I've been seeing more and more Smart Cars around here lately, like this cute yellow one that I spied the other day in the post office parking lot. Unfortunately they are far outnumbered by giant gas-guzzling SUVs, just like the array of vehicles in this picture. Sigh.
4 comments:
We see many of them too, although most lack the descriptive license plate.
Darryl and Ruth : )
I love these cars. I haven't seen them driving around in the snow. I wonder how they do.
The Smart is popular in hard-to-park-in San Francisco. When «Louis» lived in Paris, it wasn't uncommon to see two of them parked perpendicularly in one regular parking spot.
The Smart almost didn't make it to the U.S. Here's the story. The Swatch Watch people approached Mercedes about building a small car with colorful, removable body panels, like the changeable bezels on Swatch Watches.
Mercedes agreed and developed the car and built a plant specifically for it. At the last moment, Swatch got cold feet and pulled out of the deal. Mercedes had a new plant, a new car, a parts inventory and a problem: what to do with the car the partner decided not to sell.
They made a few design changes - the removable body panels remained colorful, but became permanently attached and the name was changed to Smart.
You would think that a small car like this would sell well in Europe where the socialist governments tax the living bejabbers out of gasoline, but that isn't what happened with the Smart. It languished.
Mercedes was ready to pull the plug on it; cut their losses. At the time, Mercedes owned most of Chrysler, and Mercedes manager Dieter Zeistch (sp?) was running Chrysler. He said, "Send it to the U.S." The M-B board about had Dieter put in a straight jacket. They said, "All Americans want to buy are SUVs and pickup trucks. The Smart will never sell in the U.S."
Dieter said (the Teutonic equivalent of) "Hide in the bushes and watch. Gas is about to get expensive." He was right - about that time, gas prices shot up. M-B sent the Smart to the U.S., Dieter was vindicated, and the Smart has sold well enough in the U.S. that M-B has decided to keep it.
Louis thanks for that explanation! I saw quite a few in London and Paris when I was there about 4 years ago. I think it was right after that movie came out, The DaVinci Code, and it featured a Smart Car. I think it really influenced people. I can't get over how tiny it is! I think Smart Cars are more popular in Denver than here, because Denver has parking issues much like SF. It's really a great transportation choice for someone who lives in a big city.
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