What's So Smart about a smart Car?...

The smart fortwo is
finally hitting our shores after fifteen years of European development and
production. In 1993, Daimler-Benz and Swatch (makers of equally cool and
colorful watches) teamed up to create a car that could park easily on narrow
European streets. Daimler provided the engineering know-how to build a car as
long as most other vehicles are wide, while Swatch provided the funky design.

For a decade and a half, the smart fortwo (and its
short-lived brethren the roadster and forfour) were available in the U.S. only
as gray-market cars. They could be imported, but there were dozens of hoops to
jump through to do it legally. Some dealerships, like EnVironmental Motors in
Glendale, Calif., jumped through the
hoops on behalf of customers and sold a few cars on the showroom floor. Most
Americans, though, first encountered smart cars while on European vacations, only to find that these cute-as-a-button cars couldn't be bought at home.

Now, in 2008, U.S. drivers are getting their paws on these
little guys in a big way. The first run of 30,000 cars destined for the states has already sold out, and orders are being taken for the next round. Why so popular? The fortwo's biggest plus, besides its supreme parkability, is its gas
mileage. The fortwo, in either coupe or convertible form, gets 33 mpg in the
city, where most of them will be driven, and 41 on the highway and puts out 5
tons of carbon dioxide a year. By contrast, the Toytoa Prius emits 4 tons of
CO2, while a Ford F150 kicks out over 11 tons in a year.

In a country where SUVs and trucks with gargantuan tires still
reign supreme, potential smart buyers may be put off by the idea of being
squashed like a bug by the aforementioned F150. While it doesn’t address the
squashing aspect specifically, this 5-minute video demonstrates the strength of
the smart’s “tridion” safety shell at 70 mph – by ramming it into a 20-ton concrete
barrier.

The other issue for American buyers may be space. Like the
Citroen 2CV of the 1940s, the smart was designed for two people and a case of
beer. Maybe that should be updated to two people and their laptop go-bags. In
any case, it is not a grocery getter; more like a take-out picker-upper, and
then only as long as you’ve ordered fortwo. But, as they say, 30,000 preorders can’t be
wrong.