Junkyard Gem: 2009 Smart Fortwo

Daimler AG began selling the Smart Fortwo in the United States as a 2008 model, which means these cars have been around long enough to appear in the sort of big self-service car graveyards that I haunt. Actually, I've been seeing Fortwos in such yards for at least five years, but every one had been picked over so thoroughly for body parts that it became unrecognizable and thus wasn't worth shooting for this series. I suspect that because these cars get used for parking in cramped urban spaces and they're hard to see for drivers backing up their F-350s, they tend to get banged up quickly while parked; this creates an urgent need among body shops for fresh body panels and they get snapped up right away. Finally, though, I spotted this more-or-less-complete '09 in a Phoenix yard.

I think the visibility of a tiny MG Midget with the top down makes that car ideal for squeezing into tight parking spots, and I've always been able to shoehorn my EG Civic into a marginal space, but I can understand how some parking-challenged car shoppers might want to drive something from our current century.

The interior in this car still looks halfway nice.

Did the engine or some other expensive component go bad, dooming this car? Perhaps the missing body panels got smashed up and removed prior to junkyardization. We'll never know.

White is the color you want for a Smart in Arizona, since we must assume that any air conditioner driven by a 999cc, 70-horsepower engine won't blow the cold air like your grandma's '03 Grand Marquis.

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By Murilee Martin