It is a Smart car, sold under the brand Smart and marketed by Mercedes Benz (it think) here in Europe. There was some involvement with Swatch, the swiss brand selling funny plastic watches, but I don't know the extent of it.
In overcrowded towns here like Rome they're sold like hot cakes altough the price is rather steep. They have a yuppish market image and young professionals or executives tend to see it as status symbols. I never drove one and it gives me a sense of immediate danger seeing them speed by at 130 Km/h (70-75 Mph?). They say they tend to loose control quite easyily under less then ideal conditions on Rome's center paved roads. Flavio
