The Smart Car Comes to America
June 10
The Smart Car Comes to America
The Smart Fortwo Car arrives in America first quarter 2008! After dashing through the streets of Paris in the movie The DaVinci Code, this Smart car may dash in to capture your heart.
David Schembri, President of Smart USA, introduced the Smart car to a packed room of the Motor Press Guild as part of its nationwide media tour through November.
Schembri began the introduction of the fuel efficient microcar with two videos addressing two major concerns for people considering a Smart car. The first was a crash test with a Mercedes Benz focusing on the Smart Fortwo ‘s Tridiron Safety Cell, which dissipates energy, not surprising knowing Smart is part of Daimler Chrysler. The next video, demonstrated a tall person fitting with ample room. Amazingly, I’ve seen men 6’5” easily fit with comfort.
The size, measuring only 8.8 feet long, 5 ft wide, and 5 ft tall, the Smart car resembles a kids Nike basketball shoe and can park horizontal or perpendicular in parking spots.
The Smart Fortwo models have two body styles – a couple and cabrio, and three models – Pure, Passion and Passion Cabrio. Starting under $12,000 for a Pure coupe to a top of the line Passion Cabrio under $17,000 with a fully automatic convertible soft top which can be adjusted while driving at any speed.
While being popular with the Metro Cool Urban Dwellers, the Smart car has also seen much interest from those in rural areas. Being constantly surrounded by people, the Smart car is more than novel. In the words of Schembri, “it makes you feel like a rockstar.”
Easily customizable, panels can be changed within an hour. Brabus, known as a high-performance tuning company for Mercedes, is also specializing in Smart car customization.
The production time for a Smart car in its production in France is only 3-1\2 hours. The next closest production time for a car is 15 hours. Schembri mentioned new Smart car owners may be able to watch their car being built in the future.
Locations of the Smart car dealerships are a blend of stand alone dealerships, co-existing with existing dealerships, but nearly 70% of Smart dealers are expected to be within existing Mercedes Benz dealers.
As of June 5, over 19,000 people have made a statement by making $99 reservation for a Smart car, and its barely started its nationwide tour.
Testing the Smart Car
Jan Wagner of Automatters had shared his stories numerous times about how he had driven the previous version Smart car on the Zap Across America tour to the New York International Auto Show last year. Summing it up, he had a blast.
Lucky to have a test drive with Schembri himself, I was getting the deluxe tour. Getting the feel of the Fortwo through the parking lot, I was immediately impressed by the turning radius. He had mentioned a 28’ turning radius, which without an actual measuring tape, I would have to say is likely quite accurate. After circling around the parking lot planters, I had to straighten the drive, to stop from getting dizzy.
Schembri took the wheel and demonstrated the agility when he cut through four lanes of traffic without a honk and a big thumbs up around the Los Angeles airport. People came outside the office building to ask questions about the Smart car when Schembri parked the car perpendicular. Driving away, the convertible top began closing, while in motion.
Designed to achieve 40 miles per gallon for combined city/highway driving, Wagner achieved a high of 52 mpg on a long stretch between California and Arizona , and a low of 34 mpg in a nasty stretch of road which included a long uphill climb in widny conditions.
Storage is an unexpected 8 cubic feet and 12 feet when loaded up to the roof line. It will fit a set of golf clubs, which is more than can be said for most convertibles. Wagner managed to fit for his two week trip, for one big, hard-sided suitcase, one overstuffed garment bag, an airplane acceptable carry-on suitcase, a laptop and professional camera equipment in their case, plus empty space for press kits from the New York International Auto Show.
The Smart Fortwo is intriguing, expect to see many on the road first quarter 2008.
The next best thing to driving one is to experience it through Jan Wagner’s column archives at www.automatters.net
(C) MBN 2007 Joyce Chow
