The Smart car is coming

"Many consumers equate size with safety," says Sean Comey, spokesman for the American Automobile Association. "And ultimately, the most important job that any vehicle will ever be called upon to perform is to save your life, and prevent you from being injured." However, he adds, "some smaller cars are engineered in such a way that they are in fact safer than big ones in many respects." In recent decades, auto experts have shown that it's not how much a car weighs that keeps its passengers safe. More important are a car's design and inclusion of safety features like air bags and anti-lock brakes, not to mention driver responsibility and skill.

The Smart Fortwo meets all American safety standards. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has not yet crash-tested it, but plans to do so in the first quarter of 2008. In the European Union, the crash testing body Euro NCAP gave the 2007 Smart Fortwo a four out of five stars safety rating. In fact, at 1,650 pounds, the European Smart Fortwo is somewhat lighter than the U.S. model.

Reed argues that the Smart's as safe as a small car can be. "The seats rise completely above your head, and they're made of extra-hard plastic," he says. "There are air bags everywhere." Passengers are also surrounded by what the company calls the "tridion safety cell," a kind of egg-shaped steel cage, designed to absorb the impact of bigger vehicles, which means practically every other car on the road.

Denise McCluggage, a columnist for AutoWeek magazine, who is a former race-car driver, says that size is also the car's advantage when you're behind the wheel. Not only does it slip into parking spaces that midsize sedans can only dream of, it allows you to maneuver through cars in clogged traffic. "It's almost like a motorcycle in that way," says McCluggage, who drove the Smart at the Frankfurt Auto Show this year. "You can really find places that no one else can go. It makes you feel so smug because that can mean the difference of half a block, so that means you make a light or don't. Over time, you just get through traffic faster." She hopes that crowded cities will designate places for Smart car parking, the way that they do bicycle parking, to encourage the cars' use to save space, money and fuel.

Throughout the U.S., small cars are indeed making a comeback, thanks to oil topping $96 a barrel and gas prices staying high, at least by American standards. In 2006, small cars made up about 15 percent of new cars sold, while in 2002 that figure was just 13.8 percent, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association. As of September 2007, 16 percent of cars sold were small, including the likes of the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, Chevrolet Aveo and Mini Cooper.

For some, the appeal of the Smart is owning a vehicle that doesn't seem wasteful. In Dallas, Sondra Dickson, taking photos of the Smart Fortwo using a huge black camera with a zoom lens, says: "They say Texas isn't going to like little cars, but we have a Mini and it's too big for us!" Although the Smart's official gas mileage hasn't been published, the company says the two-seater is designed to achieve an average of 40 miles per gallon. That's not so great for such a tiny car, but it's more than 10 miles per gallon better than the average American car.

Many auto industry observers expect the Smart to sell well in the U.S., especially at first when it has newness going for it. Over time, whether it's built well, reliable and performs consistently over time will make the difference in ongoing sales. In any case, environmentalists and patriots who want to break Americans' dependence on foreign oil shouldn't get too excited about the nation's fleet of mammoth gas guzzlers being replaced in a wave of zippy, little, fuel-efficient cuteness.

The typical American household simply owns more vehicles now, with drivers holding on to old vehicles instead of trading them in when they get new ones. "The trend is toward more vehicles per household, and has been for more than a decade," says Paul Taylor, chief economist for the NADA. The average is currently more than two cars per household, even though more and more households are headed by a single person.

"We're seeing an increasing tendency for families to have more cars than drivers," says Comey of the AAA. He believes that this phenomenon may skew some of the stats about the increase in smaller vehicle ownership, because buying a smaller car doesn't necessarily equal taking a bigger car off the road. As cars and trucks have gotten more reliable, their dependable life span has increased. Even paint has gotten tougher. So whether it's out of dismay for how little that old beater is worth when you try to trade it in or emotional attachment to a faithful four wheels, Americans are keeping their older cars around longer. "It's like having your own family fleet. You might have one car that gets better gas mileage," says Comey.

While observers expect the Smart to sell to empty-nesters who don't need a back seat, and recent grads, who don't have kids and really can't afford a bigger car, they also imagine that many initial buyers will get a Smart as a little something extra. Some suggest that with its relatively low prices, the Smart Fortwo will be a convenient addition to the family fleet -- the third car, the weekend car, the fun car rather than a true substitute for another vehicle.

"It's priced low enough that it can be a novelty," says Reed from Edmunds. "You could already own two cars, and buy it as a novelty to run around town in, which is perhaps one of the best uses for it, in addition to -- I hate to say it -- a real car." After all, driving a big SUV or a minivan to the store for a gallon of milk can be frustrating, especially when you pull into a parking lot that is crowded with a lot of other big cars and trucks smooshed into conventional-size spaces. Why not just solve the problem the conventional American way by buying something new -- in this case another car for those trips around town?

At least one American automotive legend is sold on the Smart. That's Roger Penske, the famed race-car driver turned billionaire businessman, whose Penske Automotive Group will be distributing the cars in the United States. They'll be sold mainly at Mercedes dealerships, as well as at free-standing Smart USA dealerships. So far it appears America is ready to get Smart. More than 35,000 people have paid $99 for a refundable "reservation" to buy a Smart Fortwo.

With reporting by Andrea Grimes in Texas.

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