Smart?

Parking in Switzerland just got more interesting, per AFP:

GENEVA (AFP) - Owners of two half-size small cars should pay only one parking fee if both of them fit into a parking space, a Swiss court ruled.

However, as it delivered a landmark victory for owners of 2.50 metre (7.5 foot) long "Smart" cars, the cantonal court in Zurich warned that both of the cars could be fined if they exceeded the allotted parking time.

The ruling followed a legal challenge brought by a Swiss couple after they slotted both of their tiny runabouts into a roadside parking space in the northern Swiss city and paid for only a single ticket.

When they returned, they found a standard 40 Swiss franc (26 euros, 34 dollars) fine had been slapped on one of the vehicles although they had not exceeded their parking time.

Rejecting a final appeal by Zurich's municipal police force after an 18 month battle through the courts, the court ruled that space sharing was legitimate.

I knew it wasn't just aesthetics (or even the gas mileage) that attracted me to those things!

My dad sent me a clipping from his local paper of a WaPo article saying that the Smart car could come to the US by 2006. I am already counting down--and hoping that Daimler Chrysler does not blow this one. Apparently they have determined that the big-car-loving American market would only be interested in the SUV model. And apparently debates are afoot--market the Smart fortwos or the Smart formores? Not to mention the roadster--and I am not even really a sportscar person.

Perhaps I will have to resort to importing one through Zap--but am I a person who imports my own car?