Law just might get a chance to tool around back home in the funky two-seater. DaimlerChrysler officials said last week they are strongly considering bringing the $9,000 Smart to the United States in 2003. That’s a reversal for Daimler, which used to think that America’s SUV-clogged highways would be no place for the eight-foot “microcompact” car. (Two Smarts end to end would still be three feet shorter than a Ford Excursion.) But with U.S. gas prices expected to hit $3 a gallon this summer, the Smart, which gets 57 miles per gallon, is suddenly looking, well, smart. What’s more, quirky little models like the VW Beetle and Chrysler’s PT Cruiser are proving that high-style small cars have big appeal in America. Next year, BMW will begin selling a hip new version of the Mini, the diminutive British car fancied by Austin Powers. And DaimlerChrysler is planning a 2004 U.S. launch of its tiny Mercedes A-class, a four-seat sibling of Smart. But the bug-eyed Smart, dubbed the “rolling backpack” by Europeans, would be the smallest of them all. Smart owners can even change their car’s color whenever the mood strikes, thanks to exchangeable snap-on body panels. Says auto consultant Wes Brown: “For young people, this car would be a fashion statement.”
But their parents might not like the safety statement made by the microcar. Auto-safety advocates fear the Smart would be squashed like a bug in an accident with a big SUV. Daimler officials admit that Smart does not yet meet U.S. auto-safety standards, but they are confident they can make it street legal by 2003. Auto-safety watchdog Clarence Ditlow says that unless Daimler can engineer “a rocket underneath the car” to launch it out of the way of an oncoming SUV, “perhaps they should put that vehicle on a separate road.” Daimler officials say the Smart is not intended as a highway cruiser, but as a city car for congested urban centers.
Historically, small cars have faced an uphill battle in overcoming America’s bigger-is-better mentality. After all, SUV sales are up 5 percent this year, despite rising gas prices and a sputtering economy. But as urban gridlock and gas-pump shock spread, DaimlerChrysler is hoping Americans will Smarten up.
