Article: Smart car scores hat trick in Canada - now cheapest new car available

[jesse.rizzo]

The new Hyundai Accent hatchback has a MSRP of $10,775. I'm not sure if it qualifies for any rebates or anything like that.

[Lazarus]

Even with the gasoline engine and the crummy mileage, compared to the diesel, it has quite a bit of bang for the buck. Those other cars have an advantage that they can seat more then two despite the lower mileage.

[DifferentPointofView]

Doesn't NAFTA come into play? Yea, I see Aveo's all the time for really cheap. I even saw one for the 06' model year end clearence for $5999.99. You should come down and grab some low hanging fruit.

What I don't get though is how My mom's Caliber has a destination charge, but was made right here in IL?

[johnpr]

well it sure does sound like a good deal to buy the vehicles in the states then. just a thought on the destination charge, it might be because they still have to deliver it to the dealership :shrug: anyhow i think destination charges are a huge rip off, ( i could drive to manufacturing plant pick up the vehicle and drive it home for less than what they charge!!)

[SVOboy]

I wouldn't call the aveo low hanging fruit for buyers...more like people who accidently buy one are low-hanging fruit for the automakers.

[MetroMPG]

The big auto news today for the CDN market: apparently when I noticed the Yaris price, I was a day ahead of the press release. Toyota Canada has chopped prices across the board here to bring them closer in line with $USD figures.

They're still not going to be even, and the excuse they use is Canadian market cars have different equipment packages. We have a stricter bumper standard, mandatory DRL's, etc.

So the smart article is outdated already: officially the cheapest new car here is a 3-door Yaris 5-speed with the $1K federal efficiency rebate.

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Ben: zinger on the low-hanging fruit line!

DPV & johnpr: the Canadian dealers/manufacturers are doing all they can to make life miserable for people who try to bring home US purchased new cars. But the price adjustments we're seeing proves what consumers care about most.

Laz: I think Canada's going to sell a boatload of the new smarts here (despite the thirsty gas motor) with the shift from "premium" to "bargain" pricing. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they at least double their sales volumes.

[AndrewJ]

I think that the "thirstyness" of the smarts gas motor has to be put in context of the new (stricter) 2008 EPA ratings that they're being rated under. At 41 mpg (08 rated) that's pretty good considering that my CX is only EPA rated for 36 mpg under the 08 EPA rating system.
So in the good old days of "unrealistic" EPA ratings the smart would get a combined rating of approximately 47mpg. That's not too shabby.

[MetroMPG]

Valid point.

But I was thinking more of the diesel model it's replacing when I said that. Lucky Canadians have been buying the significantly more efficient diesel version for 3 or 4 years up until the redesign with the new powerplant.