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A big jump in gasoline prices Wednesday didn't seem to matter nearly as much to Debra Hensley as the smiles and laughter her little car got from people.
"I totally underestimated the gawk factor with this car. It's like Rubberneck USA," the Lexington insurance agent said.
Hensley is head-over-heels in love with her Smart ForTwo, a two-seat, three-cylinder car with a one-liter gasoline-powered engine. Smart cars, made by Mercedes-Benz, have been available in Europe for years and began appearing in this country several months ago.
Hensley is one of a handful of people in Central Kentucky to own one of the cars, which she refers to as "unidentified driving objects."
Hensley gets at least 34 mpg in town and has gotten as much as 50 mpg on the highway. The little silver and black car's fuel performance -- and the giggles and gawks it gets -- takes some of the sting out of having to pay ever-rising gasoline prices, she said.
Gasoline prices increased by 20 cents or more a gallon Wednesday, as oil futures rose to nearly $124 a barrel, a record. Christopher Oakford, a spokesman for AAA Blue Grass/Kentucky, said prices for regular unleaded ranged from $3.47 to $3.79 a gallon in the Lexington area Wednesday.
Statewide, a gallon of regular gas averaged $3.587 on Wednesday, up only slightly from $3.585 on Tuesday, Oakford said.
The national average was $3.618, less than a cent below the record $3.623 set last week, according to a survey of stations by AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.
Oakford said some Lexington stations had not passed on increases to customers as of Wednesday afternoon.
As fuel prices rise, car dealers such as Bob Kain, general manager of Jack Kain Ford in Versailles, are seeing more and more people get rid of big trucks and sport-utility vehicles and turn to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
"There's a lot of people who are trading in the larger vehicles to (buy) smaller vehicles. I've got a person right now in the showroom getting ready to trade a one-ton pickup for a Ford Focus," Kain said Wednesday afternoon.
"The small cars are selling great, both new and used," he said. "The Ford Focus is selling terrific. The Ford Fusion, which is our mid-size car, is selling extremely well."
But full-size SUVs and trucks are "definitely not selling as well."
"We kind of saw this coming and, as a result, we did not overstock our inventory. So we're not in terrible shape on that," Kain said. "We used to sell a lot more trucks than we did cars, and now it's about 50-50."
The only Kentucky dealer for the Smart ForTwo is Smart Center Louisville, which has sold about 50 since January, when sales began. The dealership has about 375 on order for customers in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri, said Will Swope, the dealership's brand manager.
It usually takes 12 to 15 months to get one of the little cars, but sometimes Swope will have one or two on hand that customers have decided not to buy after ordering them.
The car began in the early 1990s as a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Swatch, the makers of Swatch watches.
Smart ForTwos come in three trim lines -- pure, passion coupe and passion cabriolet -- and range in price from $11,590 to about $20,000, not including taxes and license fees, he said.
"The smart car is sweeping the nation," Swope said. "There are approximately 40,000 reservations across the United States for this car."
Hensley said she didn't buy her passion cabriolet just for its gas mileage. In fact, she said, the hybrid Toyota Prius she owns sometimes gets better mileage.
"I like the gas performance, but I also like the performance of the car. It's super on maneuverability and agility," she said, and "I can park anywhere."
Hensley has had no problem fitting her 6-foot frame into the two-seater.
Former University of Kentucky basketball star Sam Bowie, who is 7 feet 1 inch tall, has sat in the vehicle, and although she didn't measure the distance between his knees and chin, he did get completely inside the car, she said.
Swope said the car is designed for people up to 6 feet 8.
He said the car has a four-star safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
"The frame is like a roll cage that you see in a race car," Swope said. "They designed it to be in the shape of a walnut. Everybody knows how hard it is to get a walnut to crack."
He said the hardest thing to get used to is the Smart ForTwo's automated manual transmission.
Hensley said she bought her Smart ForTwo mainly to drive around town, but she's "not at all fearful" of driving it on the highway.
"I don't need to be driving a seven-passenger vehicle all over town," she said.
Gas at $3.79
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