Ms. Amy's Caddy
Photo by Gregg Sutter, who joked, "Ms. Amy drove her fuel inefficent 1965 Cadillac Sedan DeVille to Little Rock last week. Her Honda Insight is in the trunk."
...my Insight and four Smart cars, too (pictured here). The Smart was the dinky car driven backwards down Paris sidewalks by the stunt double for Audrey Tautou in The DaVinci code (the best part of the movie), and soon to come to a dealership near you. Tom Krisher writes for the AP:
Smart will sell the next generation of its "fortwo" model, which has been popular in Europe. It gets an average of 40 miles per gallon in combined city-highway driving and will sell for less than $15,000. The company says it can get up to 69 mpg on the highway.
Meanwhile, I'd really like to meet the lady who owns this car. I just love little old southern ladies and their manners...and old-style southern manners, period. When the Wifi was down in the conference hall (in Little Rock, last week at the alternative newspaper convention), a maintenance worker from the hotel stopped by my table. He probably wasn't the one who'd be working on it, but when I told him the problem, he said, "Yes, ma'am" with great sincerity. Even if he couldn't fix it, he at least charmed me out of being mad for about 15 minutes.
I'd really like to meet the lady who owns this car.
With all due respect ma'am you must be a Yankee. Down here in the South we always name our cars, boats and riding lawn mowers after our women folk.
Buford T. Griggs at June 29, 2006 5:26 AM
What I missed most when I was contracting in Chicago and the East Coast was civility. This seemed to permeate all aspects of their lives, from the street to the stores and even into business meetings. I couldn't believe one meeting at a bank where a New Yorker actually laughed at my real name (an unusual Swedish one). Not a single VP at the meeting took him to task. Down here you'd get your nose busted.
Oligonicella at June 29, 2006 6:28 AM
The company says it can get up to 69 mpg on the highway.
. . . Of course, the highway mpg is just theoretical, as so far no one has been willing to actually drive the Smart on the highway . . .
Just the same, for a second, city-only car it has appeal, but I'd probably still rather just get an all-electric GEM, instead (got to love a vehicle where doors are option equipment).
(I see one ex-hippie looking guy driving one of these in Santa Monica from time to time, and city services use them, too)
XWL at June 29, 2006 12:00 PM
The St. Petersburg Times recently wrote an article regarding the first person in the Tampa Bay area to own a SmartCar. And he isn't roadkill yet. The SmartCar will be made available in this area soon for a price of 20-30K. Maybe, just maybe, I will give this a try. I'll have to have a few nice options with it, like some "I hate Hummers" bumper stickers.
Patrick at June 30, 2006 12:01 PM
>>old-style southern manners
Yup. Southern men are raised that way, even today. One time I was at a press conference in small-town Alabama, there was a shortage of chairs in the media area, and this unremarkable girl wanted to sit down. I watched five different males from three different generations simultaneously stand up, dust off their benches, and gesture to her to sit in their place. And everyone glared at me for not doing the same thing. Might as well have had "yankee" tattooed on my forehead. (And I'm a Florida native.)
Gary S. at July 3, 2006 11:21 PM
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