United Auto Group will be the sole U.S. distributor of Smart Cars

United Auto Group (UAG) will become Daimler Chrysler’s sole U.S. distributor of Smart Cars. UAG is the number 2 U.S. public dealer group in terms of sales, with a collection of about 180 U.S. retail franchises. UAG also have dealerships in Europe. UAG will purchase cars built by DaimlerChrysler in German plants at a fixed margin and then sell the vehicles to various dealers and dealer groups.

UAG plans to start with 30 to 50 Smart car dealerships, and eventually expand to more than 100. They will sell Smart cars both in existing Mercedes Benz dealer ships, and construct new stores just for the Smart cars.

On a related note, DaimlerChrysler has selected BBDO to handle the Smart Car brand in the U.S.