Why does a Smart Car get only 33 city/41 highway miles per gallon?

This microcar weights about 1600lbs. The mpg it gets is only slighly better than what you get from a larger vehicle, like a Nissan versa or toyota yaris. Why is that? Why doesn't the smart car get more mpg? With all the talk about it, I was hoping that the regular gas version of the smart car would get at least 50 highway mpg. What is causing the Smart car to get the gas mileage that it does?|||The Smart Car is under-powered.


The "too small engine" has to work overtime to get the car going, and keep it up to speed.


That means the engine works hard and uses more gasoline than a similar weight car with a more powerful engine; hence, the low gas mileage figures.|||Oddly enough it might be all the anti-pollution controls on the car. There are so many that it seems to cause lower mileage than helping it. In the late 70's and early 80's, some larger cars without all that junk got upwards of 40 and 50 miles per gallon on the freeway. You always saw the big black label on print ads declaring the mileage as if it was some badge of honor.





I agree, a car that small should have close to the same range on a tank of gas as that of a large motorcycle.|||Look at the aerodynamics on that car. They're pretty awful. The car is flat and box shaped. Hardly very good at slicing through the air. That plays a big part.