Small is … cute
March 24, 2008 by Ambrose Clancy
For all of you who think you’re so smart, do we have a car for you.
The Smart Car, which originated in Europe in 1998, has sold more than 800,000 units in 36 countries. Now, the newest tiny auto, powered by 71 horses — Shetland ponies? — looking like a pumped-up golf cart, the Smart Pure, selling for $11,590, is available at its own dealership, the Smart Center in Smithtown. (Smart is an acronym for Swatch Mercedes Art).
Able to park anywhere and considered “cute,” the Pure gets 40 miles a gallon and requires premium gas.
Which had us scratching our heads here at LI Biz Blog. What’s the big, or rather, smart, deal? A Toyota Yarus will cost you about $11,350, runs on regular and gets 31 miles to a gallon. The Honda Fit costs about $14,000 and gets 38 mpg. Buy a Prius hybrid to get over 40 mpg but you’ll pay more than $30,000.
So parking and cuteness and the under $12,000 sticker must carry the day to get people into the Smart Car.
From a press release announcing the opening of the dealership:
H2M, a multi-disciplined Engineering & Architectural service firm has recently completed work on the development, design and renovation of the Mercedes-Benz of Smithtown and smart Center, Smithtown, NY both dealerships are members of the 6-member Competition Automotive Group, founded in 1962. The H2M team renovated an existing facility for Long Island’s first smart car location.
Mercedes-Benz and DaimlerChrysler took on the challenging US market by bringing in one of their most innovative cars ever in an effort to help protect the environment through reduced energy consumption, thereby conserving our natural resources.”
I think this car is absolutley amazing but it is really small and if you got into a wreck you would have higher chances of getting injured or dieing.