Zipping around town

He reckons he's heard most of the jokes by now:

"When are you going to buy the back half?"

"Where's the rubber band?"

"Hey! Are there another 99 clowns in there somewhere?"

But for Patrick Brunett, MD, Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine, driving a Smart car is serious business.

"I first fell in love with them on a trip to Italy over eight years ago," he said, "and waited a long time for them to be approved for sale over here."

He certainly loves the way it handles, the performance and the fuel economy, but most all he loves the look. "I wanted to make a statement," he said. "I strongly believe that we need to rethink the size of our vehicles and accelerate the trend towards down-sizing. After all, for many people, two seats are perfectly adequate 90 percent of the time."

The car has more than delivered on his expectations. He will, however, admit to one problem he didn't expect to encounter when he bought the car. "It now takes me twice as long to back out of parking spaces," he said.

 

 

Pictured: (top) Dr. Brunett (r), with fellow Smart car owner, Donald Girard, MD, JS Reinschmidt Professor and Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education and Graduate Medical Education; (bottom) zip car.

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