The Smart has an interesting history. Swatch Watch approached Mercedes about building a Swatch car with colorful, changeable body panels, aimed at 20 somethings. The deal was struck, a factory built and parts were ordered. Then Swatch got cold feet and pulled out of the deal. Mercedes was stuck with a new plant and all the parts they had ordered. What to do? The German equivalent of "lets make lemonade from these lemons" was to make a few changes to the car -the removable body panels remained colorful but became fixed, among other things - change the name, set up a dealer network and sell the car. This was in the days when Mercedes owned Chrysler and Chrysler was run by Dieter Zetsche, an M-B man. The Smart, despite being ideal for the small streets in most European cities, wasn't selling well and MB decided that the (ahem) Smart thing to do was kill the car. Just then, gas prices spiked in the U.S. because of Obama policies. Dieter Z told the MB management to give him the Smart to sell in the U.S. They thought he was nuts, knowing the American passion for 4WD SUVs. Dieter insisted, they gave him the Smart. It has sold well enough in the U.S. that MB has been able to justify keeping it production...
5 comments:
The green makes it look sporty.
This looks smart for trips around town. I don't know if I would feel safe on the Interstate with trucks and SUVs crowding around.
We have had warm sping-days a few days now.
That car isn't swedish, I guess.
The Smart has an interesting history. Swatch Watch approached Mercedes about building a Swatch car with colorful, changeable body panels, aimed at 20 somethings. The deal was struck, a factory built and parts were ordered. Then Swatch got cold feet and pulled out of the deal. Mercedes was stuck with a new plant and all the parts they had ordered. What to do? The German equivalent of "lets make lemonade from these lemons" was to make a few changes to the car -the removable body panels remained colorful but became fixed, among other things - change the name, set up a dealer network and sell the car. This was in the days when Mercedes owned Chrysler and Chrysler was run by Dieter Zetsche, an M-B man. The Smart, despite being ideal for the small streets in most European cities, wasn't selling well and MB decided that the (ahem) Smart thing to do was kill the car. Just then, gas prices spiked in the U.S. because of Obama policies. Dieter Z told the MB management to give him the Smart to sell in the U.S. They thought he was nuts, knowing the American passion for 4WD SUVs. Dieter insisted, they gave him the Smart. It has sold well enough in the U.S. that MB has been able to justify keeping it production...
You probably could have, it's small!
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