I drive a Ford Focus that gets 35 mpg and I've never had to search for parking. Even in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. There is always somewhere to park, it just depends how much you're willing to pay for it.

This car might be interesting or useful for a very tiny part of the population, but I would think a scooter (of the variety that is extremely popular in European cities like Madrid) would be more efficient and practical, and could park in even more places. To me the smart car seems like nothing more than a novelty... it fills no niches that other cheaper, smaller, more duel-efficient vehicles like mopeds and scooters don't already occupy.

unless its a plug in electric. i can wait.

if they throw in a solar or wind charger, i will be at the dealers lot tomorrow.

they sell electric mopeds but they dont package them with solar/wind chargers, yet.

you can buy electric light motorcycles from china. i just pulled up a USA electric motorcycle company that advertizes an equivelent to 585 mpg but theyre not on the market yet.

i bought a subcompact 15 years ago. i already get better mpg than a "smart" car. and yes the street parking is awesome.

there are lots of compact only parking spaces out there. but there is no law enforcement and idiots in SUVs dont know how to read.

it fills no niches that other cheaper, smaller, more duel-efficient vehicles like mopeds and scooters don't already occupy

Except when it's raining...

OK. great story.

Most importantly... this is the first good use of video on salon. Please please please stop the "reporter talking to the camera" thing. Actually use video when it is needed.. i.e. this spot.

A pair of great Russian writers in early XX century offered this line: Automobile is not a luxury, it is means of transportation. Who new they were right?!

... is touted as wonderful until it rains.

Or snows (probably the only legit reason).

Or it's "too cold". Then, all of a sudden, it's in the back of the garage until the weather is perfect and the "I hardly ever use it" guzzler is on the road until perfection returns.

I say this as a fairly rabid biker - motorcycle & bicycle, to disambiguate. I have way more miles to my name with 2 wheels than four. Us rabid bikers note each other during the winter, the storms making us haul out our rainsuits and separating the men from the baby boys (and real women from the little girls).

I don't have or need one, but the Smart isn't a bad idea. It's a good option for those people who could get around by two wheels were they up to the weather or simple can't - my gf cannot do two wheels due to a minor visual & inner ear impairment. If she didn't commute with me via motorcycle or tiny Microcar two-seater (a competitor for the Smart in Europe that has a bit more carrying room), a Smart would be okay. I am somewhat disappointed that the diesel isn't available here, but as I understand it that is due to US emission restrictions on the diesel - something which also holds back diesel hybrids. Still, there is no silver bullet to transportation problems, as there is no one single transportation situation. The niche for this will be be big enough.

Americans aren't the only ones who do this, but we do like to make everything single-issue decisions. In this case it's mileage, something everyone ignored even two years ago and now is the *only* thing we care about (although as a few have demonstrated, their one-item is last year's power/speed requirement).

Good article, Farhad. I wish I'd had the chance to check out the car when you offered, as my one experience was in Vancouver and the diesel variant, but I wasn't in the city at the time it was available and driving up there just for the test seemed silly.

Just a note, but you explicitly mentioned accelerating slowly in the article...don't do that. For better gas mileage, you should accelerate quickly thru the low gears, as the extra gas wasted in acceleration is more than made up by the extra mileage at a higher speed.

It may not sound like much, but I average 2-3 mpg over the gov't specs on my car on the highway...and that's traveling at 78-80 on average.

It will generate further innovation and a wider audience, but first you have to have those companies that are willing to try new things.

And I know, I know: Better technology has been out there for years. The auto corporations have deliberately turned their back on that technology (a la Who Killed the Electric Car?). But Americans themselves have been only too willing to drive SUV's and luxury cars with lousy gas mileage, all in the name of fashion. So if you want to finger point, you can look in the mirror.

As one of the people who participated in the Smart car test, I really did enjoy the ride. If money were not an issue, I would love to drive a small, fuel-efficient car designed exclusively for city travel.

11 years old, bald tires, tuned up, it gets 29-30 MPG. Sure, not the 40 or so touted, but it can acclerate.

And it takes off like a bunny.

They've had Smart Cars in Japan for years- the Civic used to be the size of a Smart Car (c. 1972). And in '72 the Civic had a lot of pep.

Someone earlier asked about Prius mileage. On my 2003 Prius (before the redesign) I've been getting around 43.5 MPG based on the onboard display in the warmer months, in the colder months it tends to drop about 2-3 MPG. Driving is mostly suburban and city.

I could probably squeeze more MPG out of it with less A/C use, or if I drove more than my wife, who doesn't take it as a personal challenge to increase the MPG number every time she's behind the wheel.