If you read Rolling Stone magazine you might have noticed a two-page spread promoting Live Earth concerts and the Smartfortwo car, but other than that you have probably never seen any advertisements for the Smart Car. According to Dave Schembri, president of Smart USA, you probably won’t.

According to an article in Brandweek –

“The only U.S. presence [the car] might have is on our Web site,” said Dave Schembri, president of Smart USA, Bloomfield Hills, Mich., the exclusive distributor of the Smart Car in North America and Puerto Rico. “But we aren’t advertising. We don’t need to.”

Apparently anyone interested in the 40 mpg car is put on a waiting list of a few months to buy one of the estimated 30,000 Smart Cars that will sell this year.

Watch one of the coolest ads that is not expected to air in the U.S.

The question you are all asking - how does the 8-foot 8-inch car hold up in a crash? According to an article in MSNBC the vehicle “has a steel safety cage, four standard air bags and electronic stability control.”

“During the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration side test on the Smart two-door, the driver door unlatched and opened. The government said that could lead to a driver or passenger being ejected from the 8-foot, 8-inch vehicle. NHTSA, however, still gave the car its top score of five stars in side testing because of the ability of the car to protect the driver and passenger from injuries in a crash.”

Smart USA President Dave Schembri is displaying the tridion safety cell everywhere he goes to demonstrate the cars safety.

“We’re taking the safety story, and we’re telling it right on the showroom floor every day,” Schembri said. “Because once you walk people through that … you get it, because you can see it. It acts very much like a NASCAR racing cage.”

Neat little car with better mileage than most cars out there - but… no new energy source. It is still powered by gasoline. Something is better than nothing but the auto industry is going through a real overhaul and though this car gets great mileage there are a cadre of automakers producing cars that use alternative energy sources that hold some very serious promise. We’ve talked about several of them - Electric Cars, Alternative Energy Cars, and more on eco-vehicles. If you are into that scene you might check out autobloggreen.com, it will be right up your alley.

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