SoMa Grand Smart Car (www.SocketSite.com)
The official sales tally at SoMa Grand is now 40% (roughly 100) up from 35% (roughly 90) a little under two months ago. And while we can’t provide any evidence of price reductions, according to a tipster who recently checked it out, “prices seem lower than when the sales staff was in their off-site office.”
Also noted by our tipster: individual parking spaces are being priced at $65,000 (with a $93 per month valet/$73 per month non-valet maintenance fee); and while not overly impressed with the “grand” entrance, “they do have some great views, and the common ‘park’ area is lovely (especially the fire pit).”
And speaking of parking (or whether or not you even need it), one of the first ‘Smart’ cars to hit the Bay Area has been delivered to the SoMa Grand garage with another on the way. The two Smart cars will soon enter the building’s dedicated CityCar Share pod and share a single parking space (with a third ‘non-smart’ car beside). Cool.
SoMa Grand: A Reader’s Unofficial Sales Update And Insight [SocketSite]

17 thoughts on “SoMa Grand (1160 Mission) Update: Sales And Smart Car(s) Arrival”
  1. No idea what the prices were originally, but here are some units advertised on the MLS and craigslist (I couldn’t find square footage):
    #1111: $535K 1-bedroom
    #1112: $580K 1-bedroom
    #904: $635K 1-bedroom
    #1004: $640K 1-bedroom
    #807: $770K 2-bedroom
    #2113: $965K 2-bedroom
    #1408: $1.08MM 2-bedroom
    #1006: $1.09MM 2-bedroom

  2. I did see someone running around the city a few weeks ago in a black ‘Smart Car’ identical to this one – it was attracting quite a bit of attention, from what I could tell.
    Soma Grand is a nice development, if you don’t mind the location.

  3. I love the smart car. It’s almost as smart as my bicycle. Now, let’s rethink our SUV-accommodating, car-barreling, deathly streets. Hello smaller cars, pedestrians, cyclists. Bike lanes with curbs, please.

  4. WSJ article yesterday about that car (and other small cars) said the Smart hadn’t been crash tested yet, but that it was scheduled for a few weeks from now. You won’t be able to buy one until they’ve crash tested it.
    Normally, to crash test a car, they have a robotic apparatus that drives the car into a wall. Rumor is that, for the Smart car, one of the crash test engineers is going to be allowed to pick the Smart car up and throw it into the wall.
    In all seriousness, the WSJ article from yesterday is worth a look.
    The Ford Verve is more for me than the Smart Car. Check out the stretch version of the mini. Kind of defeats the purpose, IMHO.
    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120223952727344637.html

  5. Go to youtube, and search for Smart Crash Fifth Gear, the structure us astonishing.
    70 MPH to a dead stop in 1 second, and the entire cell of the car was intact. Now there’s no question that you are not surviving that stopping power.
    but I think the crash test will be fine, I’ve seen quite a few of them around now the new ones, not the older ones.

  6. Smart car? I thought this was electric, but it’s not! I’m sure I’ll get flamed for this, but for a little more money, you can get a mini cooper (extra 3ft long tho). I have never had a problem parking a mini in SF, and it’s a real car.

    I saw someone on the bay bridge in a smart car (it looked like the picture) about three weeks ago, and he was driving with both hands — because it looked like he had to. Anyone have any experience driving these on a real highway? Is it as unstable at “high speeds” as it looks?

  7. I think I’ll stick to safe activities like skydiving and racing motorcycles instead of dodging SUVs in a smart car. And I wonder if the old fad of ‘yugo-tipping’ will make a comeback once a bunch of rowdy drunks leave a bar at 2am and see a smart car parked on the street!
    Anyway, I am rooting for the soma grand because that neighborhood desparately needs development.
    But what is up with the $74 parking fee. I’ve owned deeded parking for five years and the parking spots have been hosed off maybe three times so far. Charging a total of $4,440 over that five years period would be absurd!

  8. Yeah – the parking HOA fee struck me as a bit odd as well. I can see it for valet service to cover that cost, but this is the first time I’ve heard of it associated with a parking space. Then again, if I didn’t have a parking space in the building, I wouldn’t want to pay for the utilities and cost of wear and tear on that part of the building so maybe we’ll be seeing more of this. While it doesn’t seem that the parking area would need a lot of maintenance you have to remember that a lot of the HOA fee is a reserve for infrequent large capital expenditures (e.g. you’re going to have to resurface the parking area at some point).

  9. Yeah – the parking HOA fee struck me as a bit odd as well. I can see it for valet service to cover that cost, but this is the first time I’ve heard of it associated with a parking space.
    In the last condo I lived they had the same thing. It’s just a way to apportion a part of the HOA fees to cover garage maintenance (so people who don’t have a spot don’t pay). It covers cleaning, resurfacing, painting, etc…

  10. I drove Smart Cars on the highway when we lived in Europe, and I can attest that they are very unstable at high speeds. In stiff winds it would blow into the next lane and I’d wish I had gotten around to writing a will. It’s an unbelievably cool car for city driving–I loved seeing them parked with their fronts to the curb in Paris; they’re shorter than other cars are wide–but I’d never take one out on a highway again. They’re also surprisingly tall. It’s sort of like driving inside of a comfortable phone booth.
    In the right circumstances I’d love to have a Smart but they’re definitely for specialized uses (grocery shopping: yes, dinner out: yes, taking kids to daycare: no, freeway driving: hell no).

  11. Oh, crap. So half the CityCarShare spaces in the building will be taken up with bloody useless vehicles. I don’t need a car in the city, I have MUNI for that most of the time – the rest of the time I need something which can haul a lot of stuff. Ideally including my wheelchair, but I expect CityCarShare is going to dodge wheelchair or ramp vehicles for insurance reasons. Which sucks.
    Adam, some of us need larger vehicles for good reason. I hate SUVs as much as the next SoMa girl, but there aren’t a lot of options for something that can park in the city and carry a power wheelchair. And those curbs you want? Detrimental as heck to pedestrian safety. Bikes aren’t an option for us cripples anyway.

  12. As someone who comes from a very tall, large family, it would take us at least 6 smart cars to get around. There is no energy saving there. I am 6 foot, most of the women in my family are over 6 foot, and the men are 6 foot 5 inches or more. While small cars might work for singletons or empty nesters, the SUV is most economical for a lot of really big people.
    P.S. My second car is a bicycle.

  13. This is related to the Square Footage for SOMA Grand that someone had shown me.
    Jr.1 br – 626-629
    1 br x 1 ba – 654 – 662
    1 br x 1 ba + den – 745 – 848
    2 br x 2 ba – 1031 – 1213
    3 br x 2 ba 1301 – 1523
    Hope this helps!

  14. The U.S. government will test the smart car after it arrives on the market. Builders predict it will receive four out of five stars in American crash tests. European models recently received four out of five stars in Euro New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) tests.

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