Edit - new info:

We had our 2002 C 230 K Mercedes-Benz serviced in Victoria today and during the wait we spoke with one of the salesmen and he informed us that:

1) the smart city-coupé and cabrio will be in the showrooms in September 2003, only in Diesel form;

2) the smart forfour 4WD vehicle will be available in the 2005 model year.

We did not ask the obvious questions (because the salesman was busy with other customers): why no gas engine in the smart and what about the roadster?

edit
It seems that the definite problem is the lack of a fuel vapour recovery system on the gas-powered smart. That's presumably why the Mercedes-Benz engineers are assisting smart in the fuel system redesign - M-B cars sold in N America all have it so they know how to do the job.

The info I now have is that this redesign should be completed by 2004 at which time the gas-powered smart will become available in both the USA and Canada. The USA will apparently not get the smart cdi Diesel though, too bad.

Has anyone got any reliable information on this?