Posted on 12/04/2007 1:36:45 PM PST by Red Badger
German car maker Daimler said Tuesday that next month's launch of its tiny Smart car in the United States will unleash such stiff demand the company will have trouble meeting it.
We will not be able to meet demand thus far" for 2008, Daimler chairman Dieter Zetsche said here at a news briefing.
More than 30,000 US customers have put down 99-dollar deposits to reserve one of the fuel-saving, two-seat Smart Fortwo, which will begin arriving in the massive US market in January, he said.
"Down payments are going far beyond the production capacity we have," the chairman said, without providing a sales forecast for the US market.
Many analysts question the ability of the super-small Smart, which measures a mere 2.5 meters (eight feet) in length, to succeed in the country of hulking gasoline-guzzling vehicles.
"Times have changed," Zetsche said, pointing to growing concerns of American consumers about global warming.
The Smart Fortwo will be marketed via 70 dealerships in the leading US cities, the company said.
In its most basic version, the micro car will sell for 11,590 dollars, excluding tax. The company said that a Smart equipped with all the options was expected to cost some 20,000 dollars, including tax.
"We are not looking for customers looking for the cheapest vehicle," Zetsche said.
Daimler clearly signaled it was aiming to emulate Apple's success with electronics gadgets in the US market.
"Like owning an Apple i-Mac, i-Pod or i-Phone, Smart documents the open-minded attitude of the 'thought leaders,' who choose innovative solutions as an existential part of their everyday lives," the company said in a press brochure.
My smart car: 
The whole car is a “crumple zone”...............
You see them here in the Toronto area but they are not selling like hotcakes. The price alone puts them in the category of many small and compact cars and you would get so much more for your money if you got a corolla or civic.
It’d be handy to have one of those in the trunk, huh?
An SUV would have about three times the energy to dissipate.
Well, there’s your problem. You’ve got something stuck in your grille.
And that’s fine. I don’t really care what people purchase, but I do see a niche for these. They’ll sell.
When it comes down to it, I wouldn’t buy them at that price either. Still, they seem to have a long list of people who want them.
London is full of them, they go well in heavy traffic and you can parkk two of them to a conventional parking place. You can park them so easily.
THat said I would confine myself to short, in the hood drives to and from the store.
My wife could carry one in her purse..........
They are fun, and you don't get run over on the Autobahn either. You actually sit pretty high so you don't get the feeling of being surrounded that you'd get even in an average compact car.
That is a death trap on an American road. You could only sell it to a big city metrosexual, or some stupid liberal to stupid to live...yuck.
I hoping to get in early on the SmartCar-vending-machine wave.
(But what do you do with the leftover big clear plastic egg?)
Ya! Ze Yugo did so vell zo ve vill sell a million of zeez!
The Chinese built an SUV and it did far worse in crashes than this Smart. Got about the lowest safety rating a car has ever gotten from the ADAC (German car club).
If she put that 'thang' in her purse...she'd never find it.
It means that the safety of a Smart isn’t an issue for people in the small car market. It’s just designed better than most cars, so it’s far safer than its size would suggest.
I just gotta say, I would NOT drive the fastest, sexiest Italian sportscar if their press brochure included the following piffle...
"...Smart documents the open-minded attitude of the 'thought leaders,' who choose innovative solutions as an existential part of their everyday lives," the company said in a press brochure.
(Z06 that is)
The Germans capture the concept with a single word:
daschuzeninnovatensoluzensexistentenpartenufeverdaylibenstrudel
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