If you ever want to get pointed at and laughed at ALL the time, drive a SMART car! Since I wrecked my BMW last week I got a rental car. The rental place had a SMART convertible or some Kia thing. I thought about it and decided a SMART was not just a rental, it was going to be an experience. I drive a nice car with a fun engine usually so I thought this thing was funny. Plus one of my smug neighbors bought a Prius a couple weeks ago so I thought it would be fun to fake one up her.

I was having fun laughing at myself driving this silly little car but I can honestly say I was not fully prepared for HOW much attention this car gets me. I don't drive much but every time I have gone out I have been heckled, stared at and made fun of. We went to the Mexican store and bought a bunch of tropical fruits and Mexican baked goods, tortillas and other specialty foods. It was a cart full of stuff. The Mexican store is also more than just shopping, it too is an experience and doing it with a SMART car is a double experience. There are always people in the parking lot selling Chiclets, and tamales and strange little toys. Lots of families will leave one person in or by the car with 10 kids while the rest of the family and extended family shops, so needless to say the parking lot is crowded with people. When we came out of the store with our cart full of stuff and were trying to cram it all into that car we had every merchant and babysitter and child in the parking lot laughing at us. A couple of them felt the need to come up and say stuff to us about how stupid our car was and how we expected to get everything into it. My husband had to carry the breads on his lap.

My son and I went to check on the house and a group of bikers pulled up behind us. The car is a cloth top so we hear everything. They were discussing carrying us out of their way, that we needed a trailer just to bring groceries home (which was funny because my son and I had just been talking about the tow rating it might have before the bikers pulled up), and a bunch of other things they could do to our "stupid little car".

Teenagers drive by and yell out of their cars at us. It is ridiculous! My husband said wow, you really have to have a thick skin to drive one of these. I just laugh about it. I know I don't own this thing, I know I have a really decent car so the jabs are not personal to me. It is pretty funny though.

I'm going to be SOOooo glad to have my BMW back tomorrow. That SMART shifts really rough and has dismal acceleration, especially on the hills. I bet it is great in a city which is less big than this one and where people don't go 50 on surface streets.