It’s Been 10 Years Since People Went Smart Car Tipping In San Francisco

I fear that I am one of the few people on Earth who actually loves Smart cars; they’re just quirky and adorable caricatures of cars, especially seeing them on the roads of the sport ute and pickup truck-obsessed United States. The Smart ForTwo was only sold in the United States for 11 years from 2008 until 2019 before the brand left the country all together, and never really sold in any big numbers for admittedly obvious reasons. Being the proverbial automotive pipsqueak made Smarts the obvious butt of every joke, but this news report documenting a string of instances of people tipping Smarts over in San Francisco is too funny to ignore.

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The vandals who flipped the Smart ForTwos on the hilly streets of San Francisco didn’t even have to be particularly strong since Smart Fortwo weighs under a ton, as long as they had a few friends to help them out. I have actually picked up and moved a Smart Fortwo that belonged to a crew team mate back in college, so I know it’s not that difficult to do. An eye witness saw six to eight people flipping the Smart Fortwos on San Francisco streets. The San Francisco Police Department found three tipped and flipped Smart ForTwos that weekend, though it’s not clear if the culprits were ever caught for their funny but illegal antics.

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A 2008 Smart Fortwo weighed in at a diminutive 1,808 pounds, making it significantly lighter than anything else on the road at the time, and even lighter than an original 1990 NA Mazda Miata. It was offered in both coupe and convertible body styles, and initially featured a rear-mounted naturally aspirated 1.0-liter 3-cylinder engine that produced a whopping 70 horsepower and 68 pound-feet of torque. Despite sharing a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive powertrain layout with the Porsche 911, the Smart Fortwo was legendary for its lack of any kind of driving excitement whatsoever. Just because you hate these tiny cars doesn’t mean you have the right to damage other peoples’ property, even if it’s really funny.