Not-so-Smart Smart Car

Please forgive me my vehicle fetish. I never realized I had one until I started this blog. Since I almost always have a camera on hand when I'm walking about downtown I take pictures of what catches my attention and I've been surprised at how often that object of my attention turns out to be a vehicle. In this case, it was a Smart Car.

Smart Car, Fort Sanders, Knoxville

What makes a Smart Car so smart? Is it because it can slip into little places no other car and driver would attempt? Is it because it looks smart? Because its owner is probably smarter than me or you? Because it gets insane gas mileage?

I'm not sure, but for some reason I thought of these cars as somehow above the laws of physics that govern us mere mortals and our very physics-bound cars. I hadn't realized I felt this way until I encountered this particular Smart Car in Fort Sanders. For some reason it completely startled me to see one in this condition. It didn't really seem so smart after all.

Smart Car, Fort Sanders, Knoxville, February 2011

On the other hand, I doubt it was pushed into the parking space where I found it, so, if in fact it is still running when it looks like the front end has been smashed in far enough to break the driver's ankles, maybe it really is pretty smart.