CARazed

The smart has now been on the world’s roads for 10 years. Relatively new to American roads the smart is now sold in 37 countries and more than 900,000 of them are running around. In 2010 smart will roll out an electric version to be sold along side the little gasoline versions. Not much information about the final configuration, range, or recharging details but there are test cars on the road today working out the bugs. Happy birthday smart! Can’t wait to see how you grow up over the next few years. Photo credit smart USA.

Actually if you stop to think just for a second how cool (in an eco-geek kind of way) it would be to own one of these things, you might just decide to reserve one right now. They’re making it easy too, $99 will reserve your place in line right now and you could be showing it off in your driveway sooner than you might think.

Yes, smart is coming to America in Q1 2008! The base price of one of these little numbers will be just under $12,000. It’s powered by a 3-cylinder, 1-liter, 70 hp, gasoline powered engine that gets 40/45 (EPA 2007) or 33/41 (EPA 2008). It comes with a 5 speed automated manual transmission, anti-lock breaks, an electronic stability program, air bags, central locking with remote, and manual windows and mirrors. Air conditioning, power steering, sunroof, alarm, heated seats, and radio, are on the options list. Performance is a bit wimpy as expected at 12.8 seconds for a 0 to 60 run and the top speed is electronically limited to 90 MPH.

For the uninitiated, smart (yes all lowercase) is a member of the Mercedes Car Group. Today there are 750,000 fortwos running around 36 different countries around the world. When the United States starts selling the smart fortwo it will be the 37th country to get smart… pun intended.

Unfortunately the car doesn’t come in green. We can’t imagine buying one of these unless it was green. If you’re going to make a statement like this wouldn’t you want to go all the way? Comments?