Will the Smart Car Sell Well in The U.S.?

Earlier this year Mercedes-Benz brought its Smart brand to the United States. The Smart car project was started by Swatch, the Swiss watch company. The Smart City-Coupe was brought out in 1997 and was quickly renamed the Smart Fortwo. Smart introduced a version of the Fortwo with the roof, doors, and all windows removed, called the Crossblade. The Crossblade was almost impossible to drive without a helmet, because you sit high and your head is very high, meaning that there is no wind protection. Smart made several electric versions of the Fortwo. Smart sold Brabus (a Mercedes tuning company) versions of the Fortwo with 74hp, so it was faster. In 2003 Smart added the Roadster and Roadster-Coupe to their line-up. It was built off the Fortwo's rear engine chassis, but had a larger, more powerful engine. The reason these cars are "Smart" is their structure. The Fortwo has a very small front end, so it can't have crumple zones, but instead has an extremely strong structure. That only got the Fortwo three stars in the EuroNCAP crash tests because it was too much force to do well. Smart brought out the Forfour based on a Mitsubishi supermini, it was quite good. The Problem was the Mitsubishi Colt it shared many components with cost less and the French companies have better Superminis. Smart was planned to come here a few years ago with the Forfour and the idea of the Formore SUV. In 2005 Smart came to Canada with the Fortwo and in cities like Toronto it was quite successful. Now the larger second generation Smart Fortwo is being sold here. The new car has a bigger engine, more safety features, and it is 8 inches longer. The new Fortwo has a 1.0L 3 cylinder engine (300-400cc. larger than the old car's) and has 71hp. The Smart Fortwo got 4 stars from EuroNCAP and got Good in the frontal and side crash tests and acceptable in the whiplash protection test from IIHS. The new Smart Fortwo is still rear engined and rear wheel drive, but unlike the old one it won't get Top Gear's worst handling car award. It drives much better, because its length and wheelbase are now a fair amount longer than the car's width. In Europe a new diesel Smart Fortwo that will get over 70mpg combined, but there are no plans for us to get it. We will have to put up with the 40mpg gasoline version, 40mpg is good, but not good enough that people will want to switch to a 2 seat microcar, the new Volkswagen Jetta TDi will get the same mileage. We also won't get the extremely fun to drive 97hp Brabus version. The prices are good at least, $11,590 for the Pure, $13,590 for the well equipped Passion, but $16,590 is too much for the Passion convertible. Still thought it is the least expensive new car with stability control. Smart had 30,000 people on the waiting list before the car came here. However, I don't think that they'll sell many more through the years, meaning Smarts risky situation it's in now most likely won't get better.