Great Cars... Fabulous Places!
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Great Cars... Fabulous Places! |
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Get Smart America! by Dan James
The quick answer is: Swatch Mercedes ART Started in 1972 and spurred by a worldwide oil crisis that caused automobile bans in Europe, Mercedes embarked on a study of the “Metro Commuter Car” for the year 2000. Well, while some of us knew about the Fiat 500 already, this study produced some revolutionary thinking including the impact of a short wheelbase vehicle that could be parked perpendicular to the roadway, doubling the amount of parking and increasing the number of vehicles for a given section of roadway. This radical approach did not fit the public view of a big, classy, Mercedes Benz and was shelved for another 10 years, while the oil kept flowing. In 1981, Mercedes renewed this work on the “Local Traffic
Vehicle”, another ultra small vehicle concept that included deformable body
panels, 4 wheel steer and 3 cylinder 41 horsepower front drive power plant. This
vehicle was deemed not safe enough for Mercedes and not desirable to a public
that still wanted large cars. Late in the 80’s Mercedes commissioned the
electric drive Mercedes City Car that innovated Mercedes comfort, safety and
innovation in a car only 2.5 meters long. Momentum began to build as concerns
for the global environment influenced consumers and manufactures alike to build
a small car that is safe, innovative and comfortable and gets super mileage. The
next challenge was to make a car that was appealing to a new generation of car
buyers. In this case Smart means: In 1992, a radical move came when Mercedes commissioned American artists in Irvine California to develop concepts for the Micro Commuter Car. At about the same time, Swatch Watch Designer Nicolas Hayack was looking to build a visionary city car and transform the building of automobiles using techniques he developed transforming the Swiss watch industry. This led to the founding of the Micro Compact Car Company in 1994, where the new automobile concepts and production approach began to take place. The driving force behind this company was they were developing a “character car”, a car that speaks to individuality, vision and responsibility. A car for Europe and absolutely a car aimed at the US. Hayack could not continue to invest at levels needed to make this car a reality and was bought out in 1997 by Daimler Benz. In the years that followed, the Smart City Coupe was realized and has since sold over 700,000 cars in Europe using a 3 cylinder turbo diesel with 41 hp. In 2003 the Smart Fortwo development brought a new Electronic Stability Program (ESP), new transmission improvements such as auto shift down and the more powerful gasoline engine for the US market. A Brief Summary of Features: The Smart Fortwo comes in three models: the Pure, Passion
and Cabrio. The Pure is the base model starting at $11,590 and is probably going
to be very rare, since it has hand crank windows and lacks the cool
polycarbonate
The cars come in a limited number of two tone color schemes. Main body colors are solid black, yellow, white, Metallic Red, Blue or Silver. The color is molded into the plastic body panels, which can be changed in about 2 hours with simple tools! The Tridion safety cell around the door frame (A pillar and B pillar) can be had in either silver or black.
On to the interior, where there is an amazing amount of
foot room, leg room, headroom and elbow room for the driver and passenger. I
normally drive a Honda Odyssey and I must say I had plenty of personal space.
For a commuter this would be very important and I think Smart has achieved
this. There is ample stowage for everyday commuter runs and it is conceivable
that one can get golf clubs and some luggage behind the seat. Loading to
Visibility is good, although there is a blind spot on the rear pillars. The two side mirrors help here and the rear window is good. What is really amazing is the size of the doors. This car is all door and that means it is really easy to get in and out of. Interior colors are black, beige, red and gray and there is a leather option. The felty/suedeish interior panel covering was an interesting material can only be described as being like the inside of a briefcase. I am not sure how it will hold up, but everything else seems so well thought out, it should be durable and water resistant. I think the American market will like the interior of this little car, but Mercedes knows that is not the challenge. For them, Smart stands for: Safely Make Automobiles Really Tiny
The safety features of the Smart are considerable, and Mercedes is hitting the objections head-on with their approach to distribute crash test video to the public. I do believe we would all like to see a Suburban hit a Smart broadside at 40 MPH and see the occupants survive, if that is a reasonable expectation. I did wonder how easily it will be to total a Smart, as many of the more severe crashes appear to do structural damage. OK, so Geico will work that out, but how do we buy one? So Mercedes Again Reinvents Themselves [or alternatively Smart Marketing Adopts Recent Trends] Today’s Mercedes are not your father’s Mercedes. Sometime in the last few years Mercedes got their styling on and began to market well made vehicles to the masses. Today, you see distinctive styling, large dealerships in small towns and Mercedes cars everywhere AND they are not belching out diesel smoke! As a separate car company, but closely affiliated with Mercedes, Smart has gone about the marketing of this car in an altogether different and modern approach. Smart is coming to America courtesy of Roger Penske’s Penske Automotive Group, headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, who has exclusive distribution rights. Penske just happens to be the second largest automotive retailer in the United States, with over 11.2 billion in revenue in 2006! The car is being marketed completely different from anything we have ever seen. First and foremost, there are no ads! This is an internet sales operation. Search for SmartUSA and you’ll get there. To date, there have been 3 million visitors to the Smart website. 95,000 people have signed up as “Smart Insiders” – getting frequent news updates on the launch of the US Smart and 30,000 Americans have put down a $99 deposit for the Fortwo. The Smart team went on a nationwide tour this summer and had over 50,000 test drives to get feedback from the American public. When it is complete in November there will have been 75,000 test drives in 50 cities. Now that the cars are getting ready to being built (they will start arriving from Hambach, France in January 2008), those with reservations are being asked to do their final configuration (colors, options) on line. We talked to Roger Penske and he was ecstatic that over 85% of those with reservations are still committed to the Smart and are going ahead and “ordering” their cars. When the car comes in, the price is already set on-line and you go to pick it up or let the dealer keep it for the next reservation holder. I am seriously considering getting one in spite of having to get used to another SMART acronym: Someone Made Automatic Response Torturous! I drove a Passion in Baltimore for five minutes with a giant technician comfortably seated beside me. It is rather hard to form an opinion in just five minutes. Getting to drive one for three hours in California, now that was fun! The first thing you notice when you get in the Smart is how easy it is to enter and get buckled. It is unusually large and comfortable on the inside. The controls are few and easy to find and the instrument cluster is easily visible inside the steering wheel perimeter. The key is unusually located next to the shifter. Our vehicle had the optional tachometer and analog clock mounted up on the dash in true retro-style. The first thing you notice as you put the car in gear is the eerie feeling that you are in a car with a Vespa Scooter drive train behind the seat. Pressing on the gas makes it cruise easily thru the parking lot where it turns like a go-kart. The power steering makes parking a breeze; it’s only that you are taking up 1 quarter of the parking space that is disorienting! Once out on the road I immediately confirmed my greatest concern: The automatic electric clutch is not punching out, but is acting more like it is under the foot of my teenage daughter learning to ease to the clutch out while the engine revs to 4 grand. In short, when you hit the gas, it scoots off pretty quickly but when it hits second, it takes its time to make a smooth transition. My partner, Dave, did a little better than I. He found that by letting off the gas when the shift occurred, the Smart would engage the clutch faster. So, after a while I started using this technique and I got used to the shifts. Next I tried the paddle shifters with similar results. I wanted to paddle shift from 1st to 2nd to clunk this little go-kart into gear with a satisfying drop in RPM, but again, if I wanted that experience, I needed to take my foot off the gas, shift and then get back on the gas. OK, it is only 70 hp. This electric clutch was something you have to get used to, but the creep engage mode was something altogether disturbing. The creep mode is a feature that Mercedes has engaged (pun intended) to allow the car to be more easily parked or maneuvered slowly by only using the brake. When one lets off the brake, whilst in gear, the car will begin to engage the clutch. WHAT? Yes, you heard me correctly. When at a light, if you take you foot off the brake, the engine will begin to flutter/stall to an uncomfortable idle and the car will begin to scoot forward. I expressed my concern with the Mercedes people about this and they felt it was a perfectly acceptable design. Again, I can get used to this, but the first impression is not good, especially if you drive old British cars with hydraulic clutch leakage… The Smart amazingly flew up Rt. 280 to San Francisco at 85+ MPH. Sometimes when pulling at these speeds uphill, I dropped the little 70 hp engine into 4th and went towards the redline, but this highway performance was very acceptable. In fact we stayed neck and neck with a Maserati for a long way, until the driver stopped shaving! I was worried about wind buffeting, but the Smart held it’s own in moderate breezes between the mountains. At these high speeds, I did notice that my arms were getting a little tired and I attribute this to the ESP tightening the steering at speed to reduce rollover. The electric windows, the door locks, the little dashbox, seat controls and the radio seemed adequate, once we got the treble and bass turned up, but our car did have a little wind noise coming in from the front. Perhaps this was a door seal. All in all, a good ride. So in the end, how would I sum up the Smart? SEE ME! Acquire Responsible Transportation I enjoyed my time with the little Smart. I feel reasonably comfortable that it is about 20 times safer than my ‘71 TR-6 or ‘61 Sunbeam and will leave a much smaller carbon footprint than my daily drive, a Honda Odyssey. I think the time is right in America for a car that makes both a fashion statement and an ecological statement. The tide is turning on the SUV and many of us would be a little less guilty to scoot around in something this cute (girl word) and cool (guy word) while feeling like we are doing our part to reduce global warming. But I don’t think the appeal of the Smart stops there. The average 2 car garage could become a 4 car garage causing a rebound in the real estate market.
© 2007 Cars and Places Magazine |
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I
should have seen the signs. My first and oldest collector car is a Sunbeam
Alpine. Wherever I go people say “That’s the ‘Get Smart’ car right?” The Sunbeam
is a Smart Car, I think to myself. And then there’s Maxwell
Smart’s side kick, the beautiful agent “99” and when I heard about the Smart Car
Reservation program I was told “You have to sign-up Dan, its pretty and it’s
only 99 dollars to get one of the first ones”. Finally, it dawned
on me when Rick Trawick asked me, “Would you be willing to drive a Smart through
the streets of San Francisco at the US rollout next week?” I first imagined
myself as Steve McQueen fishtailing with his Mustang but then settled on playing
Don Adams screeching to a halt halfway down a San Francisco hillside in a 2008
Smart. 
I
arrived on a Monday afternoon to find 30 Smarts, about half of them Cabrio's,
lined up in a parking lot just down from the airport. Wow, I hadn’t seen this
many Smarts since a trip to England a few years back whereupon I fell in love –
with the car. So much so, I still keep a tattered Smart ad from a British
Airways magazine nearby. I immediately paired up with another journalist and
went driving to San Jose in these little cars to the Computer Museum where we
had lunch and got an eyeful of all the concept cars, drawings and, well yes, old
computers. But you’re probably still asking: “what is a Cabrio?” Or better yet,
why is it called 
panoramic
roof of the next model, the Passion, starting at $13,590. This model offers
everything you would want to get in the Pure for a scant 2 grand more, that
being Air Conditioning, Radio, Alloy wheels, Paddle shifters for the 5-speed
automatic transmission, optional power steering and other options. At the top of
the heap is the Cabrio, which I have personally reserved, which, in addition to
the Passion features, has a premium sound system with sub-woofer and a cool
electrically operated convertible top that can be pulled back at any speed. 
The
engine, a three cylinder, 1-liter, 70 hp gasoline powerplant for the US is built
in partnership with Mitsubishi. The recommended oil change is an ecologically
friendly 12,000 miles, but a negative point is that Smart recommends premium
gas. I had this small engine revving up at 6-7000 rpm in the test drive and as
would be expected it pulls strongest in the high revs. The engine is hooked to
an unusual 5-speed electrically shifted transmission with an electric clutch –
not a torque converter! While this adds to gas mileage it gives the car a
slightly “scootery” feel when it takes off as the computer lets the clutch out.
the
backs of the seats, Smart claims 7.8 cubic feet of stowage. If you go to the
ceiling you can cram 12 cubic feet of beanbags in this car! Fortunately, the
passenger seat can fold all the way forward to add additional storage. Somewhat
unique is a little storage area embedded in the tailgate. This is used to store
the top rails when the top is down or an optional emergency kit. There is no
spare tire on this car, just Penske roadside service for two years and
fix-a-flat solution for leakers. Not to worry, they solved a similar wheel
problem in the original “Lovebug” movie and that car was a whole lot heavier!
The
number one comment I get whenever anyone sees the picture of a Smart in my
office is “that has got to be a death trap! Can you imagine me hitting that with
my Excursion?” Safety is obviously the big hurdle to get over with this car in
the US market. I believe Mercedes has done some great things to make this car
survivable in many bad situations. We met with Sr. Manager Karl-Heinz Baumann of
Mercedes-Benz Development, who (with the help of several large screens playing
endless loops of these little cars getting trashed in side frontal, rear impact
and roll-over scenarios) talked in detail about some less obvious features. Let
me summarize what I came away with:
The
SUV running the red light factor is certainly a concern and I am not sure
what the outcome will be. Mercedes is trying hard here. The Smart has front
and side airbags, but I was impressed with the seats. They have a
significant roll bar like structure built into the rear, which can further
protect human bodies from side impacts and rear impacts. Baumann pointed out
that because the wheelbase is so small, there is a high likelihood that one
or both wheel/axle assemblies will absorb a side impact. The doors also have
a significant reinforcement bar running horizontal through them.
I
am still not sure about the raw economics of this first American Smart. For its
base price, there are quite a few small cars nearby with more doors and more
room and similar fuel economy. But they don’t have the cool factor and that will
certainly sell the first 50,000. I also concerned about the relatively short
24,000 mile/2 year warranty. And will Mercedes break tradition to provide
service without charging an arm and a leg? At this point only a good detective
knows for sure. As for me, I can overlook all these factors, my only problem is…
what do I do with that other “Smart” car in the garage?