I’ve been waiting to see a Smart car on the road since PopSci magazine wrote a piece about the cars last summer. If you haven’t seen one or heard of them, here’s a synopsis: They make the Mini look like a Hummer (OK, a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea) and their fuel efficiency — at 33-45 mpg — is impressive.
So this morning on my commute in, I saw one driving south on Abrams between Mockingbird and Gaston. It was silver and a very nice looking lady was driving it. I know because I gawked at her and her car. It’s hard not to want to check out the Smart. It’s not quite nine feet long, five feet tall and five feet wide. I don’t know what the dimensions of, say, an Expedition are by comparison, but I bet you could fit at least a couple Smarts inside of one and still have room to spare.
I called the Dallas dealership, smartcenter Dallas, on Lemmon, and talked to Courtney, who let me know they made their first Dallas deliveries in January. Right now the only way to get the wee little car is to make a $99 reservation online. Then, according to the website FAQ, "smart offers future owners the unique experience of reserving and customizing your smart fortwo online. smart then ships your built-to-order vehicle directly to your dealership, ensuring that each smart fortwo is as unique as its owner."
Anyway, I just think they’re fun, and I’m always somewhat fascinated by new auto technology (NOTE: the Smart isn’t all that new — more than 800,000 have been sold in 36 countries before hitting the States). I also think their presence on the American market is encouraging for obvious reasons. They may not be very practical, but I can’t say I find them any less so than a number of other cars on the market.
