Going small: A Smart driving experience

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The little Smart has been riding a wave of consumer interest, attracting thousands of car shoppers willing to put down $99 and wait about nine months for the two-seater. So when I sat in the driver's seat of a blue Smart fortwo last week, turned, and touched the back window with my finger tips, I had to wonder: Do Americans really want to go this small?

Without question, the pint-sized, whimsical Smart makes a statement.

At a traffic light near the Washington Monument, a group of school kids clad in blue T-shirts cheered when they walked past the car. One boy whipped out his digital camera. When I drove up 14th Street, a young girl screamed, "Nice car. Woo-hoo!" Near a construction site, a group of workers in green hard hats and reflective vests huddled around the car to take a closer look.

"They're making the space age come real quick!" exclaimed another man, who pulled over in his SUV to ask me about the pod-shaped car.

Friends and colleagues had their doubts and wondered how I would handle the highway. No car can repeal the laws of physics, and at 1,800 pounds, they said the Smart would be no match for a big truck.

The fortwo received the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's top rating in front- and side-impact testing, and it's equipped with standard side air bags, anti-rollover technology and a reinforced steel cage structure, but the car is dwarfed by the competition. So when I merged onto the Washington Beltway at the tail end of rush hour, I saw their point in the form of a massive tractor trailer bearing down on me.

I hit the brakes and stayed in the merge lane as the truck blew past me and then steadily (the fortwo does zero-to-60 mph in 12.8 seconds) drove into suburban Maryland. Even when I surpassed 70 mph at times, I felt comfortable.

This is not a car built for a quick getaway, however. I can't imagine Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron outrunning the bad guys in a fleet of Smarts, like they did aboard Mini Coopers in the 2003 remake of "The Italian Job."

And the 70-horsepower, 1-liter, three-cylinder engine felt somewhat lacking as I was left in the dust, simultaneously, by a Honda Civic on my left and a Saturn SL on my right.

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