"404 - User No Longer Available" (toni-cipriani)
10/24/2018 at 11:56 • Filed to: Smart
0
10|
"404 - User No Longer Available" (toni-cipriani)
10/24/2018 at 11:56 • Filed to: Smart | 0
| 10 |
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Might replace it with a flexible platform to be shared with the larger cars, it seems. But I kinda doubt they will be as small.
HammerheadFistpunch
> 404 - User No Longer Available
10/24/2018 at 12:03 |
|
SMART as a brand, much like MINI as a brand doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. A small fun runabout should be a model, not something you build a brand around.
ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
> HammerheadFistpunch
10/24/2018 at 12:13 |
|
Have you seen the Mini Countryman?
|
HammerheadFistpunch
> ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
10/24/2018 at 12:14 |
|
You mean the BMW x1?
For Sweden
> HammerheadFistpunch
10/24/2018 at 12:14 |
|
Yet without a Mercedes-Benz consumer badge, you have to make SMART a badge.
|
ItalianJobR53 - now with added 'MERICA and unreliability
> HammerheadFistpunch
10/24/2018 at 12:16 |
|
Toymato Tomato
Mercedes Streeter
> HammerheadFistpunch
10/24/2018 at 12:19 |
|
The best explanation I’ve read to why smart exists as a brand and not just as a model (or bunch of models, considering smart’s history) is because MB wanted to use smart to do funky car experiments without fear of harming the core MB brand. After all, they wanted to make a roofless city car, a micro-Jeep, a roadster inspired by old Brit roadsters, a funky SUV, a rolling lounge, and other concepts that didn’t see more than a functional show car.
|
HammerheadFistpunch
> Mercedes Streeter
10/24/2018 at 12:30 |
|
That made sense in the time when SMART was birthed. It doesn’t now, just ask SCION.
|
Mercedes Streeter
> 404 - User No Longer Available
10/24/2018 at 12:33 |
|
I mean...so they’ll just make a smaller A Class?
I’m not surprised and honestly I’m wondering why it’ll even take up to ten years. MB was expecting the 453 generation to be the smart that turned opinions on the brand around. Sure, smart became profitable with the 451, however the cars were still getting panned by reviewers and regular people alike.
Despite the 453 getting generally positive reviews across the board, the European home market and US sales responses have been very disappointing. The 453's best sales year didn’t beat the 451's best year and sales have been down YOY ever since. Worse, smart’s best year on record for the fortwo model was in the early 2000s with a solid lead that no year after could come close to beating. The statistics don’t lie, general interest in smart is waning. It seems MB has been relying heavily on smart’s increasing popularity in China to pump up sales. However, one day interest will wane there as well.
I believe smart’s problem is lack of innovation. A new 453 will cost you about as much as a Honda Civic, but you’ll get half the tech, half the car, and no true tangible benefit outside of the quirky looks and easy parking.
|
Mercedes Streeter
> HammerheadFistpunch
10/24/2018 at 12:53 |
|
I mean, it could make sense if MB didn’t allow the brand to stagnate. Much like Toyota with Scion, MB started with a novel concept, had some fun with it...then couldn’t keep the momentum going. Though, perhaps it was inevitable because both brands didn’t seem to have long term sustainable models.
Jason Spears
> HammerheadFistpunch
10/24/2018 at 19:39 |
|
I wonder how Genesis is getting on. I never hear them mentioned.