When i first saw this thing i thought it was a joke, but then I noticed that there was a beefy, armed police officer behind the wheel. I wasn't the only person taking pictures because I don't think this is normal.
Whenever I see just a normal civilian driving one of these things I can't help but laugh a little bit but at the same time I would imaging they get a tremendous amount of gas efficiency. As it turns out the engine is a 1 litre engine with 3 cylinders and gets about 40 miles per gallon (or 5.8 litres per 100km.) I have to say that I kind of expected it to get better fuel efficiency than this but i suppose it is a lot better than the usual police cruisers.
It should come as no surprise that the Smart Car police cruisers would never be used to arrest anyone because well, where are you going to put them?
I suppose that if the idea behind these cars were to make the police seem less obtrusive in our lives than it certainly has that effect on me because it is quite difficult to be intimidated by a car that a couple of people (albeit very strong people) could pick up and move as a prank. I know that if i was being chased by this thing i would probably get caught because of all the laughing i would be doing.
It has a max speed of 90 miles per hour and goes from 0-60 in something around 12 seconds. This is obviously quite slow. However, if you know anything about NYC you realize that if you ever get to 30 miles per hour you are having a very good day on the roads.
I'm fine with it because police cars don't need to be huge or fast in a city as densely populated as NYC, but when i see these cars I can't help but conjure an image such as this one in my head.
