Sibling synchronicity results in brotherly love for smart cars

smart thinking rather than telepathy resulted in brothers living 150 miles apart buying identical cars in the same week without each other’s knowledge.

Peter Bennett, from Derby, and his younger sibling Paul, who lives in Cardiff, were amazed when they discovered that they had both purchased smart fortwo passion models from different smart retailers within a day of one another.

Although Paul’s smart is four years older than his brother’s brand new version, both cars are black in colour and feature the smart’s trademark tridion safety cell in silver. The coincidence, which only came to light during the weekly phone call between the brothers, is made even more astonishing by the fact that the pair had previously driven a variety of larger saloon models in the past.

“We were chatting and Peter just happened to mention that he had collected his new smart earlier that day,” recalled Paul. “As neither of us had discussed changing our cars up to this point, the news was a complete surprise particularly as I was due to pick mine up the following day.”

Peter continued: “It is a staggering coincidence and nothing like this has ever happened before. Paul and I are fairly big guys and have always chosen much bigger cars although never the same one.”

Whilst sharing an appreciation of the smart’s performance and low running costs, the brothers admit to loving their cars for different reasons.

Having undergone two hip replacement operations, telephone sales executive Paul was prompted to try out the two-seater by friend Phil Stock. Phil is the Technical & Training Manager at Mercedes-Benz and smart of Cardiff & Newport and he, his wife and two daughters all run smart cars.

“My initial reservations disappeared as soon as I took one for a test drive,” said Paul. “They are so easy to get in and out of and very comfortable – just perfect for my five-mile drive to and from work each day.”

Big brother Peter has found his smart car to be superbly accommodating too – particularly on his regular camping trips. The deceptively-spacious fortwo – purchased from smart of Lincoln - recently transported Peter, a friend and all of their equipment including a five-man tent, large holdall, cool box and rucksack, as well as a foldaway table and two chairs behind the seats.

“When I bought the smart, I thought I would have to cut down on the equipment that I take with me but that hasn’t been the case,” enthused Peter. “It takes a little planning but much to my amazement, the car swallows everything.”