Roy Komassa gets some funny looks and comments while driving around town.

“A couple people have yelled out the window ‘The back of your car is missing,' ” the Palm Springs resident said.

But there's nothing wrong with his car; it's just more compact — and more fuel efficient — than the average automobile.

These days, Komassa is one of about 100 drivers who roam the streets of the Coachella Valley in a Smart car.

The Mercedes-Benz-produced vehicle, officially made available to the United States in January, has become popular among drivers who want to reminisce about their trip overseas or save gas at a time of high fuel prices.

It has a 9-gallon tank and gets 41 miles per gallon, which helps Komassa spend $15 on premium fuel every other week instead of nearly $30 per week on his Nissan Frontier pickup truck, he said.

He bought his car through Smart Center Riverside.

The business sold about 425 of the cars in Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial counties, and about a quarter of them were sold to local residents, brand manager John Gaddis said.

And despite their size, they can hang with sports cars on the freeway.

“The top speed is 90 mph; it has plenty of speed,” Gaddis said.

He said the car takes about 12 seconds to accelerate from zero to 60 seconds.

“That's not abnormally slow,” Gaddis said.

The cars are produced in Hambach, France, and only 28,000 are expected to ship to the United States this year.

“Next year, they're going to up it to 32,000, which is still not wonderful,” Gaddis said.

It takes about a year for orders to arrive, and Gaddis has a waiting list of about 1,100 people.

Because of the timeframe, it's not uncommon for buyers to change their minds between the time they place an order and the vehicle arrives.

Komassa signed up on a waiting list, but obtained his vehicle early by placing his name on an “orphan” list, which includes arrivals that go unpurchased.

“I'm due in February, so I contacted the dealer and said if anyone couldn't pick up a convertible (Smart) to contact me,” he said.

Palm Springs resident David Lagerstedt bought his Smart about three months ago through similar means.

He fell in love with the car about two years ago in Germany, he said.

Lagerstedt uses it to run errands and has put 4,000 miles on it, he said.

“It's not rough riding, but it's not mushy like any American car,” said Lagerstedt, 78.

Wherever Lagerstedt goes, people ask him about the Smart's mileage or tell him how cute it is, he said.

Lagerstedt spent $26 to fill his vehicle with premium fuel, whereas it would have cost $85 to fill his Mercedes' 19-gallon tank, he said.

“People say ‘Where did you get that vacuum cleaner?” Lagerstedt said.

Palm Desert resident Karl Sator bought his car in San Diego about two months ago.

“The change has been pretty extreme,” said Sator, 25. “I can practically fit my Smart car into my (GMC) Yukon.”

He used to pump gas into his Yukon once every five days for $140. Now, he fills his car once every three weeks for $30.

Sator works as a property manager in Palm Desert, but he commutes to Anaheim about twice a week.

“Once you get going on the freeway, it's fine,” Sator said. “You can't tell the difference.”

Despite its size, the car stands out, which is a good thing, he said.

“I feel safer because everyone has their eye on it,” he said.