An editorial / By Dale McFeatters
Scripps Howard News Service
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
There is a certain cycle to all this.
Gas prices rise alarmingly and Americans become smitten with small, fuel-efficient cars, many of them justly derided for their modest appearance and sparse amenities as econoboxes. Congress threatens the auto industry with ambitious mileage standards.
Then the gas prices fall or Americans simply get used to them, and car buyers return to what they like best -- honking-great SUVs, pickups and crossovers. Some of the small cars, like the Volkswagen Beetle, become iconic and survive, but even VW now makes an SUV.
Here we are again, but this time it may be a little different.
In January, Daimler plans to introduce to the U.S. market its Smart car, perhaps best known to Americans for rocketing down the sidewalks of Paris in the movie "The Da Vinci Code."
The Smart car is small, at 8 feet, 8 inches short enough to park head-on to the curb. It is fuel-efficient, 40 miles to the gallon. Cheap, base price of $11,590. Safe, four air bags, a reinforced steel frame and electronic stability control. Comfortable, with upright, armchair-like seating for two adults. And, best of all, with a head-turning design.
Daimler reports advance orders for 30,000 and, according to the Associated Press, the company won't say how many it expects to sell but expects demand to exceed its ability to make them fast enough.
Maybe the Smart car will be an automotive turning point and the combination of high gas prices and increasingly rugged metropolitan commutes will cause Americans to permanently embrace the small car. But then again, American motorists are an incorrigible lot.
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