Smart Cabrio on ebay motors...

"Daniel J. Stern" haute in die Tasten:

Of course. Actually they do emission certification testing and crash tests to get the cars ready for Europe. I don't think they had to redesign the car to meet US emission and crash standards. They basically only had to perform a second series of tests (and maybe adjust the engine computer to accept lower quality fuel).

Frank

Reply to
Frank Kemper
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No, they submit the cars for *type approval* testing, which is not the same in procedure or "pass" standards as the North American cert tests.

In virtually every case where a car is designed to one set of standards (e.g. ECE), significant redesign is required in order to comply with the other (e.g. North American). There exist requirements in each set of standards that are absent from the other. *Performance* standards, not just equipment standards. It's easy to change the bumpers, add sidemarker lights, etc. But North American standard 301 ("Fuel System Integrity") requires zero fuel loss with a 360-degree rollover *and* with a 50 km/h direct rear impact (soon to be increased to 80 km/h in response to exploding Fords...again). There is no rollover fuel-loss standard in ECE, and the rear impact fuel loss test in ECE is only 35 km/h. Conversely, there are offset frontal crash performance, brake and suspension performance requirements in ECE that are absent from the North American standards.

DS

Reply to
Daniel J. Stern

Not quite. If the car manufacturer can prove that it meets polution and safety standards, they can import their cars. Doing this is very expensive and time consuming.

------------ Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

Another foreign car sighting this weekend. This time it was a Peugeot 607 on West street near canal. It had NJ manufacturers plates on it. Not sure who that car would belong to.

------------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

5mph bumpers are no longer required. So that is not the issue. I think the smart would be hard pressed to pass us crash standards simply because there is so little structure both in front and back to absorb the energy of a crash.

-------------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

Gray-market Smarts could beat factory to U.S.

By Diana T. Kurylko

Automotive News / March 08, 2004

Gray market Coupe and convertible

2 U.S. importers have received federal approval to bring in 2-seaters this year.

Factory authorized ForMore 4-seat SUV to be imported from Brazil and sold by Mercedes-Benz dealers in 2006. Gray marketers could be selling Smart cars in the United States by summer, two years before Mercedes-Benz will introduce the European microcar brand here.

Two U.S. companies have been granted permission by the federal government to bring the French-built two-seater into the United States. One says it can sell 15,000 Smart cars annually in America.

Both say the 98.4-inch-long coupe and convertible could be on sale within 90 days if final EPA certification is granted as expected.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ruled that the Smart two-seaters are eligible for importing into the United States.

Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz USA LLC is setting up a franchise to introduce the brand in mid-2006 with a new four-seat SUV called ForMore. It has no plans to sell the Smart microcar, which was introduced in 1997 in Europe.

Coupes, convertibles and roadsters are made by Smart, a subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler, in Hambach, France.

G&K Automotive Conversion of Santa Ana, Calif., and J.K. Technologies LLC in Baltimore applied last year for permission from the federal government to import the Smart. When NHTSA gave the importers a green light on Jan. 22, [...] says Coleman Sachs, chief of NHTSA's import and certification division. [...]

Mercedes-Benz will show its U.S. dealers the ForMore at a meeting in Las Vegas this month. There are no plans to import the current generation of Smart models into the United States, said Dave Schembri, the Mercedes-Benz vice president in charge of Smart.

Mercedes executives in the United States say Smart buyers may have problems obtaining servicing of gray-market vehicles.

"We urge all to purchase cars through the Mercedes car group," Schembri said. "We'd hate to see a customer put in the position that they have no service outlet."

J.K. Technologies says it plans to sell Smarts through a few Mercedes-Benz dealers in the Baltimore area and Florida. J.K. will buy cars from a European distributor.

The conversion company wants to sell between 500 and 1,000 cars annually and would service the cars, said J.K. Technologies President Jonathan Weisheit. The company has been working on the Smart project for about 2½ years, he said.

No scattershot

"We want to very careful with the Smart reputation in America

- our sales won't be on a scattershot basis," Weisheit said. "We don't want the Smart image to in any way be tarnished. This vehicle is brilliant in its own right."

He said dealerships that J.K. works with on conversion jobs will sell the cars.

"We can guarantee service and parts in Baltimore and Florida

- we aren't interested in importing 10,000 Smarts," Weisheit said.

He said he isn't ready to disclose which dealers will sell the cars.

G&K Automotive Conversion is negotiating with about 100 non-Mercedes-Benz new-car dealerships to sell the Smart in six to eight weeks, owner George Gemayel said. Gemayel said he and his business partners want to sell as many as

15,000 Smarts a year. They will purchase stock from European dealerships.

The longtime importer of gray-market Ferraris, Porsches, McLarens and other cars plans to buy Smarts for between $8,000 and $10,000. Gemayel said that in the United States, the vehicles will have a sticker price of $14,500 for the two-door model and $19,500 for the convertible.

Automotive News Online

All rights reserved

# # #

Reply to
wolfgang

The US military used to have very distinctive licence { Frank, pls note correct ENGLISH spelling... :-) } plates.

The oval plates were 'Z' plates where Z = Zoll = Customs.

As Frank says, current export plates look like regular ones. They even bear the registration marks of the district issuing them. Thus typically new Mercs will have Stuttgart or Bremen plates, since many will have been collected by their owners from the factories.

For info, German plates are issued by a town or local district, and the first one to three letters before the hyphen bear the distinctive letters of that district. E.g. B = Berlin F = Frankfurt HB = Bremen (Hanseatic City of Bremen)

If one changes one's home one MUST reregister the car within a certain time as, I think, the road tax is paid to the local authority. In the UK the road tax is paid to the central government so it matters not a jot where you register the car or where you live. Although some of the letters have had some bearing on the issuing authority it's never been a specially systematic system, so to speak.

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

Yes, most Americans are too big for the Smart, so the sales would be low....

;-) DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

A French diplomat....it's been said the only reason Peugeot make large cars is because French govt ministers don't want to be seen in Mercs...

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

"Dori A Schmetterling" haute in die Tasten:

I am 2.04 metres tall and weight 135 kg. I fit into a smart better than in any other sub-sub compact car. OTOH I haven't tried the new smart roadster yet - it simply is not my type of a car.

Frank

Reply to
Frank Kemper

"Dori A Schmetterling" haute in die Tasten:

Is that the color vs. colour thing?

Frank

Reply to
Frank Kemper

Exactly so!

And "burgled", not "burglarized"...

DAS

Reply to
Dori A Schmetterling

I don't think so. Diplomats get diplomat plates, not grimy beat up manufacturer plates from NJ. I did like the styling on the car. The driver did cut back and forth across lanes without signalling.

------------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

My father strongly believes he failed one of his driving tests because he, at 1.93 metres, took it in a Mini!

Still, he was always fine with Minis - even briefly had one which was purely his!

Reply to
Phil Reynolds

No, I have one study where the saving would be $2.000,? per vehicle if US had scruppered its FMVSS and switched to the ECE regulations.

Oliver

Brent P wrote:

Reply to
Ennui Society

No, the numberplates for American military personnel look like typical US numberplates with black stripes at top and bottom. Much what one sees the letter boxes on wide-screen films. They are optical trick to resemble the European numberplates.

German authorities DO NOT issue the numberplates for American military personnel. I asked my parents in Germany to confirm it for me as they live near the American military base.

Oliver

Frank Kemper wrote:

Reply to
Ennui Society

It's rumoured that Peugeot might return to US market, but it's still up in the air...

Oliver

Alex Rodriguez wrote:

Reply to
Ennui Society

That is the same response I received from the couple when querying about the registration and title. I think we frightened them into taking their Smart out of ebay motors...

Oliver

Daniel J. Stern wrote:

Reply to
Ennui Society

Yes, we did get the point! It is you who don't always get facts straight!

If Mercedes-Benz did not believe US market is READY for the tiny cars such as Smart Cars and Mercedes-Benz A-Class, it will NOT expend additional fund to make them US legal. It cost on the average of $10million to engineer EACH model to meet US DOT regulations and to comply with EPA emission regulations.

It took Mercedes-Benz about twenty years to realise the strong market potential for its Geländewagen in the USA. The company rushed the homologation job during the belated renovations to the Geländewagen in 2002.

Now, Mercedes-Benz is waking up to the niche market for the smaller cars in the USA.

Smart has same crash-worthiness as Mercedes-Benz C-Class. If C-Class does well in US crash tests, no doubt why Smart cannot fail the US crash test...

Oliver

Frank Kemper wrote:

Reply to
Ennui Society

Prime example of why you shouldn't top post. You lost the meaning of what I posted. The cars for 'rest of the world' from ford and GM are often superior in every area, areas not covered by regulation such as handling. The cars clearly cost more than the often warmed over models we get here in the USA. Compare a ford of austrailia falcon to a tempo for instance. Hell compare it to a taurus. Do the same with the holdens for GM. Regulations are used as a barrier to keep those cars from us.

Ford and GM save a considerable amount of money by selling cars that aren't as good as they should be in this country (USA). Trouble is only people like us, that are really knowledgable about cars world wide know what ford and GM are putting out for the rest of the world, know what they can really do.

It's a pile of crap that they cannot compete with the japanese or anyone else, they can, they choose not to in the USA because it's more profitable to play a regulation angle and cry poor. I've been in the blue oval camp for some time, but ford is going to have to reform it's ways before they'll get me back in the new car showroom. I know more now and I expect better from them than cheapened mustangs and created rarity with the few good cars they choose to sell in north america. Instead we are supposed to pay through the nose for premium makes like jaguar, etc that they own if we don't want to play the bidding game for the few cobras they make each year, etc.

They can take their marketing game and shove it as far as I am concerned.

Reply to
Brent P

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