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Comment by spicejax on October 18, 2009 at 4:31am

I thought y'all might like to see the response I sent one of my facebook friends that said after I made the reply that he sent me the link 'to yank my chain', as you can see it worked.

From the Yahoo Autos page that parrotted the Cars.com posted as their own:

Like I said below, it's all about the eyeballs=dollars.

Quote: We don't have a problem with small cars in general (we're big fans of the Mini Cooper), just with ones that don't deliver on the benefits of going small. The pint-sized ForTwo sacrifices a lot of passenger space for a relatively unimpressive 41 mpg on the highway, has an SUV-like propensity to roll over, and is equipped with an aggravating sequential manual transmission. Sure, the ForTwo looks cute, but after you drive it you won't be smiling anymore. End Quote.

I have no clue as to who Mike Hanley, Joe Wiesenfelder, and Kelsey Mays of Cars.com are or what qualifies them as "reviewers". So I'll assume that they are giving an "Editorial Opinion" and they are like assholes, everyones got one. So here's mine.

Mini Cooper? (sounds biased from the start, don't it).
Passenger space? The name is FOR TWO you morons. MINI squeezes four, how comfortable could that be. Are they confusing the number of passengers for, space for the passenger?
Since when is 41 mpg 'unimpressive', maybe the Volt's '230' is what impresses these 'experts'. MINI 37 mpg.
I've seen many videos of maniacs driving the smart and even in the crash tests it wont flip, and if it did see this.
The aggravating sequential manual transmission? What's aggravating? The fact it's not a AUTOMATIC transmission?
Finally, this comment is really BS "after you drive it you won't be smiling anymore". In my very short term with the smart I found that everyone that drives one and sees one up close is all smiles. L and I as well.

The smart isn't for everyone and I've no problem with that. It seems that the old 'bigger is better' is so ingrained in Americans that they will insure that the male enhancement biz will be here forever.

A word about caveat emptor of the internet. Personally I do not put any form of credibility on the 'reporting' on the 'net especially with commercial sites as their goal is readership and accumulating eyeballs, it's all about $$. Just notice that the 'article' has a embedded link on every 'worst car', that will happily let you buy one. They have succeeded as you clicked on the article and got me to as well. Now yahoo can say our 'content' and ads work! Our 'readership' gets you exposure for your product!


Since most smart owners seem to be kinda 'smart' (with the exception of this guy) we usually do our own homework here's a good example from neonspinnazz.

I know did, I think you did too.

MJB
My spiceJax page
My Blogs If you can stand them.

Comment by tommyk on October 12, 2009 at 8:14pm

i always say it drives like a truck and handles like a sport car

Comment by Ryan on October 8, 2009 at 10:59pm

When trying to find something out.... i'm more fond of talking to those at my local smart center, and letting them see if they can dig something up. I kinda think of it like this.... if a person contacts a corporation, especially one as large as a car manufacturer.... they think of it more as a general question and shrug it off as simple curiosity. If the dealership contacts the corporation, there's a good chance they'll think something is up, and respond a bit better.

Comment by Ryan on October 8, 2009 at 6:23pm

With his comment about the transmission.... i'm thinking the guy is used to testing out Ferrari's or something else with a more pricy sequential manual transmission.

I sent an e-mail to Cars.com last night, but as expected, i got a canned response in return...

"Good morning Ryan,

Thank you for contacting Cars.com. We are always looking for ways to improve the site, and your suggestion has been forwarded to our product development team for consideration in future updates to the site.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you for using Cars.com.

David Vera
Cars.com Consumer Support"

I really hate sending e-mails to companies that have tech support that seems to only have hotkeys for specific responses to e-mail inquiries. ..

Comment by Zippin Pippin on October 8, 2009 at 2:02am

My Brabus with its' low profile wide tires has that same roller coaster on rails feel. It certainly doesn't handle like any SUV. The low center of gravity always feels safe to me. I haven't been launched into the air by a semi or an suv either. I could understand a roll over then. I believe with the windshield surround and the roll-bar in my cabrio, I would be quite well protected.. Their are limits to everything. I don't care what Mr. Mays says, I am loving mine. It is perfect for me. The best part of each workday is driving my BB Benz to and from work, 10 miles each way. It makes me happy and puts a smile on a lot of other faces I see along the way as well!
Sign me Smart, Safe,and Happy!
Rich

Comment by david owen on October 7, 2009 at 7:24pm

I along with 103 smart cars recently drove the meanest streatch of road east of the mississippi. The dragons tail in robbinsville NC, This car was made for such roads and I found my experience thrilling. The negivitive comment from Mr Kelesy Mays is a bunch of bull. Mt smart handled like it was on rails. He needs to learn what he is talking about before opening his mouth
David owen

Comment by Dora Anderson on October 7, 2009 at 7:13pm

I'd love to see and rebut the article in question! I too find the car to be a valid solution to this country's dependence on foreign oil and also a valid contribution to the battle against global warming, at a very affordable cost.

Comment by GetSmrt28277 on October 7, 2009 at 6:57pm

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1071/worst-cars-of-the-2000s/

here is the link...I hope smartusa and Dave's team responds to this article. This is the third article using the same language on the roll over statement. I asked one of the article's editors for their citation of the source of this information and never heard a reply.

Comment by Cherie on October 7, 2009 at 6:01pm

A good friend sent me the link to this article, and I'm just floored. I would love to know where the editor got his information and what his criteria were, other than "I just don't like these cars." I've been driving a lot of different smarts for the past 21 months, and I this his assessment is just plain ignorant. Unfortunately many people will read the article and base their decision on his opinion, and not on the facts or their own experience. Luckily true "smarties" are not the type of people to accept a closed-minded assessment without looking into it for themselves.

Oh, and my mom - definitely a "smartie" although she doesn't own one -- loves her Daewoo!

Comment by LeMayzingSmartie on October 7, 2009 at 4:10pm

I, too, read the Yahoo article (http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1071/worst-cars-of-the-2000s/), and I got doubly slammed--we bought a 2008 Chrysler Sebring hard-top convertible in April of 2008 and our smart in April 2009. So we own the worst- and second-worst cars of the decade, according to the Yahoo article! However, we've had no mechanical problems with either, my wife likes the "haphazard styling" (what does that mean?) of her Sebring, and I love my smartie!

As far as the "SUV-like propensity to roll over", I've never heard issues with rollovers and apparently the fortwo gets a 3 stars (of 4) "rollover rating", AND has the strongest roof of similar small cars (see http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/fortwo/).

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