KnifeMissile

I'm in the market to purchase a car and I've boiled my choices down to the Smart car and the Toyota Yaris.

Which do you think I should get?

superiorrain

Well someone has to be first, so here goes with my advice. The Yaris is a toyota and the made excellent quality cars with reliability and value for money all thrown in. While the smart is pretty nice, it is not a Yaris. It is smaller than a Yaris which means you're only allowed one friend at a time plus a yaris is better.

These are my own a opinions and should be discounted if found to be untrue but i do know if it were my money then i'd slap it on the yaris. Hope it helps for whatever its worth.

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Daniel_

In Europe they have recently launched the Smart Forfour (i.e four seats) - that'd be the ideal compromise!

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Charlatan

Hell, I'd get a Smart Car in a heartbeat.

The only thing you need to consider is what you are going to use it for... The Smart Car has less space for hauling other people and stuff.

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Scorps

Smart cars are to damn small get somethig with a little more sheet metal around you!

merkerguitars

For anybody that truley doubts there safety,
http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...730767077503480
To me they are a marvel of engineering. I would trust this car than most of the shit that is on the road today.

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aphex140

the smart is safer than it looks, the only concern is handling it is a bit of a three wheel special round corners at speed.

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Charlatan

The smart is really intended as a city car. Speed around corners is kind of besides the point.

Heck, let's see an SUV take a corner at high speed...

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silent_jay

I'd go with the Smart as well, for the reasons mentioned above, it's safe, great city car, plus I really, really like them. I see them all the time in Ottawa and everytime I see one I want one even more.

More sheet metal doesn't always equal safer, especially in this day and age of cars where they seem to be mostly plastic, but I could be mistaken..

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Scorps

Either I didn't look hard enough or that link is screwed up, what was I looking for?

KnifeMissile

The link that merkerguitars meant was this one...

KnifeMissile

That's a good point. The reality is that all I want the car for is to practice driving so that I can get my license. Hell, I don't even have a job to commute to (funny time to be buying a car, I know) so learning to drive is really my only concern. Actually, getting my license is my only concern but I figure learning how to drive will help me do that...

Still, even if all I want to do with it is drive it around, utility is still a concern. I mean, if I'm going to go through all the trouble of owning a car then I might as well own a useful one, right?

Destrox

My old truck cab had more spare room then that Smart car does...

I understand not following the bigger is better thing, but this is crazy.

The Yaris at least looks functional.

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KnifeMissile

Interestingly enough, the Yaris has about the same amount of "trunk" space (they're both hatchbacks) as the Smart car so, really, the only difference between them (where space is concerned) is the extra two seats...

Destrox

The Yaris had 4 doors, that supplies a TON more space.

That and the Smart is about as ugly as somthing my cat would puke up. But thats just my opinion.

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Charlatan

Again, it all depends on what you are going to use it for... If you are just going to use it for getting around and for hauling your groceries home... there is more than enough space in the Smart Car.

If you are going to haul all your friends around, or you plan on having kids to haul around... not so much.

And I think they look cool, but that's just my opinion.

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Scorps

oh thx......that shit is nuts

superiorrain

So you can all compare



The picture of the yaris doesn't do it justice but i still think it's better.

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snowy

I like the Yaris better. If your aim is to learn to drive, learning on a car that is closer to the dimensions of other cars (unlike the Smart) will help you in the future. Trust me...there will be times in your life where you will either a) have to drive someone else's car, b) rent a car, or c) use a moving van/truck, and driving a subcompact is different enough from driving a full-size sedan/station wagon/van/truck--it would only be worse with the Smart.

Besides, it seems to me the Yaris gives you more flexibility...what if you relocate and aren't just driving around the city any more?

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tec-9-7

Here in the states, we're getting the Yaris 3-door and 4-door; no 5-door for us. That said, I stopped in at the local Toyota dealer last night and asked them to call me when a Yaris showed up. I really like the look of the 3-door, and if the car physically fits me (6'-3" @ 210 lbs), there is a good chance I'll get one. I've seen a bunch of Smarts when I was on holiday in England, and apart from their extreme smallness, there didn't seem much to recommend them. For my purposes, the Yaris seems a better choice.

merkerguitars

Damn, they are gonna start selling the Yaris in the states, gotta love the gas mileage and the price, plus if it is reliable like most toyota are its gonna sell like hotcakes. Now if they only made a diesel version in the states....

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Cynthetiq

They were already selling them in the US, just under the Echo badging as it replaced the Tercel line. This will save them a little more money to not have to rebadge and rebrand.

Smart is owned by Daimler-Chrysler if I recall correctly. Both companies are outstanding in the small car market.

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highthief

I'd get a Yaris - it is more functional, repairing it won't cost an arm and a leg, and Toyota's history of making small, reliable cars is excellent.

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DEI37

That crash video would definitely turn me off of the Smart car. You'd probably never walk again in a crash like that. Just terrible.

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Cynthetiq

I don't understand.

All if not most of the energy was disappated into all the other auto parts...which is where you want the energy to go not into the cab of the car or your body.

Germany has these things running all over the autobahn and there aren't stories of them being death traps or parapalegic machines.

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DEI37

Did you see how far back the front end went? Your legs are in there. Yeah, the car did a good job with the body of the driver, but I think from the knees down, you'd be hurting pretty good. Wish they'd have shown an interior shot. I'd like to be wrong in this case, but just the sheer logistics of where stuff goes...not a pretty picture.

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KnifeMissile

I swear, people are just looking for reasons to hate this car...

Yes, the tridion safety cell includes your legs. Better examples of the car's safety features can be found here.
The fact of the matter is that these cars could not be sold in Canada, at all, without passing minimum safety requirements. There are few first-world countries that allow people to sell each other death traps...

DEI37

I don't necessarily "hate" the car. I could care less about something like that. Just look at the frontal part of the car in the video linked in this thread already, and then realize that the car did NOT absorb 100% of the impact. The wall moved!

I didn't call it a death trap, either. But, in a higher speed collision, with either a stationary object, or a larger vehicle, the driver will sustain significant injury in my opinion, mostly to the lower legs. The dash panel moved back quite a bit too, if you look at both the video linked in here, and the one you linked to, Knife.

Personally, and in my opinion, I'd never trust one of those for myself, or anyone I cared about. Buy a slightly larger and safer car. I'm not directly correllating those two things, but that car shouldn't be considered a "truly safe" car, in my opinion.

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Scorps

WTF?

thats not the smart car we have here

Its to long

KnifeMissile

I don't know if you're being sarcastic but, in case you're not, this is the smart forfour. What you're used to is the smart fortwo.
The smart forfour is currently available in Europe but not in Canada, yet...

KnifeMissile

Just for comparison (and let me know if these images don't work...), here are two different smart cars side by side...

This is the smart fortwo (the convertible model for coolness):

...and here's the smart forfour:

Charlatan

I just read that Daimler-Chrysler is looking to sell off the Smart brand. The cars are not profitable enough for them. Reportedly, Piaggio (the makers of Vespa) are in talks to purchase the Smart Car.

If they buy it they hope to make the Smart profitable by moving production from Germany to India.

This could be just a rumour though.

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Cynthetiq

could be a rumor, before I visited India last year I never thought much of them being an industrialized nation to compete in those markets.

But they do have a homegrown brand of vehicles manufactured there by Tata Motors.

http://www.tatamotors.com/

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castex

Have you tried changing gear in a smart? Takes about 3 looong seconds with the flappy paddles. They're very slow, although you can tune them. If I were after a smart I'd definitely go for the dinky little roadster coupé:

My friend has one and says it's a hoot.
I do, however, think the Yaris would be a better choice if you want to travel very far with anything more than a rucksack and hip flask.

Scorps

LOL who would be racing a smart car anways?

Thats really the only time you need a quick shift.