My personal tale of two cities started last week in Dusseldorf, where I spent a couple of days driving the new Benz GLK, and is concluding this week at the wheel of the 2008 smart fortwo in San Francisco.

The smart's a funny car, one that inspires a Euro ecstasy in some drivers, and mortal loathing in others--like Motor Trend's Frank Markus, who gets all animated when you try to defend the little two-seater: "The only thing that car excels at is being short!" he sputters.

Being short, though, is a real advantage in a place like San Francisco, where I've easily seen a dozen coupes and cabriolets in just two days. Parking is horrific here; usually, I can't go a single trip without getting at least one ticket (score: already taken care of this week), and spaces are so valuable that the half-car length of the fortwo is a boon when you're just trying to squeeze into a legal spot and make a dinner happen.

The downsides to the smart's convenient size are vast, though. Crosswinds are the biggest problem; in a 20-mph gust across the 101, I was blown halfway into the next lane at 65 mph. The self-shifting manual gearbox is a downer, interrupting a decent head of steam to take its shifts. The brake pedal has an altogether different feel from the light steering and is nearly impossible to modulate smoothly.

The biggest problem in angry traffic is size. Drivers think nothing of cutting off the little smart as if it were sport. Crossing the Bay Bridge, at least three drivers tried to punt me into the middle lane while merging--one with a wicked grin on his face.

As long as you keep it within city limits at city speeds, the smart proves out its name, though it's not a cheap answer to any problem and not a great fuel miser, either. It does get attention everywhere, and it's a visible sign of change in an era when the word is more important than the meaning.

Earlier this month, I asked if you thought smart was a success. After spending more time in one, I'm inclined to say it is--but I need to ask a smarter question next time.

It seems like only yesterday we took the 2008 smart fortwo for its inaugural road test here at TheCarConnection.com. Long before it arrived Stateside, though, the smart began rolling off an assembly line in Hambach, France, and joined the pop-culture lexicon as one more way to fight traffic and fuel prices.

Has it been a success, though? Smart has gone through a couple of reorganizations since it was founded more than a decade ago. It's added a four-door model--and dropped it. Sales in the U.S. are critical to its long-term survival, and the brand's even launching in China next year to expand its tiny footprint. An electric version is undergoing testing in London as well, to perhaps give the smart the green-car panache it doesn't truly have today.

Now that smart's arrived here, is the decade-old experiment about to pay off? Do you think smart's time has come and gone--and if not, which vehicles do they need to park in your garage? Tell us in the comment section below.

Smart's fortwo city car is on sale -- and playing hard to get, if our informal poll of dealers is holding true nationwide. But the government's car safety agency is sounding a warning over the fortwo's crash-test performance, the Associated Press reports.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently performed a series of crash tests on the new two-door microcar, which is being sold in the U.S. by Daimler AG for the first time. The smart performed well in frontal and rear crashes, earning a four-star rating for driver crash protection and three stars for passenger crash protection.

For the side-impact tests, the NHTSA awarded the car five stars -- with a caveat. During testing, the two-door's driver-side door popped open. That, the NHTSA says, could lead to a person being thrown from the vehicle. The side-impact test measures only the car's ability to withstand the impact itself.

"Given the amount of attention on smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles in general and this vehicle specifically, we wanted to try to get the vehicle tested and the results out there as quickly as possible," said Rae Tyson, a NHTSA spokesperson.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a private testing group sponsored by the insurance industry, has yet to report its crash-test ratings for the smart fortwo.

Smart says the fortwo has been designed to get four-star crash ratings and 41 miles per gallon on the highway. The car is under 9 feet long and weighs about 1800 pounds, the Detroit News reports.

The winners have been named -- and this year's World Car of the Year is the Mazda 2.

Ford's Mondeo and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class were the runners-up. WCOTY jurors said that the Mazda is a winner because of "its very appealing looks and high levels of standard equipment for the price.”

Earlier this year, ten finalists for the competition were announced as well as the finalists for World Performance Car, which went to the Audi R8, and World Green Car is the BMW 118d. The winners of the awards were selected by a panel of 47 auto journalists from around the world.

Other finalists included the following:

World Car of the Year

Audi A5 Coupe / Audi S5 Coupe
Audi R8
Cadillac CTS
Ford Mondeo
Ford S-Max
Mazda2 / Mazda Demio
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Nissan Qashqai/Dualis
Nissan Skyline Coupe/Infiniti G37 Coupe
Volvo C30

The finalists for World Performance Car:

AMG Mercedes-Benz S 63
Aston Martin V8 Vantage Roadster
Audi R8
Audi S5 Coupe
BMW M3
Honda Civic R (Japanese & European spec)
Maserati GranTurismo
Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG Black Series
Renault Clio F1 Team R27
Mercedes-Benz CL 63

And the ten finalists for World Green Car:

BMW 118d with Efficient Dynamics
Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell Electric
Chevrolet Tahoe/GMC Yukon Hybrids
Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid
Lexus LS 600h L
Nissan Altima Hybrid
Saturn Aura Green Line
Saturn Vue Green Line
SmartForTwo cdi
Volkswagen Passat 1.9 TDI BlueMotion

TCC readers, we laud your taste: your favorite car review from January was also one of our favorite test cars in recent memory.

And yet you’re pessimistic on gas prices? Maybe you’ll cheer up now that the smart fortwo is on sale--even though the chances of getting lucky in the back seat are approaching zero.

Autocar magazine tells us there’s a new Rolls-Royce on the way. Since it’s based on the BMW 7-Series, does that mean the uppercrust’s cut off?

We also saw the next Lincoln MKZ and Saturn Aura, and we likey.

Isuzu finally admitted that it stopped selling cars in the U.S. back in 1998 and just forgot to tell anyone. (This part is not true.)

We got really bored one night and instead of writing a real review we wrote a fake one with a bunch of Journey songs in the title. Blame the minibar. Those craisins are dangerous!

You might have missed the birthday of the car. No, really, it’s okay, don’t go out of your way or anything. You know, some people keep a calendar for those things.

Richard Simmons clocks in on Sunday as the least likely Super Bowl pitchman ever. Our satin shorts are at the cleaners, getting ready for the big day.

We’re not sure if an $8 toll to drive in Manhattan is the way to fix the city’s traffic. Compared to our $10 bagel and cream cheese last visit, it is kind of a bargain, though.

And finally this week, with political season in full swing, irony has cut short its winter vacation: witness the van full of illegals that rear-ended a Homeland Security vehicle in Arizona.