Thinking back to our trip to Germany last year, one thing we all agreed on is this: here in the US we are getting screwed on our cars.

We rented a diesel Audi station wagon for 2 weeks. The car, at normal speeds (like 40-60mph) got over 50mpg. Even at 100mph+ on the autobahn, it got 30-40mpg. Amazing. We drove the hell out of that car, all over Bavaria and Austria, for 2 weeks, and I think we filled up maybe 4 times – 5 tops.

But here at home I don’t need a station wagon. I like small cars a lot, and there were so many killer vehicles available in Germany – stuff we can’t get here. Fiat, Citrogen, Smart, etc, etc. I was really pretty fascinated by the Smart cars — perfect for city dwellers to zip around town. Here are a couple of pics: Citrogen Berlingo and Smart Car. Smarts were all over the place in the cities.

I understand that Smart will be available in the US soon, but the 2-door will be a bit longer to pass our auto safety standards (I guess cars have to be big enough, in theory, to compete with all the insanely huge SUVs on the road).