Mercedes dealer council chairman says MB dealers in the States do not want to sell Smart Cars in their Mercedes show room. It may hurt their image. Does this mean that MB buyers are not “smart”? Which brings up the old but true joke: What do you say Mercedes in German?………………………………. Taxi.
Yes, MB are well built cars, the top end models are very exclusive, but they also sell basic models that are good for basic transportation, including used as Taxis in Germany. So what exact image does the MB dealers want to project?
source: leftlanenews.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
When I first say the Smart Car in Germany, last year I thought that one day soon I would like to on one…. I have since changed my mind due to the price of the car… I don’t believe that the Smart Car is worth $24,000 US … the only thing it has going for it is that it is “cute”… there are other small cars that are almost half the price and get about the same if not better gas mileage
I am currently looking at the Scion… the box shaped front wheel drive vehicle that Toyota makes and sells for around $12,000 US… with extras.. it would probably go up another $4,000.
MB… you might want to reconsider … wasn’t it BMW that used to sell a car way back when that looked similar to the Smart Car… but it only had three wheels and opened in the front??? Also, isn’t BMW doing pretty good sales with the (slipped my mind) that tiny little car which was featured in “The Itallian Job”…
MBUSA should be very excited about selling Smart cars.
They’re not really selling anything else at the moment.
How else are they going to occupy themselves?
The little car now made by BMW is the Mini.
http://www.mini.com They still sell them. It was originally a British owned company. The newer Mini Cooper is way cool and they have even cooler variations.
The earlier little car made by BMW was the Isetta. I read that they might make a modern version of it. I have seen photos of it and it looks nice.
I have a Smart Car. I bought it at a Smart center that has a Mercedes dealer attached to it; one can walk from the Smart show room to the Mercedes show room without going out doors.
http://www.smartcenteredison.com Ray Catena has a service center that sets the ‘gold standard’ for service. I have the Pure. The sticker price (2008) was $11,590.00. It was way cheaper than what ZAP wanted to sell them for.