recycling programs and I would definitely rather go through a few batteries then pointlessly burn fuel while idling in rush hour or lose all of my kinetic energy to heat in my brake pads.

Hybrids, while not by any means a permanent solution, i beleive are a technological breakthrough while the world is still stuck burning carbon based fuels.

After having said all this, there is currently not an acceptable hybrid for me, since i prefer to drive a much more sporty car with a manual transmission, however, for the 90 percent of all drivers that simply get behind the wheel to get from A to B, hybrids are a fantastic and innovative, if only temporary, solution.