Green is the new black: Local buyers turn on to fuel-efficient small cars

Rick Schweinhart/Journal Like other drivers looking to cut costs at the pump, Betsy Moseley, of Clyde Hill, chose a small, high-efficiency ride -- the Smart Car.

By Erica Hall
Journal Reporter


When Betsy Moseley pulls her Smart Car into a parking lot, people stop, stare, then start with the questions and comments:

It's so small!

How does it run?

How much did it
cost?

When Moseley first considered buying the tiny European car, her husband was skeptical. But now, with gas prices high and likely getting higher following the partial shutdown of the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska, he's a skeptic no longer.

"Now he's like, 'Let's take your car!'" she said.

After all, it runs nearly a month on way less than $20 worth of gas.

With demand climbing for energy-efficient cars, local dealers are finding they can't keep them on the lots.

Sean Chapman, sales manager at Toyota of Kirkland, said last week he didn't have any of Toyota's hybrids in stock, with the possible exception of a Highlander. There's a waiting list for the brand-new hybrid Toyota Camry, he said, and there's been a list for the Prius since it came out four years ago.

"Welcome to Europe," said Tim Hamilton, executive director of AUTO, a nonprofit association of gasoline retailers.

"What the public is becoming more and more aware of is these rising prices and spikes are not an anomaly," said Hamilton, who predicted $4-a-gallon gas within a month.

Mike Lavigne, general manager at Honda Auto Center of Bellevue, said sales of Honda's hybrids have been consistently strong.

"Supply has not met demand," Lavigne said. "We might get 10 or 15 a month, and then they'll be gone. It would be unusual for a person to come in and be able to buy one off the lot."

The brand-new Honda Fit, expected in 2008, already is back-ordered several months, he said. The other hybrid models — the hybrid Civic and the hybrid Accord — are available in about a month if the buyer is flexible on color.

Many people might have expected to ride out the gas price increases earlier in the year, but it's becoming apparent gas prices aren't going to go down any time soon.

And car shoppers are buying accordingly.

"People aren't going to buy cars on a gas spike. They're going to buy cars based on this is reality now," Hamilton said. "There's a growing recognition that it's going to be one temporary increase after another."

Moseley didn't buy her Smart Car last March exclusively for the savings on gas, though it is a perk: She gasses up every three or four weeks, she said, and it only costs her $12 to fill her tank.

Though notably small, the two-door Smart car feels big on the inside. Driver and passenger sit up high off the road. The windshield angles forward all the way to the nose of the car and wraps around to the extra-large windows on the doors, providing lots of light and visibility. There's plenty of leg room, too; the pockets of leg space extend all the way to the front of the car.

Moseley said she's had several tall friends in the car and "no one's hit their head yet," she said.

Lavigne said there are a number of reasons his customers have purchased hybrids from his dealership.

"We have people who buy a hybrid because they want to feel they're doing their part. It's a lifestyle choice. Others are faced with long commutes," he said. "The rationale comes in all different shapes and sizes."

He said as people begin to cycle through their cars — trade in ones bought several years ago for newer models — they're downsizing and looking for fuel efficiency, even if they're not expressly shopping for a hybrid or alternative fuel model.

Smart Car owners will save on gas over the long run, but the car itself isn't cheap. The car costs between $25,000 and $30,000, though prices are expected to drop to about half the going rate if DaimlerChrysler starts distributing the cars in the United States in 2008. Currently, they have to be imported, retrofitted to meet U.S. safety and emissions standards, then distributed to a few dealers across the country.

Moseley's office is only two miles from her home in Clyde Hill, but she drives to Seattle a couple of times a week. She said she gets 40 miles per gallon driving in downtown Bellevue and downtown Seattle, and the car always keeps up with traffic. "I've never had a problem with acceleration," she said. "It's got to be pretty practical. It can't be a car with a lawn mower engine."

Moseley has had a number of nice cars, such as a Mercedes 500SL and a Lexus. Someday she might get another car, but she's hooked on her Smart Car for now.

Besides the obvious benefits, Moseley said there are other benefits, too. One of the best: She can always fit into the tiny spots left between two SUVs.

"I'm not going to just keep it for a year," she said. "I like the car."