Runt mobile

That is an interesting little beast. Prolly gets 50 mpg, but man oh man, it would suck when the clowns come pouring out!

Kate

You know, if that got rearended by an F250 while sitting behind anothger full size... anything, it would be a blood pancake.

Maybe it is meant to be hosed off and used as a casket at that point.

I actually like it a lot. I would drive that. I wouldn't give up my real car though.

mort

I rented two while in Italy last year. They are very comfortable inside. One was a gas burner the other a turbo Diesel. Got 53 MPG on tilt on the Autostrada. Tilt is about 85 MPH, but it seems like a hundred:) They have a very interesting transmission. It's a manual with a computer controlled clutch, no pedal. The gas job would even shift by itself. The gas gauge is 4 LED's. Full, 3/4, half and 1/4. Under that the odometer changes to Kilometers to empty and the gas gauge starts over at 1/4 as full. The car is loaded with features. Even the radio is way out. The manual for the radio was a thick as the manual for the car. I looked for the engine for a long time before I found it. It's right under the rear hatch latch, stuffed in an impossible space. A little 699 CC three cylinder. (Gas.) I was very impressed by them, and if anyone is interested I have some pictures:)

Al

Just like an F-250 that was hit by an 18 wheeler while sitting behind a garbage truck:) Some day we all might be driving tiny cars and riding 50 CC scooters, like they do in Europe now. Just let gas get up to $5.00 a gallon and stay there a while. I put $75 worth of regular in my pickup the other day and decided to stop before I got sick. If my truck was empty and gas was $3.00 a gallon, I could put over $110 in it. That's sick!

Al

Gotta admit, you guys are pretty witty somedays. :)

Up here in Calgary, these cars are becoming pretty popular. They ARE small but as a commute car, traffic never gets going anyway.

Brad

I can see where one of these type of cars could be very useful. It could be used as a supplement to a larger car, SUV or truck when you don't need to drive something so big. Give it a folding top so it can be open on sunny days and I bet it would sell here too. What is the price for them up there?

There is a company called Zap that have gotten them certified for the US Market and are establishing a dealer network. They were at the CES show back in January looking for investors. They have a website up & running at

Well that's just stupid. It's made by Daimler-Chrysler, why not just put "PLYMOUTH" on the front and sell them from the side building at Chrysler dealers....

In Europ they have a neat convertable top. You can open the front, rear or put the top down. Top opens or closes from the keyless remote too.

I like the roadster. Too bad they are so expensive. They just might sell fairly well here at the right price.

Because Daimler never really had any intention of bringing them to the states. I guess their research showed that they would sell real well here. However, with gas reaching European price levels they just might rethink that process.

They really haven't done as well as Daimler expected them to do. Most sources say they are losing their ass on them.

I spent quite a bit of time talking with the Zap representative about them and what they have had to go through to get them certified for here in the states. It was a really expensive process. The conversions that they have to go through along with the strength of the Euro verses the dollar right now makes it a very expensive little toy. However, as the prices of gas continue to skyrocket perhaps more people will begin looking for alternatives to SUVs for commuting purposes.

I think they start at $17K CDN (so about $13K US). But make it a drop top and add some options and it goes over $23K pretty fast (so maybe $17K US). But they do get 60mpg or so on the highway.

Build your own here

its the new smart car

Big Al wrote: .

Performance Max speed (mph): 85mph.

Forget about stopped behind a garbage truck. The 18 wheeler might be able to run down the Smart under all out acceleration.

Remember when the yardstick for used cars was, "starts and runs, $50"? Now the gas in the tank is worth more than that.

Remember when you could cruise your bigblock car all night long for $5? I don't even like to drive my old heaps anymore. Thinking about that $15-20 going out the tailpipe every 60 minutes takes all the fun out of it.

Thinking about that

Gas is so high I'm thinking about trading in my GT for a Yugo.....