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• John Eddy
  That's my car!!!!! =) Behold my awesome parking job!
  
  And we have added an extra 10 minutes to our travel to ensure that we can satisfy all questions from random passer-bys, although we're thinking of printing up the FAQ of:
  
  Gas, not electric.
  30 MPG so far.
  Yes, it can go on the highway.
• piogga
  In Europe I've seen people park them sideways so they can just pull right back out into traffic whichever direction they're going - no parallel parking skills required :-)
  They're such a practical car for city life. It's great to finally see one here in Seattle!
• Silver
  Just enough room for two people and their groceries. You go!
• John Eddy
  @piogga: It will definitely do that, however, there's some question as to the legality of it here. I'm not sure I'm that willing to tempt the parking gods yet. =)
• Rudy
  @ John: considering the amount of room people leave you, Piogga's parking strategy might leave you unable to open the doors...unless you can climb through that back hatch. :)
• John Eddy
  @Rudy: I can open the roof with the remote =) And if someone's going to be that inconsiderate, I don't have a problem climbing over their car.
• John Eddy
  Just FYI, it looks like it's illegal by the books. Doesn't mean I'd necessarily get a ticket for it, but depending upon the meter maid, they could, even if I had proper sticker displayed.
• LeaveSomeRoom
  Not sure that I can give kudos on the parking job... There's a ton of space in front and back of you there. Enough that if someone else came by in a FourTwo, they could have parked there, had you left them room. Isn't that the point? to make more room for parking. At 30 MPG, it's not to save gas or the environment, huh?
• Scotty
  LeaveSomeRoom - I'd say that in downtown Ballard, Capitol Hill, Belltown and parts of Queen Anne it's all about parking. Yeah the environment is important and saving gas would be nice, but sometimes you gotta be selfish and realize it's all about #1!
• John Eddy
  @leavesomeroom: And, based on what you see there, would your car have fit there? Hmm? And no, there wasn't enough room for another ForTwo in that spot when I pulled in.
  
  As for "At 30 MPG, it's not to save gas or the environment, huh?", uhh... what difference is it to you *why* I bought it? Tell you what, you want me to save gas or the environment (FWIW, it gets 5MPG better than our old car), you can buy me one. We, my wife and I, bought a car we liked, that got us better gas mileage (keep in mind that the car is still being broken in and we aren't pulling any tricks to upg the gas mileage) then what we had, and we spent under $20k to get a convertible. And we ended up with a car that can park far more easily in spots than our old car.
• John Eddy
  Second tank update: 36MPG. =)
• SmartieUSA
  I have a Smart Fortwo model 450 (previous generation) and what John says about the breaking in MPG is quite true.
  
  The car is completely computer controlled and protects itself during break in and changes programs at about 6k and 7.5k miles. My Smart ForTwomodel 450 got 42 MPG city or highway when new. Now it gets 42 City and 42-65 MPG Highway after 12k miles. Just depends on how you drive it. 60 MPH on the flats gets 62 MPG 70 MPH in the hills gets 45 MPG.
  
  We travelled on vacation to Banff and back with all the sightseeing and did 2200 miles of spirited driving on 48 gallons of fuel.
  
  Love my Smart Car.
  
  Bob