Wheels06 Test-Drive: This Year's Models

It is fortuitous that the former American Idol star taking today's test drive in Manhattan is not Ruben Studdard. It would have been impossible for him to fit in the tiny, Swatch-designed, Mercedes-engineered orb known as Smart ForTwo (as in "two seats"). Luckily, today's Idol is Katharine McPhee, this year's runner-up and a petite twenty-two-year-old who could fit comfortably in the car even if she were triplets.

It's curious that Smarts haven't taken off with urbanites the world over. It is the perfect automobile for the city: small, fuel-efficient (more than 40 miles per gallon city and highway) and inexpensive (price starts under $15,000). Although the Smart has undeniable cachet in Europe, the company sold less than 50,000 globally last year. Now, in the wake of megaselling microcompacts such as the Mini and Honda's new Fit, Smart hopes that Europe and the U.S. are finally ready for the ForTwo. The model that goes on sale here in '08 will be a bit larger and faster.

McPhee hops in and surveys the interior, looking over at her passenger. "I forget that we're in a tiny car," she says. "You're a tall guy. You could be six inches taller and you'd be fine." The Smart works a weird kind of voodoo. From the outside, it looks impossibly small. But from the inside, it feels full-size, as if you are piloting a regular sedan -- until you end up next to an actual sedan, and its occupants point and coo as if a baby carriage full of puppies has just pulled alongside.

"This is gnarly, yo!" says the L.A. singer, slicing between a delivery truck and a phalanx of cabs. "It feels so good to drive." Today is her first day away from the American Idols tour in weeks. The night before, they played Syracuse, New York; tomorrow it's Hershey, Pennsylvania. When it's over, she'll head back to California and record an album due by Christmas. What will it sound like? "You'll be surprised."

On Eleventh Avenue, McPhee marvels that the car -- propelled as it is by just 60 horsepower -- actually keeps up with traffic. (Though she didn't attempt it, its top speed is said to be 85 mph.) "It drives like a regular car," she says. Soon after, McPhee's publicist notes that Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw would probably drive a Smart. McPhee isn't so sure. "I'm a little high-fashion for this car," she says. "I'd like it with tinted windows, in case people didn't think it was cool." JOSH DEAN