Usually, italian exotic sports cars are best at getting the other motorists attention when driving down the street. But the diminutive "Smart Cor", as many people refer to it, turns just as many heads! Although in this case... a Smart is about fuel economy and efficiency, not performance.

Smart began in 1993 as a joint venture between Daimler-Benz an Swiss Watchmaker Swatch, creating a company known a Micro Compact CAr AG head-quarted in Biel, Switzerland. It would later move to German and be known simply as SMART. It's "city cars" would feature the build quality and engineering expertise of Mercedes-Benz, while Swatch would contribute its funky design philosophy. The resulting two-passenger Smart City-Coupe was designed for a European urban environment, with a specific emphasis placed on fuel economy and parking ease. The City-Coupe could theoretically be able to park perpendicular in a parallel-parking spot... the wheelbase is the width of most other cor, after all!

Because it was such a tiny car, Smart created the "tridion" safety cell (the silver of black portion of the body) to assure the City-Coupe could withstand the impacts from exponentially bigger vehicles. Made from three layers of steel reinforced at strategic points, the cell was designed to absorb and redistribute crash energy away from the vehicle's occupants. Side impacts are shielded by steel door beams and reinforced axles.

Daimler-Benz bought Swatch out shortly after the City-coupes introduction just as the Smart started to generate hype around the world for its revolutionary toke on personal transportation. Initial sales began in nine continental European countries in 1998, and the car proved popular with consumers.

This success led to an eventual expansion of the Smart car brand with the introduction of additional Smart models, including the Roadster and the Roadster-Coupe (pictured below) in 2003 and the Forfour sedan in 2004. Reaction to these model lines was lukewarm at best, however, as consumers found them to be overpriced. This failure led to the dramatic downturn in Smart's fortunes, eventually putting it on Daimler Chrysler's chopping block before CEO Dieter Zetsche saved it with a new business model built exclusively around the City-Coupe, which has been renamed the Fortwo.