Smart Cars doing Dumb Things
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10.18.06
Smart Cars are pretty popular in Canada, but they still turn heads. All kinds of people are using them as marketing tools, and in the current local elections some are using them as the prop-du-jour to grab the green vote. Carolyn Parrish, tossed out of the last federal government for, among other things, stomping on a George Bush voodoo doll on TV, is running for a local City Council and tools around in one, promoting her environmental concern. Others use them in more credible and clever ways.
Our local Muskoka councillor Margaret Casey, who has better environmental credentials, deserves to be re-elected just for driving the thing around in a part of the country with six feet of snow, and posts this in her literature. We are certain every other politician up there is in a pickup or an SUV.
a local property management company bought thirty-seven and did a humourous campaign.
This is the most TreeHugger correct one- it has an Envirolet composting toilet on the roof.
This one was done up like the easter bunny by Lindtt Chocolates.
as a local blogger said: "I know gas prices are expensive, but really, how much stuff can you deliver with a smartcar???"
in a similar vein, a local moving and storage company uses a Smart car with trailer, for really small moves. We suspect it is more for promotion; we happen to know that their other car is a Hummer H1.
We know that they have been doing this in Europe and Australia- if you have any pictures of cool mods of smart cars, send them to lloyd (at) treehugger.com. idea from ::Toronto Star
if these are just being used as normal with the surface being supplimented by signage then thats one thing - i worry though that these are being used as mobile billboards which drive around the city aimlessly just to get visual exposure (wasting fuel and congesting streets all the while).
The ones with our Envirolet toilets & other "props" on them are being used to transport clients around.
So, it's not a bad use. They have switched their entire fleet of sales rep cars to Smart Cars. The props are to get attention.
Nothing dumb about this. Whats with the negative title? Should they wrap an H2 instead? They would be smart too - more ad space/vehicle. You could say the smart car is the least efficient wrapped car...
But these companies did a better thing and gave up square footage for green cachet and fuel economy. Kudos. Scrap the title.
LA: It really was only the first one that I thought dumb, and the few smart cars I have seen running around doing nothing but being mobile advertising. you are correct, as is Scott, that there is nothing dumb about driving a smart car.
These cars are freakin awesome