Brilliant idea for Chrysler to sell more big vehicles

Living in a Yuppie area of Eastern Ontario, we see a few of these little phone booths on wheels. They cost half as much as a medium-priced SUV. Plus having no rear seat. Compared to real cars such as the Yaris, Accent or Fit they're a joke. I don't know what MB was thinking.

Apparently those who own them love them; my suggestion was more tongue-in-cheek but seeing as how the emphasis is now on "gas sipping" I could see the SUV crowd jumping on a deal like that. At the moment the Smart cars that are being sold in the US have been modified to meet EPA standards and get only 40MPG..and cost almost double what their Canadian cousins do (they're being sold through ZAP not Smart or MB). I'll be sticking with the Yaris HB I just bought :)

It would just waste more gas - the dummies buying the giant SUVs would just figure out a way to cram the Smartcar into their cargo area ; )

The actual question is what MB was thinking when it decided to buy out its design and marketing partner whose idea the concept was and who decided to pull out...

Note that it was never meant to be sold as an MB/DC brand. Totally separate logo and sales organisation. Smart sections are now popping up in Merc showrooms probably because the car is losing money hand-over-fist so it's a cost-cutting measure, maybe tinged with the hope that the 'star glamour' will rub off onto the Smart.

You may mock but the idea is not so bad, given that it is supposed to be urban transport in crowded cities as a second or third car. With readily interchangeable body panels the idea was to have a funky fashion item, like a Swatch with interchangeable bezels. Having a motoring giant like MB behind it would give sufficient marketing clout. (And the thought occurs: where do you park your third car in a crowded city?)

Trouble is, there aren't enough urban dwellers who are that fashionable... and other small cars like the Yaris, while not being as radical, are much more practical for a similar price. Thus an urbanite could get away with just the one car instead of the Smart +1 or +2 cars. As it happens once of my neighbours in central London has a whole range of transport vehicles:

- Smart (top-dollar Brabus version)

- Whacking great big Range Rover

- motorised two-wheeler (Vespa)

- pushbike.

And I think that Merc is diluting management time on too many niche products.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

"Dori A Schmetterling" wrote

Actually I don't mock it at all. Very small cars can certainly be useful in crowded cities, and so can small utility vehicles. The problem is not the concept, it's this car, specifically its price compared to far more useful cars that really don't burn that much more fuel.

It's also that it's competing against Mopeds, which are even more practical if the climate is generally fair in the area.

Ted

See, you're back to mocking... ;-)

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

What's a "pushbike", for us Americans? Would that be a bicycle or a moped?

BTW, I'm in Santa Rosa, California. Zap is a local company. They have had financial problems for a long time, big on press releases and always coming up short on delivering the goods.

-Paul

Yes, a pushbike is (colloquial for) a bicycle.

Thanks for info on Zap, but why would I want to have it?

DAS From London-in-the-Tropics