Not to be overly cautious, but while the Smart is obviously high tech and (assumedly) very gas efficient, what kind of protection does that car offer in an accident. It just seems so incredibly tiny. Is it reasonably safe?
The European NCAP summary is here. Anecdotally, I met a woman who had a major crash in one. Both the police and insurance people who saw the car said that in any other car of that size the crash would have been fatal. She walked away with cracked ribs. There’s a lot of room in them too, I’m 6’ 5" and have head room to spare.
I don’t have a car, but when I’m home my mother let’s me drive her 4 year old Fiat Punto. It’s a nippy little Italian car, and seats 5… it’s a small car by US standards, but it can do a lot of miles per tank of petrol, so it’s cheap to run.
It looks like this car, but not as pimped up:
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/515218
My dad drives an 8 year old Audi A6, which, like all my dad’s cars, was bought second hand, and has been driven into the ground. This one is on it’s last legs, engine wise, but still looks like the beautiful piece of German engineering it is.
It looks like this car: http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/363067
Used to drive one of these (in “British rusting green”) - I want another, or a Tiger, I miss having a rag-top 
