Tiny Smart cars aiming to make it big in USA

by Tangi Quemener Tue Nov 13, 2:40 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - They might measure a mere 2.5 meters (eight feet) in length and only be capable of carrying two passengers, but tiny Smart cars are aiming to make it big in the United States, where hulking gas-guzzlers have long been the kings of the road.

As more than one million car enthusiasts prepare to descend on this week's Los Angeles Auto Show, one of the central attractions is expected to be Daimler's "Fortwo" Smart car, which goes on sale in the US next year.

Retailing at 11,600 dollars, Smart cars are cheap, easy to maneuver, and fuel-efficient, running at around 40-45 miles (65-72 kilometers) to the gallon.

But will they catch on with American motorists? Smart USA spokesman Ken Kettenbeil is convinced they will.

"We definitely think that the Americans are ready for the Smart Fortwo," Kettenbeil told AFP.

The company has already received 30,000 reservations for the car, which its manufacturers hope will catch on with city-dwellers hoping to escape increasingly gridlocked roads.

"When you look at all the factors, besides the interest, rising gas prices, increasing congestion in urban cities, all of those factors are hitting at the right time when smaller vehicles like the Smart car make a lot of sense, economically, and at a functional level for many people," Kettenbeil said.

Kettenbeil believes the car's impressive fuel economy could also be attractive to environmentally conscious opinion leaders and trendsetters in large cities like Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

Leslie Kendall, curator of the Petersen auto museum in Los Angeles, which has recently hosted an exhibition of "micro-cars," believes that the Smart car is the first vehicle offered to American buyers that ticks all the right boxes.

"People here like comfortable cars, that they can sit in and turn on the stereo, the air conditioning, put down the top, open the sunroof," Kendall said.

"Until recently ... no small car was available that was a truly quality automobile, with performance, features, handling, in a small affordable package. And the Smart speaks to all of that.

"The Smart is a small car handling, maneuverability, price -- but with large car amenities."

Kendall said the Smart car could be set for the sort of phenomenal success enjoyed by the Volkswagen Beetle during the 1950s and 1960s.

"The Smart is quirky today in a way the Beetle was decades ago," Kendall said. "People look at it and think, 'I can set myself apart, I can proclaim my individuality, and make it on a budget.' People are looking at the Smart in the same way today."

Early indicators suggest there is substance to Kendall's views. Glen Hanson, a Los Angeles-based illustrator from Canada who has already reserved his Smart, said he was attracted by the design.

"I'm a visual artist, and they look cute, they look like a toy," Hanson told AFP. "The mileage is amazing, for all of those reasons, it just seems like why wouldn't a single person have a car like this."

Hanson said he wanted to replace his 1989 Mazda with a car that better "fits my lifestyle and suits living in the city."

According to Hanson, the Smart is a pocket-sized riposte to motorists who favor automotive behemoths such as Hummers.

"There's only one reason to buy a Hummer, that's the status," he said. "There's no practical reason. Unless you go to war, why do you need a Hummer?"

Kendall meanwhile believes that the Smart represents an "entire new way of thinking about what cars can do, a shifting paradigm."

"People come to understand that longer, lower, wider isn't necessarily the way to go now. The Smart is a statement, but it's a counterpoint."