The smart Car Is Coming

THE SMART CAR IS COMMING
From a Shunpiker's Journal �
By Steve Purdy
TheAutoChannel.com Detroit Bureau

Steve Martin drove one in the new version of The Pink Panther. The streets of Rome and many other European cities are speckled with them. The oddly cute and stubby shape is immediately familiar even if you don’t know what it is.

It’s the Smart Car.

The Smart Car was conceptualized originally by the Smart Watch Company. They developed the idea with Mercedes-Benz. Between them they built and marketed the slickest micro-mini-tiny-city car on the planet. Smart is now a separate division of Mercedes-Benz. Sadly, the division has lost money since its inception.

We had the privilege and the fun of driving a Smart Car in Ontario last year and were entirely enamored with it. Rumors at that time were that Mercedes wanted to bring it to the US but after dancing around the issue for nearly a year they decided that the US market would not support the cute little car.

Well, we’re now pleased to announce, a few months after the official announcement, that after all, the Smart Car is coming to the US. Hurray! A round of applause for the Germans, please. Let’s hope they make some money here so we can continue to have this sporty little squirt.

The US version will be the most popular “ForTwo” model That’s f-o-r-t-w-o, which means it is built “for two” people. And wonderfully designed it is. The body and chassis are integrated into essentially one unit called a Tridion Safety Cell, literally a reinforced steel cage where the driver and passenger coexist in perfect safety. Plenty of room inside along with a sophisticated suspension and wheels far out at each corner of the little car make occupants feel perfectly safe, secure and, I must say, excited.

Our chartreuse Canadian test car was powered by a tiny 3-cylinder turbo-diesel making about 40-hp and 74 lb.-ft. of torque. That little powerplant was plenty strong enough to get the Smart Car down the road expeditiously and still get in the neighborhood of 50 mpg. We had more fun in that little car in three days than nearly anything we’ve driven lately.

Now that all that wringing of hands and indecision are finished and the decision made, Mercedes has decided to bring the Smart Car to the US with the sales and distribution help of the smartest independent car business man around, Roger Penske, who runs perhaps the most successful megadealer group in the car business. Penske specializes in imported cars.

The Smart Car for the US car will be the ForTwo like the one we reviewed, but it will be powered by a gasoline engine. We don’t have all the specifications and details yet but we can be sure mileage will be well over 40 mpg and fun factor will be high.

Before our research in Canada we thought of the Smart Car as exclusively an urban car, suitable only for the big city and congested environments. As it turns out nearly half of Smart sales in Canada are outside the city. Think about it. If you were a country dweller living 5 or 10 miles from town why not use this little runabout anytime you didn’t have more than one passenger or lots of cargo. That’s most of the time for most people.

Of course it’s great in the city when we can park two Smarts in one parking place and zip around through traffic almost as efficiently as a motorcycle – but with heat and AC.

Watch for the Smart Car here in about a year. Waaay Cool!