Commuter Cars Tango Review

At the 2010 Detroit Auto Show, Cars.com's Mike Hanley takes a look at the Commuter Cars Tango, which is the world's fastest urban car.

Commuter Cars Tango Review Hi! I’m Mike Henley with Cars.com, and we’re here at the Detroit Auto Show, and small cars have had a lot of interests lately, but we’re taking a look at one of the smallest ones right now, and it’s the Commuter Cars Tango. It differs from the Smart 4 2, and that it’s a much narrower car. It’s designed for commuting, but it also offers really great performance. Where the Smart 4 2 is a very short car, the Tango is really narrow, and that gives you some advantages over the Smart. In states that allow lane-splitting, you can drive between when traffic has slowed down, or stopped. And you can also park in some very tight spaces, so it’s really an interesting design that offers a lot of practicality if you have to commute. The Tango’s narrow layout means if you have a passenger with you, they have to ride behind you. But this car also offers a lot of performance. The Commuter Cars claims that this can get started from 0 to 60 in four seconds, and it has a thousand pounds feet of torque from its electric motor. Now, you might think a narrow car like this can’t be very stable, but Commuter Cars says that it is. There’s more than 2000 pounds of battery, and additional weight below the floor, and they say that it gives this car a static stability factor equal to a five-star rating from the NHTSA. The range for the Tango depends on what type of battery you get. With the lead-acid battery system, it’s about 60 miles on a charge. But if you go for the lithium ion batteries, it can be more that two hundred miles, according to Commuter Cars. And you’re probably wondering how much does this car costs. Well, it’s actually quite expensive right now. They’re selling for about $108,000 and that only gets you the kit. You have to put it together yourself. But if you want a unique ride, it’s really hard to top something like this.