Smart promises new ForTwo in early 2007
After seven years with the existing ForTwo
model, DaimlerChrysler's Smart unit is finally coming out with a new version of the microcar. The new two-seater city
car has been promised to dealers for April 2007 delivery.DaimlerChrysler is also trying to get approval to sell the new ForTwo in the U.S. market, where it hopes to sell 20,000 units a year. The lilliputian puddle-jumper is already sold in Canada.
Meanwhile, sales of the Smart brand plummeted 25.9 percent in February, to only 7,700 cars worldwide.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gunnar Heinrich 10:35AM (3/07/2006)
Much like the Mini, the Smart would find a large buyer's niche here in the States. And rest assured, they wouldn't be in Utah.
http://www.automobilesdeluxe.blogspot.com
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S1500 11:33AM (3/07/2006)
It has been around for seven years? Wow, then indeed it is quite overdue for a US debut. Great for the college campus and beyond.
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Tommy 12:18PM (3/07/2006)
Stupid. The very short-lived craze is over in Canada already (as you can tell by the sales numbers). It's expensive (take a look at that mid-90's korean car interior), impractical (2-seater - college kid? Buy an upcoming Fit Hybrid and get the same fuel economy and still move yourself and your friends with the nifty magic seat), impossible in the winter (despite all the tech gadgets), unstable on the highway, still not allowed to park it straight into curb (according to law in Ontario), slow (0-60 in less than 20 seconds... 40hp), unsafe if you don't hit another car (it has NO crumple zone, so it forces other cars to crumple instead...), and the tires are 2-different completely unique sizes (so you'll be spending a fortune at the Benz dealer)...
Please do not compare this piece of junk to a Mini or anything else.... It might(?) compare favourably to a Honda Insight (Insight better fuel economy, faster, but not as cool looking) but that's a severely outdated model, as well.
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sirAQUAMAN64 12:57PM (3/07/2006)
Tommy, looking at REAL sales figures, both the Mini and Smart have been neck and neck in sales, often at 250-500 units a piece.
Last month they BOTH sold exactly the same number of units - 172. In one of the lowest selling months of the year.
I'll agree with a great many of your negative points regarding the Smart, but it sells much better than even I thought it would. Probably in clustered city markets.
I didn't realize so few Smarts sold worldwide. Only 7,700 eh? Interesting.
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Billy Bob 1:10PM (3/07/2006)
Hey, a half-sized Chrysler may have only half the recalls!
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Krishna Das 1:15PM (3/07/2006)
Smart is also very un-fun to drive. Mini is popular because its fun cute. Smart is neither.
Smart, if brought in US will sell less than Ferraris.
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carrlos 5:39PM (3/07/2006)
it's also being sold in mexico too
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Juergen 5:42AM (3/08/2006)
Krishna Das, you have no idea. I own my second smart now and I drive smart since 6 years. It is much fun to drive since it is has rear-wheel drive with a rear engine and a sequential 6-gear transmission with paddles at the steering wheel. Extremely agile and because of its low center of gravity very much like a kart.
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Chromed oranges 8:16AM (3/08/2006)
#8 -
Thanks god, someone comment here who actually drives a Smart. The rest of you are talking nonsense.
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smart owner 5:02AM (3/22/2006)
All you people could do with a look at www.thesmartclub.co.uk rather than voicing criticisms of what is a very popular car over here in the uk.
And despite your worries it is a very safe car as some of our members will testify. How many of you have been able to open the car door and walk away after a major accident.
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Sanjay Singh 1:54PM (3/26/2006)
Tommy must be one of those stereotypical fat American pigs who drives an SUV, and would never fit into a Smart ForTwo, and is too dumb and lazy to lose weight to ever ride in anything smaller than an SUV. Am I right, Tommy? Why else would you be slagging it like you are?
The single biggest obstacle to Smart being successful in the US is the fact that 2/3 of Americans are OBESE,
and the oil interests that encourage Americans to continue their consumption of oil, and to sacrifice their children to fight wars, rather than reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and go easier on the environment.
The Think! City was a zero-emission vehicle that did not sustain itself in the market place, even in progressive California. The Smart is more practical and as the cost of fuel goes up, will continue to prove its usefulness as a second car, and as a car for Junior to use.
Those are things that are lost in this discussion about Smart cars.
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