"
Daimler's once fashionable Smart car seems to have fallen out of favour in the U.S. as sales figures plunge"
From Ben's review of the Smart Fortwo:Smart Fortwo Test Drive: 45.9 MPG
OK, so nobody was ever likely expecting huge sales numbers from what's essentially a boutique car. But the recession + low fuel prices have apparently hit the brand far harder than some other makes.
2009 sales vs. 2008...
From the
Toronto Star (Tues, Jan 12 p.B6):
Quote:
US sales plunged 41 percent to 14,600 cars last year, more than the 15 per cent decline by Daimler's Mercedes-Benz.
...
Smart's weakening in the U.S. accelerated in the fourth quarter, when sales totalled 2174, a 66% contraction from a year earlier.
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So much for the
40,000 reservations they supposedly took last year from interested customers.
Canadian 2009 Smart sales were 2,667. On a per capita basis compared to the US (roughly a 10 to 1 ratio), we tend to buy more small cars, and the Fortwo sales support that notion.
In 2008, U.S. Smart sales vastly exceeded the company's publicly stated target of 16k vehicles: they moved 24,622 that year.
Compared to others?
- Americans bought 45,225 Minis in 2009, down 16.4% from 2008. Sort of a boutique car that gets decent mileage. Is it comparable to the Smart in terms of target market?
- Ford is ending production of the Ranger pickup next year. They "only" moved 55,600 of those in 2009. They're "replacing" it with the F-150, apparently.
- Even SAAB moved more metal than Smart, and GM has them on the auction block.
I wonder what's in the cards for the wee Smart car...
All I know is the 799cc diesel from the 1st gen Fortwo would make a very interesting swap project into a 1st gen Honda Insight shell!