George

Meet the newest addition to our family!  George is a 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion Coupe. He's made by Mercedes and gets 46 - 50 miles per gallon! Pete's other car, his 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix had transmission trouble, needed new tires, ball joints, and struts.  We figured that since he was getting in the high teens for gas milage (due to his tranny troubles: he had no overdrive), it was time to look for a new car.  Of course, we wanted one that would get over 30 miles per gallon.  We looked at Hondas (yuck) and at the new Chevy Malibu (kinda pricey) and then at the Smart Cars.  Of course, we fell in love with those little buggers and wanted one.  We were shocked to find out that there was (and still is) a year-and-a-half waiting list.  After we put in our $99 deposit, we just figured we would limp the Grand Prix along until the summer of '09.  Lo and behold, in mid-June (we put our reservation in in early March), we got a call from the dealership saying that an "orphan" car came in.  The person that ordered it could not get the financing and it was now unclaimed.  Being that we had wanted a black Smart to begin with, we jumped on the opportunity.  We picked George up two days later. Pete and I absolutely love it!  We are able to fit the cats in the back along with an over night bag.  We recently took George to NH and were glad to know that along with our full-size suitcase, we still had plenty of room!

Of course, we kept our original reservation for a the car.  My brother will be purchasing it when it comes in sometime next summer.

George has a 3-cylinder engine.  He tops out at 90 mph.  He has a pretty good crash rating (better than the Grand Prix did!), gets fantastic gas milage, has heated seats, rain sensing wipers, all sorts of stuff.  We think of George as the Swiss Army Knife of cars.

The picture of George is on the Mt. Washington Auto Road.  We took him up there on July 19, 2008. You can visit www.smartusa.com if you'd like more information on Smart cars.