Buying a Smart ForTwo guarantees you a lot of looks. Part of that stems from the Smart’s 106-inch long diminutive size and gawky cuteness. But another reason is its rarity. Since the car only recently went on sale, there aren’t too many of them on the roads.

Hence, it’s not easy to buy a Smart. There are basically two ways to get one. You can get a $99 reservation online from Smart that holds your place in line. Problem is, lots of people are in line ahead of you. Consider that we made our reservation in October, 2007—and the dealer said we’d probably be waiting until next October to get a car. Don’t expect to make any interest on that $99 either. At least Penske, the mega dealer/rental/racing company that imports the car is trying to get more production to ease the demand.

The other way to get a car is to find an "orphan" that someone ordered but didn’t buy. Our dealer had a less cute name for this situation—a "declined" car. That’s how we wound up with our white Passion coupe. Equipped with the Comfort package (heated seats, power steering, paddle shifters, panorama roof) and some trivial options, our car was $15,355. That’s before all of the dealer profit padding we had to buy on the high-demand car (including $695 for Simoniz protection and $895 for LoJack), pushing the price up to nearly $17,000. Although dealers are strongly encouraged—with threat of losing their franchise—to not mark up the cars over MSRP, Smart enthusiast forums report that ours wasn’t the only case of a dealer padding the "orphan’s" price with such add-ons.

You’re probably doing the math by now. Even the MSRP of $15,355 seems like quite a bit of money for such a small car. (Well-equipped, yes, but still really small.) Only $30 more buys a Honda Fit automatic, a much more versatile car. With its $2,000 incentive here in Connecticut, you could get our Top Pick Hyundai Elantra SE with an automatic for $15,945 before haggling, which is much quieter, rides a lot better, and can comfortably seat four.

Of course, no one gives you a second look in a Fit or an Elantra. And the Smart’s EPA estimated fuel economy of 33/41 beats both of those cars. We’ll put more miles on our Smart and go through our full test program. Then we can figure out just where the Smart’s value equation falls in the world of small cars.

—Tom Mutchler

Discuss Smart cars in our forum.