Rick Masters's Page

LAST JULY, AUTOMOBILE MAGAZINE, WHICH I HAVE READ FOR YEARS AND HIGHLY RESPECT, RAN A SERIES OF OPINIONS BY ITS STAFFERS ON THE U.S. INTRODUCTION OF THE SMART CAR. SIX MONTHS LATER, I RECEIVED A SMART FORTWO PURE COUPE AND PUT OVER A THOUSAND MILES ON IT IN A WEEK, DRIVING CROWDED LOS ANGELES FREEWAYS AND RURAL HIGHWAYS. THE FOLLOWING IS MY POINT BY POINT RESPONSE (IN CAPS). Sam Smith, Assistant Editor: Personally, I think they're smoking their own ear wax to believe they can actually make some… Continue

The biggest key to high mileage in the Smart is probably understanding the transmission. A lot of people - and a lot of journalists who should know better (and even some dealer reps!) - seem to think the Smart has an automatic transmission and it has a problem of being too slow between gears. But that's not the case at all. The Smart has a manual transmission with an automatic cluch that shifts according to an optimized high mileage program. It is marvelous and it works perfectly. It even allows… Continue