A few weeks ago, my wife and I put a $99 deposit down on a
Smart Car "Passion." We also test drove it, and it is surprisingly substantial inside. Even though it's only a two seater, it has more seat room than my Nissan Pathfinder. It has all the cool safety stuff built in, and even with a tiny little motor, it drives surprisingly well and handles beautifully. It even has paddle shifters, for cryin' out loud. How cool is that? The cars are manufactured by Mercedes, and the build quality is very good, given that they do cut some cost corners with materials. There is currently a 12-18 month waiting list for one. In about 9 months, Smart Car will contact us to ask what options we want on ours and then it will get into the production queue. We have right up until the day of delivery to get our $99 back if we don't want it, because they will turn around and sell it in about 5 minutes, no problem. But we're going to take it anyway for three reasons.
One reason is that it gets 33 mpg on surface streets, and 41 mpg on the highway. Saving money is always cool, particularly when the "Passion," which is full of features, only cost $13,590.00.
A second reason is that we're going to wrap it with our company's graphics. Whether you think these cars are cool or weird, they DO get your attention. That means that people are looking at my company's advertising. In so doing, there are tax benefits to buying the car in the first place, and then using it as advertising. We won't use it to travel in or drive real long distances, but for running around the DFW metroplex, it's ideal.
The third reason is that, even if we decide we don't want it, I've seen the $13,590 version we ordered going on e-Bay selling for over $20K. So even if I don't want to keep it, I can turn around and sell it (and sell it
quickly) for more than I paid for it and make a little money.