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When I see one, all I think is "deathtrap". How is it that Smart is regarded as the automotive savior? It really makes no sense.
The 'deathtrap' attitude is equally as untrue as the people who claim the smart is the saviour of the car industry, and equally as misinformed.
In the Euro NCAP tests (Europe's independant safety tests) the fortwo gets four out of a possible five stars. The shape of the fortwo is actually a good shape for structural integrity - basically a sphere. When it gets hit from any angle it's designed so that the energy is transmitted around the safety cell, in the same way a crash helmet is designed to absorb and deflect energy away from the wearer's head.

In the smart, the wheels and suspension also absorb large impacts. Passive safety wise, they're a whole lot more stable than many large SUVs because they're lower and aren't as softly-sprung.
You'll see that even a crash testing organisation in the States has rated the car highly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz-s1sIoLhU
Also, 5th Gear in the UK crashed one of the previous shape fortwos into a concrete barrier at 70mph, and it still came out quite well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcuimw8ql_A
Fair enough, the smart may still not be as safe as a big SUV in an accident (as the guy in the video states), but you'd probably be better off than you would in many other small cars. And with the ratio of big to small cars decreasing, as I'm sure it will do in years to come, then it reduces the risk of being hit by some idiot in an SUV not looking where they're going 👍 And to be fair to it, as a city car then the likelihood of crashing at a very high speed isn't too much.
Reventón;3094541Ok, so the sports cars from the 90's are dead. What's your excuse for the sports cars that have been in the last 7 years of this century? Ferrari, Lamborghini, & Porsche have no problem selling cars that are just as pointless as a SUV since they require even more fuel, and get terrible MPG.
To be fair, I doubt many supercars are used as daily drivers, and there are far fewer in general than there are SUVs, so it's unfair to compare their emissions or fuel usage.