This morning I'm on my way to work and for some reason decided to go thru town, but since I was in the X and not on the bike, no biggie.
Stopped at McDonalds, laughed as always when they try to hear what you just said with the 7.3 chattering away and got back on my way. Of course make it 100 yards and get caught at the light. In the rear camera I see what looks like dogs eyes reflecting back at me and I look closer and realize it was a trio of Smart cars that were pulling up alongside me. The most amusing part was that 2 of them, even with safe space in between, were still not longer than the X.
Feeling a little chipper this morning I leaned over for a closer look. I think my riding mower is bigger, I know it would stand up better in an accident. I can only assume they were caravaning them somewhere , I mean come on...if they were that eco-friendly, they would have carpooled.
So being as this light is at the case of a decent hill, I knew that I was going to have to get on it a bit(ya know, to keep up with traffic) but WAIT, what is this? The smartcar is trying to race me? Ok, right foot down, let truck downshift, clean out injectors, black smoke rolls. CRAP, its a 35mph zone and I'm there already. Like a groundhog poking its head thru its hole, the little red one comes out of the smoke and puts along up the hill at a challenging 35mph, ahhh..and here comes the blue one chugging along as well....
Hmmmm....I need to get over, check camera, check mirrors, all clear..
All clear?but they were 3 in the pack and nobody turned off the road...

I think when the turbo spooled I blew one into the weeds

ooops








has anyone ever noticed the resemblance ???

 

LOL!

Now, don't forget, when talking to pretentious Smart owners...

At 41MPG Hwy and a 1600 pound curb weight, that's 32.8 MPG per ton.

My X weighs 7900 full of fluids except for about a little less than two-thirds of a tank of fuel. At a conservative 16MPG, that's 63.2MPG per ton.



What do they do when they have two friends? Or more than three poodles? LOL!

 

Those are silly little cars for non-urban areas but you cannot say they aren't "safe". Top Gear crashed on (see Youtube) and while the occupants would have been killed since it crashed at over 70mph. The structure remained stable and solid.

You need to check your air filter. You may have sucked one of those cars up in your intake.

 

We can argue this all over again, but it is NOT safe to have the car stay the same shape. You need a crumple zone to absorb the impact, the seatbelt stretch is far from enough to keep you safe in a moderate accident. These cars are like riding a motorcycle with a helmet, all you have changed is whether it will be an open or closed casket funeral.

 

The advantage of a smartcar is that if you run out of gas, you can just pick it up and carry it

I think 2 of those would fit in the back of the X with the 2nd row still in place.

For the car, or the people... ahem... person inside? I think there no sense in buying a casket, the car would fit in the vault - and after a wreck there's probably nothing salvageable, so just bury it all.

 

everytime I see one of the little suckers...the noise from the Jetsons run thru my head...


I wouldn't drive one..no how..no way..I feel safer on my bike, and at 900lbs plus me...it prob weighs more

 

That is hilarious. Blew one off the road. Puts a new meaning to blew one away.

 

I love my X and would not even consider a Smart (I doubt they got the name right) car, but you may wish to double-check your math. Otherwise, the Smart car owner may get a huge laugh if you take that tact.

MPG per ton would be expressed as MPG/Ton (MPG divided by Ton)
Use short ton which equal 2,000 pounds (do not use long ton at 2,240 pounds each)

Smart car - 41 / 0.8 which equals 51.25 MPG per ton
Excursion - 16 / 3.95 which equals 4.05 MPG per ton

 

I did not buy my EX for its looks, or its gas mileage. I bought it because I needed a one ton truck with enclosed seating, for a very specific job ( relatively heavy towing). When I want gas mileage, I use my Toyota RAV 4, a incredibly roomy-for-its-size four door "mini SUV". When I drive that Toyota RAV 4, I practice "defensive driving", so that guy who IS driving his EX who wants to "T bone" me at an intersection, wont have much of a chance to get me in his sights. Which reminds me...when I drive my EX. knowing if it is knocked over (and even my Toyota rav 4 COULD knock it over) at an intersection - the roof structure, which offers about as much protection as a well-starched bed sheet, may well collapse down to the window ledges.... so I STILL practice defensive driving. When I am driving my " Class Six" diesel GMC 6500 series tractor-truck, I practice defensive driving, because being "t boned" at an intersection by an EX could flip that too.

See - folks...that's the problem with accidents. They are...well...ACCIDENTS...meaning you cant plan them in advance. You guys who are cocky, thinking the EX offers you protection in an accident, are NUTS. The ONLY way you could be confident that the EX is a good vehicle to have an accident is, is to get VERY lucky and PICK a low speed head on or rear ender with a ordinary passenger car.

Please - PLEASE contact me if you have the ability to predict your or my next automobile accident and the type of vehicle that will hit us, and where. I will pay you a VERY substatial fee for that service.

 

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOFL....just makes me wanna take one between my finger tips and....SPLAT!!!!!

 

Not too pick on you, your math is right, but I think the conclusion is wrong. The overall efficiency picture by you math is misleading, if you continue the chain a tractor trailer weighing in at say 40 tons and achieving say 5 mpg is only achieving 0.125 MPG/ton. However if you look at the bigger picture, lets say the tractor trailer has to transport its load 1000 miles, it uses 200 gallons of fuel to do that. I am going to assume that the truck moves a total of 30 tons of payload. For the smart car to do that, I believe the allowable payload is 575 lbs, so it would require 105 smart cars to make the 1000 mile trip, at 41 MPG each car would use 24.4 gallons of fuel for a grand total of 2561 gallons of fuel to move the same payload. So who's more efficient?

If we do the same comparison based strictly on vehicle weight it looks like this: I'm assuming an 8000lb X and a 1600lb smart car. X at 16 MPG uses 62.5 gallons for 1000 mile trip, it takes 5 smart cars at 1600lb to move the same weight at 41 MPG they use 122 gallons of fuel. By weight the X is still more efficient.

This is usually the logic I use with the smart car owners at the filling station

But it's still fun.

 

Wanna see a smart car crash?

Truck Hits Smart Car Winnepeg, Canada

I have the complete set of investigative images. I can tell you the drive was cut in half at the waist. The images are too graphic to post here.

 

Err, I have seen pics of a smart car that ran into a tractor trailer. Lets just say it was not pretty. Driver was in pieces.




PS, the day one of those things cuts me off - I promise I am not swerving to avoid. I consider them and the ppl that drive inside them no different than a deer running out in front of me.

 

I was wondering .... Aren't those smaller than the third row seats we have?

 

I have 2 samurai's..the stocker makes them look big, the 2nd you could drive over the smartcar, the samurai's back seat is the same size as the one in the SC, and it goes between the wheelwells....