Smart Car Tipping Trending In San Francisco 371
First time accepted submitter hackajar1 (1700328) writes "Is it a crime of opportunity or another page in the current chapter of Anti-Tech movement in San Francisco? Either way, the new crime trending in San Francisco invloves tipping Smart Cars on their side. While they only take 3 — 4 people to tip, this could just be kids simply having "fun" at the very expensive cost of car owners. Alternatively it could be part of a larger movement in San Francisco against anyone associated with HiTech, which is largely being blamed for neighborhood gentrification and rent spikes in recent years." This sounds like a story that would catch the ears of veteran reporter Roland Hedley.
Try thinking. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Smart Cars = HiTech ??? (Score:3, Informative)
HiTech workers definitely make enough to afford more spacious and expensive cars along with garage parking.
As a HiTech worker I can only say - I can't afford shit with the current rental prices.
Re:never understood (Score:3, Informative)
I think several points are off. For instance, if I look at new cars on cars.com around me, the cheapest fit is $14,370. If I check out the cheapest Civic, it's $18,980. That's 25% less than an already cheap car. The Smart gets 34/38 mpg; the Civic gets 28/36. The Civic is a manual, the Smart an automatic transmission. (At least in the US, many people would consider a manual a deal-killer.) The Civic is bigger, but it's also far from big, and how big would you really need for a daily commute for instance? And the smaller size has a big benefit for people who do a lot of street parking: imagine being able to fit places where almost no one else can, or having a much easier time getting into tight spots.
The thing is that no car is going to be perfect -- there are always compromises in terms of cost, size, performance, safety, etc. But I think the Smart car fills a niche that would be pretty useful. I was just looking at cars earlier today because there's a hopefully-very-small chance I'll need a new one like, now, and if all I did was drive around town to and from work and errands and stuff, I'd seriously consider getting one.
Re:Smart Cars = HiTech ??? (Score:4, Informative)
US gallons are smaller.
1 US gallon is 0.8 of an Imperial (UK) gallon.
47mpg * 0.8 = ~37mpg, ergo we're talking about the same numbers for Euro and US Smart cars.
Caught me out when I moved from the UK to the US.
On the other hand, paying $4 a gallon rather than [quick conversion litres->US gallons] ~$8.50 is most welcome.
Re:San Francisco: crazy again (Score:5, Informative)
I mean, it sounds reasonable to me. Not compelling enough for me to not move to a gentrifying area (which I have before and don't feel particularly guilty about), but I understand why it upsets some people legitimately. I do think a lot of it is simply entitlement or making excuses for envy. Obviously tipping over someone's car isn't a rational way of trying to keep prices for long-term residents down: people who have already moved in are just going to hire more cops which will increase taxes which will hasten the poorer residents being priced out. No, those idiots were either simply troublemakers or at best angry because they didn't have a nice shiny smartcar while their neighbors did.
Re:Smart Cars = HiTech ??? (Score:4, Informative)
That would be because the UK uses a different metric for measuring octaine ratings. North america uses Anti-Knock Index (RON+MON)/2 and Europe uses just RON. This difference can account for a difference of 4-10 points.