Smart Nano or... the $2k smart - Page 3 - Smart Car of America Forums : Smart Car Forum

nevis · 06-06-2008, 07:37 AM

My wife is constantly being told her car is the $2500 car thats on the news and is extremely unsafe and after she tells them its a Mercedes smart car and sells for $15,800, they laugh at her and tell her she's crazy. Every one of the people telling her this are asian or black for some reason... Her complements only come from white people. Do they get their news from somewhere different than white people?

By the way, my wife is Filipina (asian) and works with all races in her job at a local hospital so its not a prejudiced or bigoted observation... My wife is starting to feel like everyone thinks she is driving a cheap piece of junk and is becoming embarrassed to drive it to work. Other than the comments she loves the car but its like people at work are laughing at her. In public, out at shopping places she gets tons of positive remarks and comments, so she comes home happy from the mall...

After she told me this I thought about it and with the exception of 1 black lady, all of the positive reactions and comments to me when I drive the car, are coming from white people. Mexicans just seem to point and laugh so I don't know if they are making fun of it or it just makes them happy!

Anyway, I just wondered if everyone else was getting the same reactions.

stevenvillatoro · 06-06-2008, 07:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nevis

My wife is starting to feel like everyone thinks she is driving a cheap piece of junk and is becoming embarrassed to drive it to work.

Mexicans just seem to point and laugh so I don't know if they are making fun of it or it just makes them happy!

Latins (not only Mexicans) tend to LOVE the smart.

If I had a spouse who felt embarrassed to drive the smart, I'd give him/her the option to walk, or use the savings from the car to get him/her some good psychological counseling.

nevis · 06-06-2008, 08:15 AM

Steve, The wife was thrilled with the car until everyone at work started calling it the $2,000 car and laughing at her. She still like it and calls them ignorant, but I still think it bothers her.

Karl Roth · 06-06-2008, 08:22 AM

Most people buy cars like hamburger by the pound. The more pounds per dollar the happier they are.
Then I would buy a Nano if I could.
Nothing I ever bought made me a better person
karl

Springlering · 06-06-2008, 08:24 AM

I get positive reactions from everyone, regardless of color or neighborhood.

Yesterday evening, in a predominately black neighborhood, in front of me was a good looking young black man in a beautiful blue, mirror polished Ferrari. Wanna guess who everyone was waving and pointing to, shouting questions at, and giving the thumbs up to? Here was a guy who had obviously made good, but the white suburban mom in the cheap car was stealing his thunder. I could see his shoulders drop in disappointment. I really felt kind of sorry for him.

I have a lot of Mexican customers, and they just think it's the coolest thing going, but they think it's really funny. If one walks in the door already laughing, I know what the next question out of their mouth will be, "yellow car, is yours?"

What fascinates me, the one group that unreservedly loves my car is elderly black women, say mid 70's and up. They are so delighted, they just burble away about it, want to sit in it, see the trunk, see the roof go up and down, ask me tons more questions than most people. I can't figure out why the car appeals so much to them, but their enthusiasm is so infectuous. One lady even brought her son back to see it, and then demanded he go put her on the orphan list. They are far and away the most fun people to show it to.

stevenvillatoro · 06-06-2008, 08:40 AM

What's funny is the snooty white people who try to look without looking... they want to check it out but just do the glance-out-of-the-corner-of-their-eye thing trying to be discreet about their curiosity. Meanwhile, their kids in the back of the SUV are plastered to the windows waving and having fun looking.

dennyrex · 06-06-2008, 08:42 AM

consider the cultural shift represented by the smart in this country. it was the same way in the early 70s driving a Subaru 360 to high school when the other kids had their 55 chevy small blocks racing up and down the street.

Think like Gandhi, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

You are at step 2; get prepared for the fight.

The only negative reactions here so far are from people who simply don't know how to react. So there's the occasional, "what the **** (kind of car) is that!?"

I don't let it bother me.

stevenvillatoro · 06-06-2008, 08:54 AM

So far, after nearly 5 months, 6K miles, and hundreds of face-to-face encounters, I've NEVER had a negative comment, gesture, driving behavior, etc. Neither have I had someone mistake my car for a Nano, a piano, or a banano. Just lucky, I guess!