First of all let me apologise profusely for the above mistake. I've obviously spent too much time sniffing around the Handi.
Colin, all* of the cars featured on the KLASS forum fit into the "Kei-class", which is a special car class developed by the Japanese for vehicle owners who are unable to provide private parking space.
While the Kei-class is a Japanese initiative alone, and a compliance required of their road-mobile citizens without private parking space, special incentives are beginning to be implemented in Europe to try and reduce the car-clutter in many European cities, as well as general environmental impact like road upkeep and smog, etc. Things like half-price parking for "Smart-cars" over larger vehicles and other such stuff.
It would appear that the union responsible for the implementation of the Smart-car policy modelled their restrictions on the well-established Kei-class structure, which I guess gives interested punters some degree choice in vehicle purchase rather than a Mercedes/Fiat monopoly.
With the misguided perception of European cars as being "prestige vehicles" in Australia it's easy to see how such a practical city commuting solution by one of the most respected vehicle manufacturers could be thought of as odd. You may be suprised though at how these little critters are embraced throughout Europe. The European folk don't tend to suffer from our American-influenced theory of
x¹ = x²
where
x¹ = engine displacement (cc) and
x² = penis length (cm)
* with the exception of Brayden's screw-ups
[url=http://www.tamon.org/?page=owners&id=10][img]http://www.tamon.org/forum/images/ute_specs.gif[/img][/url]
