Warwick lands one of 74 American Smart car dealerships

PBN reports that one of the 74 Smart Car dealerships slated for the US will be located in Warwick, on Bald Hill Road.

The Smart Car is a tiny car popular in Europe and well suited to urban environments. Able to park head first facing the curb in a parallel parking space for example. I test drove one when they where here in Providence over the summer. It was fun to drive and I’d certainly consider buying one if I felt the need to own a car (which I don’t). The $12k sticker price is a little high though, you can get a conventional compact car for about that much with not quite as good, but good gas mileage. I think the Smart Car would be an excellent alternative for something like ZipCar. I would certainly rent one to drive to the Cape (since bus service to the Cape is such a pain in the ass and not convenient or easy or in any way makes any sense).

I assume the locating of a dealership here means that they’ve had a good reception. It’ll be nice to see some of these cars on the road. Of course, they’d probably fly better if we had better local and regional transit, and the Smart Car was seen as a supplemental transit alternative.