Smart cars survive Arctic test

Seven Smart cars survived an Arctic challenge this week, having driven on the Dempster Highway from Inuvik, N.W.T., through the Yukon.

Automotive journalists who were recruited to test drive the Smart fortwo coupes stopped in Whitehorse on Tuesday, and are now en route to Vancouver.

The tour through the notoriously rough Arctic highway was sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, the car company that sells Smart cars in Canada.

"The goal of the whole event, if you will, is to show that the Smart fortwo can tackle pretty much some of the harshest winter driving conditions imaginable in our country," Matt St-Pierre, a Montreal-based writer with Auto123.com, told CBC News on Wednesday.

St-Pierre and the other journalists who tested the Smart cars began their journey last week from Kelowna, B.C., driving up the Alaska Highway to Whitehorse, then north to Dawson City and along the Dempster to Inuvik before turning back for the return trip to Vancouver.

Road conditions rough

Surprisingly, the weather was relatively mild St-Pierre said the coldest temperature he experienced on the road was 23 C.

"[Around] 40 C would have been a real, real winter test, but the road conditions were pretty awful in some points the blowing snow, the snowdrifts," he said.

"The car still had to tackle many obstacles that it would probably never really have to go through in any type of urban setting."

St-Pierre said other than cramped quarters he, his co-driver and their gear were packed in the vehicle the Smart car performed well on the Dempster.

"I was, like, cheering on the Smart because we had conquered the Dempster," he said. "It was something else."