[jonnysan]

And don't treat those mileage numbers as gospel, either, Yannou. Driving habits/style can have a big negative or big positive effect on it. In a recent post provided link, a journalist drove a Smart from San Franscisco to San Jose and back and reported his experiences fairly accurately in the article he wrote about it. On the trip he also (by mistake I think) did a back to back gas mileage test in comparing his driving habits (which yielded him 43 city, 56 hiway) to his journalist companion, Kelly, and his bad driving habits were reflected in his mileage very noticeably. (35 city, 45 Highway).

If you really like the overall *WOW* factor of the car and its features, push yourself over the edge and just buy it and don't try to over-analyze it's pros and cons. I have used this method many times in making a decision to buy or not to buy something when I found myself playing devil's advocate with myself too much.
I don't believe you will go wrong buying a Smart. It is a very well built car.

 

[jonnysan]

Yannou's question was not about fuel economy, but the car being "green."

Yes, Carnut, I know..... I was really responding to Sysyphus' post in the thread rather than to Yannou's original post. Envision the three of us standing facing each other in a circle talking about the essence of the thread----
Come on, Carnut! I know what green means....

 

[jonnysan]

Better fuel economy, too

For what it's worth, IF you use high octane, you are only spending an additional $1-2 dollars per fill up. I can live with that.

And if you use the fuel that the engine was designed for, you WILL get better mileage so that $1-$2 extra spent will most likely come back to you and maybe even more so. So I can live with that, too, as appropriately said by SmartBob.
People go nuts sometimes traveling to the gas station with the cheapest gas around not realizing that what they are spending in added traveling to the station, they are losing the savings obtained by buying the less expensive fuel. Sometimes doing the math FIRST will reveal your true costs.