Mercedes Tries To Jump-Start Stranded Smart Sales

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Having taken over sales and distribution of the Smart brand from Penske and canceled a planned Nissan Micra rebadge, Mercedes is trying to inject some life into its flagging city car brand (Sales are down 24% YTD, at 2,556 units) with a new marketing campaign (coming this fall) and finance offers. Smart’s new General Manager Tracey Matura explains the problem to Automotive News [sub], saying

People are not avoiding the brand or the product, but there is a great majority of people who are not aware of the brand

Really? People don’t know or notice a brand that’s in its fourth year of US sales, offering a car that’s unlike any other on the market? It seems to me that the problem isn’t awareness, as the term “Smart Car” is almost universally synonymous with “hilariously tiny car,” even among non-expert consumers. The problem seems more precisely to be that Smart is neither as cheap nor as efficient as larger rivals, and American consumers are constitutionally resistant to the idea of paying more for less (a point that VW seems to be proving in spades). More promising: $179/month lease and finance deals backed by Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, not to mention the decision to ditch the snottier-than-thou Penske campaign embedded above. But even new ads and good deals aren’t likely to make Smart a truly viable brand in the US until new product arrives in 2014, hopefully in a more efficient, enjoyable-to-drive form. Or unless gas prices spike again, causing a 2008-style rush for conspicuously downsized vehicles.


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Axual Axual on Jul 12, 2011

    There is nothing about a Smart car that is smart. It's tiny, it get's astonishingly poor mileage, it looks like a toy, and is expensive for what you get. Calling people dumb is not smart, and projecting the vehicle is an answer to dumbness is even dumber.

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    • Pch101 Pch101 on Jul 12, 2011
      it get’s astonishingly poor mileage Honestly, I don't know where some of you folks get this stuff. According to the EPA, the Smart gets the best fuel economy of any non-hybrid gas-powered car sold in the US. You can love it or hate it, but fuel economy is not one of its weaknesses.
  • Focal Focal on Jul 12, 2011

    had the car as a loaner for a few days when my MB was in the shop. the Smart wasn't as bad as it is made out to be. the transmission: automated manual so it's pretty rough at first if you drive it like an automatic, but if you lift off the gas when the gear change is happening it smooths out the ride a lot. Just like a manual storage: shocked...we fit two full golf bags and two travel bags on a short day trip...we could easily see out the back window. We could have fitted more. not much worse than a MINI cooper with it's back seats up. handling/ride: nothing great but not horrible. image: you look REALLY SILLY in this car

    • Roundel Roundel on Jul 12, 2011

      Thank you for actually driving one and forming an opinion from that, instead of most here who have't gone near one.

  • Glenn Mercer Glenn Mercer on Jul 12, 2011

    I completely agree: it is all about parking. A Mercedes exec told me that smart's highest local market share globally was in Rome, and given what it is like to park there, it makes sense. If I were smart (boy is that a straight line...) I'd push the parking thing, hard, as other advantages of the car are minimal at best. I own one and my wife, who is a professional musician, always drives it to gigs she is playing in, since even if the concert-goers have snapped up every parking space in sight, she can always find a spot with the smart (and yup, it does easily hold a cello). One does have to admit that the market segment of parking-constrained-and-with-cello is possibly not large enough to build a business case on.... (grin)

    • Srogers Srogers on Jul 12, 2011

      So would you recommend that I get a Smart to go to bluegrass jams with my banjo?

  • Zackman Zackman on Jul 12, 2011

    If you can get a banjo to fit, why not?

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