[Update: turns out this is an Associated Press syndicated piece.  My local paper did not provide attribution]

Ann M. Job titles her article, “Smart fortwo is a real car with real-car faults”. The article is published in San Mateo County’s The Daily Journal. This is the most negative write-up of the smart fortwo I have seen. She spends some time on the fortwo’s value proposition, comparing it to the Toyota Yaris and Hyundai Accent. She points out the 8.7 gallon gas tank allows only about a 300-mile range. She opines that the plastic interior and loose trim “did not give the impression of a quality-made car”. She observes that the car is noisy and has a poor suspension which had the car “bobbing up and down like apples in a barrel at Halloween time”. As many others have mentioned, Ann found the transmission to be rough shifting and very “jerky”. Less negative are mentions of the fortwo’s safety features, legroom and “open feel”.

Clearly, the fortwo is not for everyone Thanks, Ann for offering another viewpoint. We are still very much looking forward to getting ours!

There is a new video on YouTube showing Jay Leno’s reaction to the smart fortwo. Jay is very car savvy and has quite a collection of classic cars. His thoughts on the fortwo - “its an impressive little vehicle and its a lot of fun… and hey, it makes people smile.”

Brian Cooley, Editor at large at CNET, has a video “preview” of the smart fortwo on cnet.com. Brian is 6′3″ tall and says that headroom and legroom are fine with the seat all the way back. He mentions the ride is very firm and does a fair amount of up-and-down over road imperfections due to its short wheel base.

His summation is, “whee”. Brian notes he has a fortwo reserved and “digs this car”!

Several news sources are reporting that smart USA has deposits for more than 30,000 fortwo cars. They are speculating that, as a result of this demand, people currently submitting deposits online or looking for a car at a smart dealer in 2008 may be out of luck. Its not clear from any press releases or the smart USA website what the delivery throughput will be. Most sources report that the car will arrive in January. We placed our deposit in September. We’ll let you know when we hear more about our own order…