How Smart is This? Pittsburghers On Their Smart Cars

Glance up through the second-floor windows of the Mercedes-Benz dealership on Baum Boulevard and you may think you’re gazing into a playroom of oversized toys. But those cars are real. You’re looking into the showroom of Smart Center Pittsburgh, local home of Daimler’s Smart Fortwo, the littlest hot new thing on wheels.

According to general manager Gregg Szabatura, Pittsburgh’s allotment of just 200 fuel-efficient Smarts sold fast last year, in sync with rising gas prices. Despite the sagging economy, demand remains high for the 300 distinctive two-seaters earmarked for Pittsburgh this year, even though a growing number are finding their way onto the dealership’s orphan list. That’s a roster of folks eager to buy Smarts preordered by someone else who’s already made a $99 online deposit then had a change of heart.

“We don’t really do anything to drive demand for the vehicles,” says Gregg. “A lot of people who are buying these are commuting inner-city and in areas where you have condensed parking, like Oakland and Shadyside. We have a lot of baby boomers who are parking their big vehicles and using this out in the suburbs to run back and forth to the grocery store.”

Introduced in Europe in 1998, but new to the U.S. just last year, the Smart fits in the footprint of a Honda Fit, with nearly five feet to spare. In contrast to another diminutive favorite, the BMW Mini, the Smart is a mere micro, measuring up (or down, as the case may be) almost 40 inches shorter at just over eight feet 10 inches long.

In passing, from the comfort of a full-grown minivan, a Smart on the road seems improbably small, cute, and out of place, like a puppy keeping pace with traffic. But from behind the wheel, enveloped in the passenger compartment’s steel safety cell, the Smart offers a different perspective.

Fun? Oh yeah.
“It’s a fun car, but you cannot totally respect it until you sit in it and see how much room there is,” says Tom Kresak of Deutschtown in East Allegheny. “I’ve got tons of leg room and tons of headroom in there.”

This from a guy who’s 6’3” and drives a tractor-trailer for a living.

Indeed, tooling around in a convertible Smart with the top down on a warm afternoon feels like driving a more spacious car—except for all the smiling gawkers doing double takes.

“My dad is 80 years old and he can get in and out without a problem,” says Tom, who along with wife, Katie, founded the Pittsburgh Smart Car Club back in November 2007.

That’s two months before Smart cars were even available from U.S. dealers, and four months before the couple took delivery of their own black-and-white bundle, a base-model Pure they named doodleBUG. (Starting price: $11,990)

“That’s how excited we were,” says Tom, mirroring the excitement of fellow enthusiasts. “It’s a fun car, it’s a comfortable car, and it’s a safe car. That’s one of the main reasons I bought it, besides fuel economy.”

Fun, sure. Economical, definitely. But doodleBUG? Doesn’t the towering trucker catch flak from his muscle-car peers at local car cruises?

“Nobody has said anything to my face,” says Tom, “but I’ve had a lot of questions. People always look at you because the car is just so damn cute.”

In fact, Tom says off-the-chart curb appeal is just about the only downside to owning his Smart, which sips fuel at 39 mpg city/44 highway. The hardest thing about filling the tank is fielding questions from looky-loos while refueling, a task he does about every two weeks.

A European Perspective
Across town in Highland Park, fellow Smart owner Annamaria Fato agrees, although in her experience, the celebrity of her convertible Cabriolet (starting price: $16,990) sometimes pays off.

Pulled over once for a traffic violation, Annamaria says the officer gave her a break, citing her for a lesser offense.

“I’m just doing this because of the car you’re in,” he told her. “This is a great car. Good for you.”

Not one to miss the irony, Annamaria admitted that her offense was a pretty stupid thing to do in a Smart car.

“I’m glad you said it and not me,” the officer laughed. “I was thinking that the whole time.”

An international business consultant, and CEO and co-founder of a global event-planning company, Annamaria is the quintessential Smart Car owner.

Born in Italy, she came to the U.S. when she was three and holds dual American/Italian citizenship. A former senior manager with General Motors, where she worked 20 years, Annamaria is 47, never married, has no children, and speaks five languages—a combination well-suited to her life as a globe-trotting businesswoman whose work took her to Germany for four years, Italy for three, and even to the Middle East.

“Everything is smaller in Europe, even the size of the food. It’s just a totally different lifestyle. In Italy, the stress of finding a parking space is unreal,” she says. Insight like that made her realize the Smart would be perfect for an inner-city driver like her, whose daily travels take her from Highland Park to Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, and Downtown.

“It’s a fun car, and it’s a convenient car. It’s great for parking. It’s great for zipping around things when there’re all these big trucks and buses in front of me and I want to pass them. But it’s not a practical car. If you have any children, forget it.”

With enough room behind the seats to stow her workout gear, several bags of groceries, and a carryall for business, Annamaria’s Smart is more than enough car for everyday driving, even though Pittsburgh’s rugged streets sometimes make for a harsh ride.

“I’m dying to write to Luke Ravenstahl and let him know these potholes are not going to help get people to drive small cars,” she says.

For longer trips, though, she borrows her mother’s vehicle since she’s uncomfortable sharing the highway with 18-wheelers, despite the Smart Fortwo’s highest ratings for front and side crashworthiness.

On balance, though, Annamaria says the Smart is a perfect match considering her lifestyle and the global nature of her business. The only thing better would be if her eye-catching vehicle helped her catch the eye of the man of her dreams.

“I’m hoping an international, European-minded guy sees me in a Smart Car and says, ‘Oh, that’s my kind of girl.’”

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Mark Kenny is a business and features writer who lives in Ross. He wrote the Pop City article on e-book readers, and he’s recently written several articles for Pennsylvania Magazine.

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Photographs copyright Brian Cohen