Are We Smart Enough For The Smart Car?

America's favorite pastime these days is watching the price of gas going up. We seem to believe that for some reason the price of gas is just too high. However, that's all relative. Folks in Europe pay far more for a gallon of gas than we do. But of course, if you're a gas price watcher, you know that, and perhaps don't care. What matters to you is the price of gas at your local gas station, not what it costs in some town thousands of miles and an ocean away.

Problem is the price of gas is still relatively low. In the past couple of decades, gas prices have defied inflation, and recent increases have only just brought prices back to a point reached in 1981, when a gallon of gas cost $2.69 in today's dollars. Today, $2.69 adjusted for inflation would be $6.02, which is double what we are paying now.

So, no, gas prices really aren't that high.

Still, that probably is of little comfort to most Americans. If you think the price of gas is too high, then it is too high. Screw inflation, screw what the Europeans pay, you have a God given right to drive a vehicle that gets 15 miles per gallon, and dammit, that's what you're going to do!

Right?

Maybe not.

More and more Americans are starting to rethink the kind of vehicle they drive. They're looking around at whether or not they might not be able to counteract the rising price of gas with a car that gets better mileage (or by switching to public transportation, of course). Much in vogue these days are Hybrid electric cars such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic hybrid, which are being purchased faster than the manufacturers are making them. While Toyota and Honda have been slow to increase production, perhaps leery of the pandora's box that has been opened, there is a clear trend of car owners who are willing to pay for these vehicles, even while the price remains relatively high. But they're ramping up.

Governments are also offering incentives. The recent energy bill provides Toyota Prius buyers a $3,150 tax credit next year, the most for any vehicle, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Get this: in California, if you drive alone in a Toyota Prius you can now drive in HOV lanes.

Meanwhile, in Europe it is clear that car drivers have opted in droves for small cars. Every manufacturer is making a small two-door hatchback type vehicle that is both a good fit for tight parking spaces in heavily populated areas with narrow roads, and easier on the wallet at the gas station. Perhaps the car that leads the pack in the field is the Smart Car from Mercedes-Benz Daimler-Chrysler.

The Smart Car

The above photo was one I took on my recent trip to France. These cars are truly functional, and not merely a gimmick. You see them everywhere these days. Everywhere, that is, except in the United States. They are not yet for sale in this country. Meanwhile, our neighbors to the north can buy the Smart Car, and they, like us, are feeling the pinch of rising gas prices.

Smart Cars are much cheaper than the hybrids you can buy these days, and they get 60 miles per gallon.

Yet there is considerable question as to whether the Smart Car can find a market in the U.S.A. We have seen the new VW Bug and Mini Coopers become big hits, but as small as these cars are, they are quite big compared to the Smart Car which can just about park head-in in a parallel parking spot. However, in our large cities small is less of a liability, and indeed a real asset. Don't expect country folk to dump their Ford trucks for a Smart Car, but there will definitely be an urban population that would, and should, consider the benefits of a Smart Car.

In these days of gas price watching, for many the smart choice may be a smaller set of wheels, and the Smart Car could soon be the vehicle trend of the future.