Daimler's Diminutive Daily Driver

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Raise your hand if you remember French automaker Renault's circa-1970s OPEC oil embargo boondoggle "Le Car." OK. Now raise your hands if you wish you could forget it.

Well, what do you know. It's a tie.

In what looks to be a case of the French leading the blind, German automaker DaimlerChrysler (NYSE: DCX) has decided that the American consumer is ready once again to drive around in the automotive equivalent of a can of tuna on wheels. Beginning late in 2006, the company will begin exporting to the U.S. its "Smart" car, a roughly egg-shaped, plastic-paneled contraption that measures all of 8' by 5'. In discussing the advent of the Smart on Tuesday, The Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) opined that with those kinds of statistics, you could park two of the things in a single parking space. But if you'll pardon the pun, I think the Post was actually selling the car short. You could actually squeeze three Smarts into a single parking space -- you'd just need to park them sideways.

The Post also described the Smart as a wonder in fuel efficiency. Equipped with a motor smaller than you could find on some Harley Davidson (NYSE: HDI) motorcycles, the two-seater version of the Smart gets about 60 miles per gallon. For comparison, that's equivalent to the Environmental Protection Agency's estimates for the mileage obtainable on such hybrid gas-electric vehicles as Honda's (NYSE: HMC) Insight or Toyota's (NYSE: TM) Prius.

Between the Smart's ease of parking in congested urban environments and its gas-sipping fuel economy, it's no wonder that the car has proven popular in Europe. But when reading the Post's write-up, this Fool got the distinct premonition that the car will not translate well among American car buyers. Because in America, size matters -- and bigger is better. Picture in your mind's eye the illustration provided in the Post's article Tuesday -- a silhouette of a tiny Smart with the silhouette of an H2 Hummer, three times the Smart's size, superimposed upon it. Now try to imagine what would happen were these two automotive reflections of opposing worldviews to collide in the real world, on a real highway, at real highway speeds. Ouch!

It's just one reason why, when planning its response to Toyota's near cornering of the hybrid vehicle market in the U.S., Ford (NYSE: F) decided to field not a hybrid-equipped econobox this year, but a hybrid SUV.

For more Foolish thinking on Daimler, read:

• GM, Daimler Go Green
• Daimler-Chrysler Waiting for Mercedes
• Daimler's Car Quest
• Automaker Threatens to Try New Tactics

Fool contributor Rich Smith owns no shares in any company mentioned in this article.