Freaky Gear: SMART Hybrid

[Andrew Robinson]

I have no idea... they are probably great for mid-sized cars. Smart's
problem is that it's the only car in it's size class, so when the
accountants forced Smart to buy in another company's engine instead of
continuing development of the excellent 599/699cc engine that Mercedes
used to build specifically for the Smart, they only had a choice of
unsuitable ones. They went with a 999cc Mitsubishi engine that's
bigger, heavier, and less powerful, and ended up making the current
model bigger than the old one to accommodate it.

- Andy_R

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 7:40 PM, Peter Korsten <peter at severity-one.com> wrote:
> So how are these new 1.5 diesel engines in terms of economy and
> pollution? Renault, for instance, are sticking them in all of their
> mid-sized cars. (Their petrol engines come from Nissan; Nissan uses
> Renault diesel engines.)