SMART cars in the USA?
 

So what IS the deal? Is the Mercedes Smart car legal in the US or what? There's this outfit called "ZAP" that have been bullshitting for two years that they are the official importer, and they have changed all this stuff to make them legal but

a) they are NOT the official guys
b) they STILL aren't selling them
c) I saw one of their "modified US Smart cars" at a recent show in SF and it is ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENT AT ALL to mine in Europe.

Anyone know anything?

I don't know about the US but they are all over the place here in Toronto. I suspect if they are good for the highway here they are for the US as well.

seen one on 57th street in NYC with NY plates

They are legal after the modification
the mod is for saftey
think of
smarty+hummer=fly+bumper
after the cost of the mod
the car will cost more than others
with less, but still comparable efficiency.

I almost ran one over this summer, people drive these things like there SUV's :hmm:

What does the modification actually include on them to make them road legal in the US then?

All over here is Vancouver, Canada.

They are pretty cool - I first saw one about 5 years ago in Germany and was hooked from the getgo - how else can you cruise around at 60+ mph in a vehicle that looks like you shouldn't be go faster than 30...

For anybody that truley doubts there safety,
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...30767077503480
To me they are a marvel of engineering, they would sell like crazy over here, considering how well used geo metros and ford festivas sell.

Wow. Thanks for that video. It was awesome.

incredible! but now I understand how come I saw so many of them racing about the autobahn.

I don't know where people are getting them from, but there are a couple around here in Corvallis. Of course we are a hotbed for those kinds of things--we're one of the most bike-friendly cities in America, the Prius is quite common here, and we also have a local biodiesel manufacturer.

I just saw one for the first time today in Miami, Florida.

thanks for the responses everyone, I am going to check out how this seems to be possible in NY and OR.

Meanwhile, if anyone KNOWS what was modified, that would be useful.

By the way, just for your interest, mine does 85 mph before it hits the speed restrictor (chip) *easily*, and it's going in for a chippin' next week. It's a *fantastic* car.

blimey I have been searching around the web for any evidence of these things being road legal, or how you do it. No results for Oregon or NY. Only more of the usual vague nonsense from a mob called ZAP that keep claiming they are the sole US importer 'authorised' by the federal government to perform conversations but (a) they don't say what if anything they even do and (b) they don't actually offer the things. They were taking deposits at hugely inflated prices for a while, which was absurbd because these things can be bought used for $7K in the EU now.

Quite apart from the fact that Mercedes have *categorically* refused to allow Zap any such status to date.

Which brings me back to the people running around in them...

do we think they were classic 'friday afternoon at the DMV' specials?? "no really, it's, err, the new Neon, here's the documentation I made on the laser printer two hours ago. By the way, those are nice nails, where *did* you get those done?'

Emmanuel Goldstein, editor of 2600 Magazine (A Quarterly Hacker Magazine) has one of these smart cars. He lives in the NYC area and commutes to do his radio shows (also broadcast as podcasts) called Off The Hook and Off The Wall broadcast by WBAI . There are a few running around NYC apparently, but from what I understand his is frequently seen around town.

I don't recall how he purchased it, but one of the episodes of his radio show / podcasts (either off the wall or off the hook, can't recall which), he speaks of the car and its purchase in great detail. Here's a link to the show notes from the month of June, where it seemed they talked about their smart cars with quite frequency. http://www.2600.com/offthewall/2005/0605.html

With any luck, you'll be able to find the episodes mentioned in the show notes linked above, and can find the information you seek. If you need more information, you can email the guys at 2600 and probably get ahold of those who own them easily, as it appears they love chatting about them.

at last, a decent lead. I will follow it up immediately!