We were on our way back home after picking up the Grandmas from the Detroit airport, driving through the suburbs, when we came upon a Smart Car dealership. Rosalie had been researching this little bug of a car on the internet and was really taken with the responsibly "green" aspects of owning a car that could drive loops around our little town on just a sip of gas. It doesn't hurt that it's so cute, too. Not practical. Cute. (Although the fact that this little thing can haul two bodies plus a weeks worth if groceries around the city at 40 mpg does put a few checkmarks in the practicality column).
With a squeal of delite, she had me perform a rapid u-turn manuever and go back to the dealership where we found about 20 of these little hobbits parked in a circle outside, and another half dozen inside on the showroom floor and lining the display window. A lot to choose from, or so I thought. As it turned out every single car had been pre-sold and there was an 18 month waiting list to get one of these. Heck, I wouldn't wait 18 months to get a whole car much less a little 2-seater half-car. But since we were there anyway, we thought we'd just take some time to test drive one and learn more about them. Rosalie jumped into a Love-Bug wanna-be version, then headed down the road with a salesperson at her side.
Returning after about 20 minutes, she proclaimed her love for the car, and stated we needed to get one. The salesperson, having gone inside to check on something, came back out with an enormous smile on her face and announced that someone had cancelled an order and that a car had become available. She led us over to a little white convertible dubbed the Smart fortwo Passion Cabriolet. Rosalie immediately shook her head and said she didn't like white cars. No problem said the salesperson, "We'll just change the body panels to whatever color you want. Just takes a couple of hours". So, you guessed it. About 2 hours later, and less one personal check, Rosalie pulled out in a brand new silver Cabriolet with every optional bell and whistle available. She was happy. And since we bought the car just a couple of days before our 31st anniversary, we used that as an excuse to indulge ourselves. Who needs Hawai'i?
Driving around town we've become something of celebrities; people wave, shout from moving cars, laugh and smile, give us thumbs up, and come over to talk, almost as if they recognize us. My Porsche and BMW have become ugly step sisters relegated to staying in the dark garage while we tool about at 40 plus mpg. In a bigger picture this car, and cars like it, will become the rule rather than the exception. It's a different world we live in today than when I started driving in the early 1970's and 21 cents per gallon gasoline. Gas guzzling cars (less than 20 mpg) will become not only ugly step sisters, but dinosaurs. U-joints and ball joints, massive herds of carbon-combustion horse power sinking deeper into an energy black hole succumbing to entropy as all things inevitably do.
"Grandpa, what happened to the dinosaurs?"
"Well, sweetie, let me tell you about them. I lived through it..."
