The Smart does have a great deal of clever engineering to provide extraordinary safety performance given its low mass and small size. It is nevertheless not a very good car. Relative to other cars on the market, its fuel economy isn't anywhere nearly good enough to merit its penalty-box ride and tiny carrying capacity.
Nevertheless, for perspective, here's where we were with the cars of forty-five years ago:
The test dummies shown represent a lot of very dead and maimed vehicle occupants. Some of the vehicles shown are 1964 models with door latches substantially improved in retention strength over the 1963 design. Obviously the '64 latches still are not equal to their task.
And here's what happens when a large 1978 Plymouth hits concrete at 65 mph (the really revealing views start at about 0:50).
But, that said, just as those who babble about how the invisible hand of the free market would've solved the problem of auto safety all by itself without meddlesome interference by government regulators need to shut up a lot, so do those who pat themselves on the back and crow about what a great job American regulators have done of improving vehicle safety. There are still a lot of unreasonably unsafe cars in the American market. Ford's one of the worst offenders, but they definitely don't have a monopoly on cars far less safe than they easily could be. Fact is, America's progress in improving auto safety has lagged badly compared to the rest of the first world. We're doing a comparatively lousy job. I shudder to think of the Smart's safety performance if it had come originally from the American market and not from the European.
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Nevertheless, for perspective, here's where we were with the cars of forty-five years ago:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siT-SIfOnQw&fmt=18
The test dummies shown represent a lot of very dead and maimed vehicle occupants. Some of the vehicles shown are 1964 models with door latches substantially improved in retention strength over the 1963 design. Obviously the '64 latches still are not equal to their task.
And here's what happens when a large 1978 Plymouth hits concrete at 65 mph (the really revealing views start at about 0:50).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVqxxIqu5TU&fmt=18
But, that said, just as those who babble about how the invisible hand of the free market would've solved the problem of auto safety all by itself without meddlesome interference by government regulators need to shut up a lot, so do those who pat themselves on the back and crow about what a great job American regulators have done of improving vehicle safety. There are still a lot of unreasonably unsafe cars in the American market. Ford's one of the worst offenders, but they definitely don't have a monopoly on cars far less safe than they easily could be. Fact is, America's progress in improving auto safety has lagged badly compared to the rest of the first world. We're doing a comparatively lousy job. I shudder to think of the Smart's safety performance if it had come originally from the American market and not from the European.
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