WHAT WAS THAT?

We were zipping south on New York State Rt. 81 at a pretty good pace when what should go zipping by?…It couldn’t be..Surely it was NOT!…But it WAS… It was a red….SMART CAR! Whipping down the highway, outracing our  Dodge Stratus, weaving in and out of traffic. Monte, driving 72 miles per hour, couldn’t catch up with it. About as quickly traffic would let it, it slipped out of our sight in the distance! It brought to mind the old song about the race between the Nash Rambler and the Cadillac…

My husband Monte spotted it just one mile north of Preble, N. Y. Perhaps someone who’d been in Germany had brought the car home with them. Smart haven’t been sold in American markets before. The company prefers to focus its sales in Europe (according to the AP article written by Matt Moore with a Frankfurt, Germany dateline, that appeared in The Buffalo---N. Y.---News on July 11 and the Greensburg---PA.---Tribune-Review July 14).

Our introduction to the car occurred when we visited our son in Munich, Germany. It was a cute little thing seen frequently on the streets of the city, and we watched as it fit into the tiniest of parking spaces. The tiny “scoot-around” car appealed to me not only because of its maneuverability, but because of its name (I’m a descendent of the Smart family).

I’d posted an article on the Smart car just before we left on our vacation (filed in the category Carolyn’s Writings).

It’s a tiny car, kind of funny looking. The article questioned whether the two-seater’s safety will hold up in competition with SUVs. I question whether it can compete on the highways with the coal trucks that run constantly up and down steep grades found on Laurel Mountain and in other southwestern Pennsylvania coal-production communities.

It might be useful for local running about, but how about the truck-laden superhighways?

However, “DaimlerChrysler AG is eager” to see this car become a common sight on congested streets in large cities like New York and Los Angeles. The company will begin to market the vehicle “built fortwo” in this country next year.

Moore compares its size to the Ford Explorer. The Smart car is slightly higher and wider than five feet, while the Explorer is over six feet high and wide. It’s length, eight feet eight inches long, doesn’t compare to the nearly sixteen-foot long Explorer. At 1,700 pounds, it underweighs the Explorer models by at least 2,736 pounds.

However, it mileage beats the Explorer models. The Smart car gets 40 miles per gallon.

Although the latest Smart car model hasn’t undergone safety tests in the United states (according to records kept by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration), the company marketing it “touts its safety package: a stiff “safety cell” frame, antilock brakes, side and knee air bags and intelligent seat belts that sense motion changes.” However, Moore writes, a previous model, the Smart fortwo City Coupe, achieved a three- out of a possible five-star rating in 2000.

There’s no debate: even though the demonstration I saw on the New York highway could be convincing, I need to be sold on running this car in heavily-trafficked, truck-filled roads and highways. I also wonder how well it would perform in the midst of the steep hills of southwestern Pennsylvania.

Regardless…it is a cute car. A scoot-about vehicle, safe to drive in our community where the roads are unpaved and roads are safe.

The Smart car is being promoted heavily, I would guess, since I read two feature articles this month. It will be interesting to see if the car will market successfully in the United States.

Below are two web sites. Explore them for further information on the Smart car.

How the Smart Car Works:  http://auto.howstuffworks.com/smart-car.htm