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cars in Europe |
Broadcast
date : 20th May 2007 |
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The name smart is an interesting
one. Originally it stood for Swatch Mercedes Art Car, after
the Swiss watch company, Swatch, conceived the idea for a
bare-bones modern city car.
The original smart car company soon ran out of money and was
bailed out by DaimlerChrysler. Thanks to this bold bit of
risk-taking, 750 000 people have gone the smart route since
1998.
It’s a car that makes plenty of sense for the packed inner
cities of Europe, and another bold move was to sell it as a
piece of automotive jewelry, rather than a bargain-bin econo-box.
The yuppies loved the style of the car, and the mix of
hi-tech-with-minimalism. Thus you get a fuel-miserly 700 cc
turbocharged three-cylinder engine that can sip combustibles
at the rate of 5 litres per hundred.
But you also get a fair degree of crash protection and driver
aids, as well as a sequential-shift Electro-hydraulic gearbox.
This eliminates the clutch pedal for stop-start city motoring.
The smart has been on sale here since 2002. Initially motoring
experts, including the team at Car Torque, were skeptical,
what with South African wide-open spaces and all.
Negatives for us pragmatic South Africans included a high list
price. This ranges between R120 000 and R148 000, depending on
the model chosen, and Father Time gearchanges which were also
jerky.
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But sales peaked at between 500 and 600 per year initially. To
date just under two-thousand smart ForTwos have been sold
here.
And there’s even an enthusiastic smart owners club in
Gauteng. Or is that a smart enthusiastic owner’s club?
The final edition of the current smart ForTwo, launched for
the European market, is known as the Edition Red.
Since 2002 DaimlerChrysler’s smart division has produced
special Brabus versions and this saw power increase from 45 to
55 kiloWatts.
Leather and alcantara cloth with special stitching, as well as
detailing of the safety cell in the passenger compartment
denote this final Brabus model, which smart sees becoming a
collector’s item in time to come.
The Brabus smart with its wider wheels, and extra trim is said
to accelerate to a 100 km/h in under 13 seconds, and have a
top speed of 150 km/h.
The Edition Red model was produced as a taster for the new
smart ForTwo, which has made its debut in Europe. But it won’t
be seen in right-hand-drive countries like England and South
Africa until September this year.
The new smart will actually not be that different to
the original. Like the recently-launched Mini, you will have
to be a bit of an anorak to note the details.
A new nose and an overall length increased by 200 mm are the
key distinguishing factors.
DaimlerChrysler have sourced a new one-litre engine from its
Mitsubishi stable for the smart, which is a smart idea, as it
means slightly increased performance from a less-stressed
engine.
When the new smart goes on sale here, it’ll be in a
different motoring environment to the one it explored back in
2003.
With a reported 800 cars a day being added to the Gauteng
motoring grid, the smart’s overall length of 2,7 metres will
suddenly make a lot more sense.
If DaimlerChrysler in South Africa can keep the price down to
reasonable limits, the smart may well be considered a smart
move in the next couple of years.
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