Is This SMART?

[D1JL]

[Bobby]

..just a wonderful piece of engineering and architecture...imagine, 1883...My all time favorite piece of my NYC, too....what's that silver thing in the way?

[steelcap]

Doesn't look like a Smart wheel.

I have owned 2 Smart cars in the past, before I moved to the US. I was involved in a head on collision with a pick up truck in one of them. Lost steering control on black ice and hit at a combined speed of about 70mph. The only injury i suffered was a broken pelvis from my knee hitting the dash and energy transferring to my pelvis (one of the big selling points of the Fiesta for me was the drivers knee air bag).

I'd happily drive a Smart car again if they had the euro engine (lower cc but with a turbo) available in the US.

[GapBoyPCS]

The vehicle between the trucks is NOT a Smart car. That wheel that's under the left truck isn't a standard Smart wheel. It's got 5-bolts. The Smart car uses 3 bolts.

Apparently this is part of a chain email that's been going around for some time:

snopes.com: Save the Planet with a Small Car

And, it's made its way through enthusiast forums, like at SCOA. It hasn't been confirmed what vehicle was crushed. Some say it was a Ford Escape. Others are saying it's something else. One thing that it ISN'T is a Smart car.

[TerryB]

If it were a Smart the body panels would be splintered and all over the place. One of the nice things about the Smart is the changeability of body panels.

[Fiesta33460]

GapBoy is right. I could see the wheel is obviously not from a Smart. I think that the wheel and what's left of the rear roofline look to me like a Chevy HHR. That's not a knock on Chevy--or Smart--about the crash-worthiness of a vehicle. The laws of physics in that photo would doom anything less than a full-size, full-frame pickup or van from a complete crushing. I personally saw the same end result on a Mustang. It was stopped at a red light, behind a dump truck, at the bottom of a hill. Another dump truck coming down the hill, lost its brakes, crushing the Mustang at about 30mph. 3,000 lbs vs. 30,000 lbs is never a fair fight.