Stefan has been thinking about getting a new car for commuting. You may remember that he bought a motorcycle a few years ago to cut back on parking fees and gas costs. But when you have to wear a suit everyday, it’s not really practical…and the weather here in Frankfurt tends to be on the gray, rainy side of the scale which really isn’t that pleasant to drive in. And of course there’s the fact that people just don’t seem to pay any attention to other drivers on the road, especially those on motorcycles so it’s not always the safest way to go.

There have been talks of Stefan joining the ranks of all those people around here that zip around in their tiny roller skate cars, otherwise known as Smarts. Believe me, I’m not knocking them. They feel surprisingly spacious inside and are rather fun to drive. And I’m pretty sure I could fit one in the back of my Defender if we had enough people to help lift it. But that’s an experiment for another day.

Our friend who ended up in the middle of all the European travel chaos a few weeks ago happens to drive a Smart ForTwo. And when it came time for her to say her final good-bye’s to Germany, we had the pleasure of helping her pack up. When we had all the luggage amassed in the courtyard, we started to get a bit skeptical. People say you can fit 6 cases of drinks in the back of a Smart but you just can’t imagine it’s possible when you stand next to one.

In case you can’t see it all, there are two suitcases, 2 medium-sized duffel bags, 1 plastic box, 2 flattened comforters and the luggage cover that pulls across everything (which was just along for when she gets there since it clearly couldn’t be pulled over anything on this trip.)

Not only is that an enormous amount of stuff, but the front seat had to remain free so that a passenger could join her later on. And her seat needed to remain in it’s normal spot so that she could actually drive 12 hours straight to where her ferry awaited. Right.

So we began the task of cramming all of this stuff in that little car. There was a lot of packing and repacking required. We would get stuff in place, look at the pile of stuff left and see a hole that could be filled. So we’d grab something, fold it into place and stuff the big stuff back into place. Did I mention that most of these suitcases were in no way light?

Believe it or not, everything fit rather well into the Smart and, with a bit of effort, you could still see out of the middle mirror. And although we didn’t weigh each bag individually, we did have a close estimate of the weight and she would just barely over the weight limit of the car when her passenger joined her (which is somewhere around 540 pounds). Not bad at all. I definitely now see this car as the Defender of super-compact cars. I know I can fit a room full of junk in the back of my truck, but I was a bit surprised at just how versatile a Smart can be.

Sure, you can only fit two people in the car,which would make the Defender our only “family car.” But it pretty much already is the only vehicle we have that can hold us, Mack, Ayla and luggage anyway. When you look at the numbers (230 liters in a Smart vs over 700 in the Freelander with the seats up), it seems like our Freelander would clearly win a luggage packing competition…but when you add a car seat in there and finally the dog, there’s just not much usable space left. Even when just comparing the “trunk” space of the two, the Freelander is really just poorly designed and a bit too shallow to be practical.

So will a Smart soon sit in our driveway next to the monster Defender? He’s still debating. But I can assure you that if Stefan gets one, there will definitely be a photo session with Ayla in that thing!