I had a chance to drive one of those little Smartcars the other day. This is the car that seats two and is just over eight feet long, about a third of the size of most cars and small enough to park perpendicular to the curb.

The biggest surprise I found was that driving it didn’t feel any different than driving any other car. The interior is totally normal and comfortable. Though there’s essentially no hood in the front and no trunk in the back, it’s not easy to tell that when sitting in the driver’s seat and looking out the windows. I found it strange to know that I was in a tiny car, but not feel like I was in a tiny car.

It was zippy enough — I tried revving it up and it seemed to have plenty of power. It’s all about proportion, I think. The engine is three cylinders, 1.0 litres and 71 horsepower. I’m not a “car guy” but I know that’s small (when I was a teenager I had a four-speed 1.0 litre hatchback that could barely get up a hill, but that’s another story). But given the low overall weight (I’m assuming) it felt just fine. I didn’t get to take it on the freeway, though.

I expected such a tiny car to have remarkable fuel efficiency, but it really doesn’t. The Smartcar gets 33 mpg city and 41 mpg highway (I sure sound like a “car guy” here). It’s not a hybrid, and its fuel efficiency is a lot lower than the full-size hybrids offered by Toyota and Honda (I used to read the “autos” section of the newspaper, so I can pull off the “car guy lingo” here). Safety is achieved through a stiff structure that encloses the passenger area, sort of like being in the middle of a strong rounded cage (and I just lost the “car guy” lingo completely on that one).

So with good — but not exceptional — mileage, the real appeal of the Smartcar is parking. These things can be parked pretty much anywhere, encroaching on spots previously only available to motorcycles.

I’m sure there are those who would welcome to the idea of fitting more cars into the existing available space. Perhaps with some foresight, though, smaller cars could allow existing space to be reclaimed for other uses; planting new trees, building parks and bike lanes, widening sidewalks and providing more pedestrian and transit options. It could happen, right?

Next step: small cars that are also highly fuel efficient. Let’s get the size down and get the energy usage down along with it!