would Americans buy a Smart car?
I drove one in Cyprus, and it's noisy, a bit scary (that was mostly because I was driving on the "wrong side" and I suspect that was a big factor), but it's bigger than you'd expect. There's not much cargo space, that's true.
While it has crash-tested and passed, simple physics tell you that a Smart Car vs. a Yukon is going to be a fairly easy contest to predict.
I miss my Dodge Omni, that was a great vehicle!