Talking with a Fortwo owner

Smart’s tiny proportions defy expectations

Excerpt:

... the fortwo’s Lilliputian proportions defy expectations in many ways. For starters, the cabin is not cramped. And the view through the windshield is deceptively conventional, letting the occupants forget how small the smart really is (until they look behind their seats and realize there isn’t much of anything behind them.)

And while the fortwo would probably not be anyone’s first choice of vehicle in which to suffer a collision, the little car is actually much safer than its dimensions would suggest. That’s a result of exhaustive effort on the part of Mercedes-Benz, which developed the car alongside Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch, to maximize the safety of a minimalist car. As a company with deserved safety credentials, Mercedes’ claims that it has succeeded in designing a tiny car that can protect its occupants in the event of a crash merits some respect.

The fortwo’s engineers “did their homework and designed a high level of safety into a small package,” notes Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a not-for-profit organization funded by automobile insurers that measures vehicle safety. So tooling around town in your smart is certainly not a death-defying stunt.


Comment: We've seen the same yellow Fortwo three times. All on Plymouth Avenue near downtown. Today I was next to the driver at a stop light. I rolled my window down and chatted with her. She said she gets 45 mpg in the city. Kathee said I was flirting with her (trust me I wasn't!).