The Smart car has been for sale in Vancouver for a couple of years now and
there are scads of them all over, especially downtown. Reliable reports of
60-70 mpg (that's Imperial gallons Mark) and very parkable!

There is a great video from Top Gear where they ran one into a double-sized
Jersey barrier at 70 mph. Made a big bang, but both doors were operable
afterwards ie no deforming of the passenger compartment.  Very impressive
little car.

On 10/25/06, Jeffrey Schwaia <jeff@vanagonparts.com> wrote:
>
> On the contrary, take your gripes to the manufacturers and the people.
> Other than trucks, which carry a 25% duty on import, the duty to import a
> passenger vehicle is a relatively small 2.5%.  The real costs are in
> demonstrating the safety of your vehicle and meeting EPA emissions
> standards.  All vehicles sold in the U.S. must meet the minimum FMVSS
> standards (airbags, bumpers, etc.).  Additionally, they must have modern
> emission systems and be OBD-2.  The costs required to make a vehicle that
> meets these standards is prohibitive and there must be an expectation of
> large enough number of sales to make the process worthwhile.
>
> If enough people wanted small, efficeint vehicles, I can guarantee you
> that
> we would see manufacturers lining up to sell their small, cool cars here
> in
> the USA.  We're starting to see a small change in American mentality
> towards
> smaller cars, and that is why the Smart will be sold here in early '08.
>
> So if you want that really cool Kia, Hyundai, or Mitsubishi you've seen on
> the web... no problem, just get 10,000 of your friends to buy one too.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Jeff
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
> Of Loren Busch
> Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 10:19 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: : End the hegemony of the US auto makers
>
>
> On 10/25/06, BJ Feddish <bfeddish@netreach.net> wrote:
> >
> > >> Will we ever be free of the hegemenony of US automaker's dominance
> over
> > what is perceived to be marketable vehicles? <<
>
>
> You need to be writing to you favorite Congressman or Senator on this one.
> The laws they have passed and the power they have given to the 'We know
> what's good for you, don't confuse the issue with facts' regulatory
> agencies
> makes the cost of entry into the US market by competition from other parts
> of the world prohibitive.  RE: Smart Car for an example.  I'm sure that is
> why we never saw many of the very desirable variations on the Vanagon that
> VW produced for other markets but we never saw on the showroom floor here.
> To much red tape and hoops to jump through.
>

--
Jake
1984 Vanagon GL
1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie"
www.crescentbeachguitar.com