From Globe and Mail (Toronto), Thursday Feb 12, 2004:

TORONTO -- Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. wants Canadians to get smart.

In fact, the auto maker thinks about 800 Canadians will get smart later this year when it begins offering its two-seater micro-compact cars here for the first time -- a move that both broadens Mercedes-Benz's product offering and heightens the growing competition in the small-car market in Canada.

Adding the smart brand to Mercedes-Benz traditional offerings of luxury sedans, coupes and sports cars moves the company deeper into mass market territory and considerably lower in price than the heart of its product offerings in the $30,000 and $40,000 range.

"I want to bring different people to the dealerships and make them familiar with the new styles of Mercedes," Marcus Breitschwerdt, president of Mercedes-Benz Canada, said in an interview yesterday at the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto.

For some time, Mercedes-Benz has been studying the idea of expanding the market for smart -- the company is marketing it with the lower case s -- a unique, European city car that is highly fuel-efficient and will be easy to park in tight spaces.

"I personally fought for it," Mr. Breitschwerdt said. "I'm convinced it will be a success here."

"Canada is not a single market," he said, pointing to Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto as obvious cities where it will be appealing, but also to Calgary, Winnipeg and other large urban areas as natural markets.

The two-seater, just 2.5 metres long, will be sold in coupe and convertible versions beginning this fall with the coupe possibly starting as low as $15,000, Mr. Breitschwerdt said, and the convertible at less than $20,000, although final prices haven't been set yet.

It will be sold in a diesel version only with a 40-horsepower engine that consumes 3.5 litres of fuel for every 100 kilometres travelled.

Top speed is 120 kilometres an hour.

Mercedes' product lineup will now extend from the two-seater up to the $359,000 (U.S.) Maybach limousine with its built-in cigar humidor and the $450,000 SLR super sports car.

Mr. Breitschwerdt said he expects to sell 1,000 vehicles of the current version of the smart in 2005.

Smart has interchangeable door panels that allow owners to personalize their vehicles and change the colours whenever they want.

The cars are put together in a leading-edge factory in France, where parts suppliers, including Canadian giant Magna International Inc., assemble major components in a campus-like setting and ship to an assembly plant to which they're connected by conveyor belts.

The smart forfour, a sport utility vehicle version assembled at a factory in Brazil, will be sold in Canada later this decade.

"There's definitely a market for this in Canada," said industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. in Richmond Hill, Ont. "There's a market for any product that's unique."

It's a European-style vehicle that will do better in Canada than the United States, Mr. DesRosiers said. That's in part because gas prices in Canada are much closer to European levels, and Canadians buy proportionately more compact and subcompact cars than Americans. Those two segments combined racked up sales of 471,000 cars last year, or 29.5 per cent of the entire Canadian vehicle market.

South of the border, mid-sized cars represent the largest segment, followed by pickup trucks.

The competition in the subcompact segment in Canada has grown in recent years as Toyota Canada Inc. and General Motors of Canada Ltd., try to recapture market share taken by two South Korean-based auto makers, Hyundai Auto Canada and Kia Motors Canada.

 

OK, while there will be a problem getting it serviced outside of Canada I'll bet more than a few of those cars will end up Stateside. Anyone recall what the use in US requirements are for Canadian registered vehicles? I assume as long as it is licensed in Canada and is not being imported to the US that one can come and go across the border without any problem?

 

Any foreigner can enter the USA with a foreign-registered car for a few months (3 or 6) without it having to conform to US regs. If it breaks down in the US, I imagine M-B Canada and MB USA will have some sort of arrangement in place, either for simple repairs in the US or for vehicle recovery to Canada.

If anyone wanted to bring the car in to register in the USA, it might be marginally easier to get a Canadian market smart to conform to US regs than a European market one. But there would still be some difficulties. You would need a MPH speedo, the Diesel engine might not conform to US EPA emission regulations (though the car does up to 80 MPG US). Then again, it might, as the VW TDI makes it in, so the smart cdi might too.

Check out the Canadian smart car website:
www.so-smart.ca/index.cfm

 

Non-US residents are allowed to bring a vehicle with them while traveling in the US for up to 1 year.
Importing a vehicle (less than 25 years old) will be required to meet all DOT and EPA requirements.
If its a Canadian vehicle, it needs a proof from the manufacturer stating the vehicle meets all the requirements in the U.S.
If it doesn't meet the requirements or the manufacturer won't provide the proof, then the car MUST be imported (modified to meet requirements) by a Registered Importer (RI)

 

I went to the Toronto Auto Show this past Sunday. Strangely enough the car I most eagerly wanted to see was the Smart.

Perhaps the car appeals to the environmentalist side in me (leave some oil in the ground for my young daughters to use when they grow up...). As I also live and work in Toronto it could be very practical for commuting, yup I know, public transit (TTC), is still probably better than me driving the Smart, but at least I could have personal space....

Smart is really sharp looking in person, I would certainly feel no econobox stigma driving in that.

Only hitch is that I'm 6'3" and that if it wasn't for the convertible top, I would probably have to slouch in the car...

Well at least my conscience can rest in peace that I at least did look at the car.

 

loungeliz,

Were you able to sit in the smart at the TO show?

I too am 6'3" and much of that height is above the hips (long back).

I drove two different smarts on Vancouver Island in the summer of 2002, one Cabriolet and one glass-roofed version. I must say that there was not even the slightest of problems with headroom in either for me. Same with legrom, elbow room etc.

Was the model on display at the car show the Canadian version or just a EU one with maple leaves all over it? I have been wondering how smart and MB Canada were going to deal with our 5 MPH bumper laws we still have in Canada. If they got an exemption that would be best, as a bumper would ruin the unique lines of the "bubble".

I am also curious about the warranty that will be offered here. Unless it's the same as the M-B warranty (4/80K full etc plus 130 K powertrain), some will be scared off by the reported fragility of the engine (though gas versions seem to be more affected than the cdi Diesels).

See: www.smart-base.de for more info on that.

 

>Were you able to sit in the smart at the TO show?
Yup, I was able to sit in the Smart at the MB booth. They had 3 on display + Transport Canada had 1 on display (though you could not sit in this one).

>I too am 6'3" and much of that height is above the hips (long back).
Hmm... I guess everyone is proportioned a little different. But, I'd like to think I don't have much shorter legs than an average 6'3" person... Maybe it was in the positioning of the seats. Perhaps there is a height adjuster?? I didn't have time to check as, the Smart cars were quite popular, and I didn't want to monopolize...

Though I have to agree, legroom, elbow, etc. Were all fine. If the seat does have height adjustment then that could account for lack of headroom...

>Was the model on display at the car show the Canadian version or just a EU one with maple leaves all over it?
hmm, not too sure on this. But I would have to imagine there are negligible differences between the euro version and the one we get. If MB only going to import 800-1000/yr, that's not a lot of volume to be spreading out custom Canadian model costs. There were a total of 4 cars, with one of them being the one covered in mapel leaves.

OK, How were you so fortunate to be able to drive a Smart???

When my lease is up next year, the choices will be interesting. My last vehicle was a Ford Expedition, nice and big, but I certianly can't say that I NEED anything that big. My conscience is not giving me much breathing room. Hopefully the A-class or smart forfour can be here by end of next year. Smart is nice, but I think I need another stepping stone before I get there...

Doug

 

Three Point Motors in Victoria and Nanaimo both had the smart for about a week in July 2002. The Victoria outlet had the psychadelic blue cabriolet in "passion" trim, with 52 HP gas engine, and later the Nanaimo outlet had a silver city-coupé.

The cars had dealer's plates on them, BC reg, and the dealers were offering test drives as long as you put your name on a list and selected a particular time. They were not letting the cars leave the dealership without a salesman in the passenger seat, which meant that my wife and I had to do separate test drives. In Victoria it was fairly short, maybe a 7 km loop through the city. Everyone was gawking.

In Nanaimo I was able to do a longer test drive, about 15 km in a suburban area, again with a salesman next to me.

I posted on this message board my detailed impressions at the time and if you look in the older postings you should find it.

After the two test drives, the salesman in Victoria told me a few days later that they had found out that M-B Canada was very upset with them for letting customers loose in the cars, because technically it was illegal for anyone other than M-B personnel to drive the car for "testing" purposes, as they did not conform to Transport Canada regulations. so when the cars went over to Vancouver, no-one was allowed to drive them

I think this was a case of the dealer stepping a little over the line to generate interest in the cars and get some deposits. I made one too though I withdrew it 18 months later because I thought smart was never coming here and we need a new family sedan anyway.

So I'll probably be buying a 2004 Corolla (which I actually like the look of) and putting the smart project on the back burner. Had I been able to buy one in late 2002 as originally promised by the dealer, my daily driver 405 would have a lot more life left in it and I'd have got away with it, with the sedan as a back-up for family occasions.

 

I have had second thoughts about buying a Corolla and have turned instead to the smart and keeping my old 405 as a back up family car.

I was at the Vancouver Auto Show last weekend and we got to look at three of the four smarts that were at the Toronto Auto Show. We had the maple leaf mactac one and a silver cabriolet, both cdi cars plus the old Transport Canada (gas-powered) one. I went with a friend who is a bit of a sceptic (and a Toyota fan) and he came away from the smart cabriolet very impressed.

The crowd around the smart cars was unbelievable, these cars were undoubtedly the stars of the show.

 

I just placed an order for one. It's going to be a wedding gift to my fiance. :p

 

You mean a deposit, or did they actually take an order?

Cabrio or glass-top?

Getting married in the fall? Congrats!

 

Will they take deposits from Yanks?

 

I paid the deposit and I shall have the first few in town in Sept/Oct. The car wont start building until Jul/Aug.

I ordered the Cabrio.

Yes, getting married in Oct, hopefully the car will make it by then.

 

They certainly won't for cars that are sold both here and in the USA. But I don't know what they'd do about the smart, since it's coming to Canada only. give a dealer a call....

Whether the smart would be registrable in the USA is another question....

I know the Toyota Echo Hatch is, and it's a Canada-only model too. But I wouldn't take that to the bank, concerning the smart.

 

My dealer in Victoria (Three Point Motors) is offering three days of road tests on the smart fortwo cdi and I'll be testing one on the 17th of April. I'll post here about the experience.

I liked the fortwo gas versions I drove a couple of years ago; we'll see how the TD fares...

 

my friend and I just ordered it

left a $1000 deposit. should be a fun little car project :p

 

Cool.

Cabrio or glass-top?

What do you mean "project"? Are you going to turn it into a show car?

 

Hard Top.

yup super show car just for fun

 

So what are you gonna do to it?