We wanted to make a change in our daily life by trading in our big family five seater for something more economical.
We have 5 in our family and a dog but it is very rare that we all go in the car together.
I did a lot of research before we traded in our Lexus IS200 
for another car...
Seats
As I mentioned earlier we have 5 in our family and a dog but we do not all travel together very often we decided that a TWO seater car would be ok
as a compromise but more seats would be nice.
MPG
This is important to us - the miles per gallon has to be better than our Lexus (not hard) and has to be as HIGH as possible.
CO2
This is also important to us - the CO2 also has to be better than our Lexus (again not hard) and has to be as LOW as possible.
Promotion
We do a lot of school visits and attend a lot of events - We really want a vehicle that can be wrapped with Footprint Friends graphics to gain peoples attention and also wanted to use it as part of our exhibitions.
New or Second hand
Buying second hand has two benefits - 1, it is recycling, 2, it is cheeper. Buying new has the benefit of latest technology and better overall green efficiency (hopefully)
So what did we go for...
a smart car! 
We have now got our very own Footprint Friends Smart Car. It is fantastic!
There is loads of room for the driver, and even more for the passenger!
The boot is great - we can get two computers in there for our exhibitions!! We can get shopping for all our family in it (ok no passenger but who goes food shopping as a family outing?).
I have had loads of people looking at me while I am driving and guess what... other smart car drivers WAVE at you 
at bit weird to start off with but quite amusing after a while. You may think that is a bit un cool or just not for you but when you drive past another smart car and they DONT wave its a bit sad 
. (are they haveing a bad day?)
We got a second hand one as it cost less - maybe if smart read this they will sponsor Footprint Friends with a nice new super eco diesel smart car? (go on Smart contact me)
It is surprisingly quick too... (keeping to the speed limit and trying to keep the MPG as high as possible)
Its like a go-cart for the road!
When you can drive (some of you can) go for a test drive, I am sure smart will take you out if you are interested.
Post your comment below...
view other photos of our Smart car in the gallery....
19652
Posted
Jun 14 2009, 09:06 AM
by
richard