DEFEND YOUR RIDE: Jan On The Lone Mountain Campus

Q: What's your car's main use?

A: Main use usually is to go to work.

Q: What's the worst part of your commute?

A: The worst part is one stretch of Fillmore that is so buckled that it is very hard to get across. I dread it every morning because it's probably not that good for the car.

Q: What motivated you to buy a Smart car in the first place?

A: First of all, my decision to get a car was my 50th birthday. I decided I was worthy enough not to have to carry groceries from the Safeway on the 22 Fillmore bus, which is a nightmare. I got a Smart because I work at the University of San Francisco, which has about 9,000 students and no parking. I'm the only one who gets parking.

Q: Parking must be a piece of cake?

A: To give you an example, Fleet Week last year, I took the car to the Marina, which I didn't do this year because parking up there is really awful. That was the longest time it ever took. Ten minutes to find parking! A friend of mine who came with me had a Mini Cooper and it took an hour to find parking.

Q: Besides the parking, what's your favorite thing about this car?

A: It is also fairly narrow, which enables me to sneak by in a lot of places in the city. It makes it basically faster than other cars. I can use the bike lane to pass by cars and make a right turn when other cars wouldn't fit.

Q: Having lived in Europe, and being probably more familiar with Smart cars, is there anything noticeably different between Smart cars in Europe and here?

A: I checked and no, there aren't, except for certain requirements when it comes to the lights. Here it has only red taillights, while in Europe you have the alternating yellow and red, depending on signal or break. Here it's just all red.

Q: You mentioned this car has a three-cylinder engine. Does that mean good gas mileage?

A: Very good mileage, about 41 miles per gallon.

Q: And a lot of speed at a high torque?

A: It does. It has 72-horse power and according to the papers, it can go up to 92 mph. I've driven it to 80-85 mph.

Q: Is there anything else we should know about your car?

A: It's a very basic car. One might think there isn't a lot of space, but this car is very spacious. The trunk can hold a lot of luggage. Whenever I've had to carry a good amount of items, they have always fit. Also the handling and brakes are extremely good. I was almost involved in an accident on the freeway. I was going 75 mph and suddenly, in front of me, there was a pile up of cars—three or four of them. I was the first one who did not get involved. The ABS worked really, incredibly well. I stopped on a dime.