Smart Cars hit Iowa
Driving around Davenport today, I saw two different eco friendly cars.
One was the long awaited “Smart Car” (see below). A young couple (probably about 30 years old) drove this into a local shopping center. I guess since they saved so much money on gas they wanted to apply that savings to some consumer goods.
Earlier in the day I saw an even smarter car driving down River Drive in Davenport. Since it was going the opposite direction, I didn’t have a chance to check out exactly what brand it was, but it appeared to be like the one below, a 3 wheeled Electric Condor II.
Incidentally, the Condor II does look way more economically interesting than the Smart car. It’s 100% electric costs about as much as the Smart Car and gets up to 80 miles on a single charge.
I think this is going to be a huge trend (as long as credit for new cars is easy to come by). It’s not so much that people want to do what’s economical (especially in the case of the “smart car”). Let’s face it a new car, even a ‘smart one’, isn’t economical. How long does it take you to recoup your outlay. Financing, depreciation, etc. etc. Especially since the “Smart Car” gets only 32 MPG!
Also, It’s not so much that the environment is the priority, rather it’s that Green is cool. And people always want to be cool. Being seen in your Smart car is like being seen in a Porsche. It strokes the ego in exactly the same way, but for different reasons. It’s always nice to show how much better you are than those around you. Green is the new cool brand.