Irrelivant of safety, or lack of, the Smart would serve no purpose in our family. We have the most economical vehicle we could find for our family and its lifestyle, the Odyssey. Room for our equipment, kids, kids friends (up to 8 adults), and 27 to 28 hwy and 20 city mpg. Plus its VERY safe, top rated. The Smart is equivelent to my motorcycle, seats two, probably has more cargo capacity being a tourer, 52mpg at 90+ mph, easy to park.....but not very practicle for active kids. I don't have a choice in vehicles, I'm a contractor and I need a full size truck. Don't think a Smart will haul 1000 pounds of equipment or haul a bobcat. I wouldn't want to see what would happen if my truck, just normal load, at 7000lbs would do to a smart, or a Fit or Prius for that matter. I know cars are much better now, a drunk on I55 in a 94 Dodge ram was going the wrong way and hit a Civic head on. The Civic driver died....of a heart attack, but the passenger was unharmed and walking around. The Dodge folded and the driver had to be cut from the truck. So yes small cars can in some cases do fine against a larger vehcile, but the new trucks are built better to achieve a 5 star in that weight class, so I wouldn't want to try that against the newer trucks.
