Has the SMART car made it over there to stateside yet?

They are everywhere over here in Europe. Funny looking things as they are not even longer than the hood portion of my 560SEL. (not to mention I almost ran over a few).

 

ha ha Yes. They are in states. They are being sold at Mercedes-Benz dealers. Brabus the tunning company has tuned a couple already. A couple people in my area have them in yellow.

 

smart has been in Canada since MY 2005. 2005 thru 2007 were all diesel but the 2008 is gas since MB decided to head to the US after the successful Canadian launch. They are a familiar sight in Toronto and oversold MB expectations by a hugh margin even before gas prices were an issue. Small cars have beena reality in Canada (best selling car is a Honda Civic) whereas the US still loves large cars. Gas prices to-day are $1.36 per litre ($5.14/US gal).

 

I understand that the diesel Smart car does not comply with EPA rules for emission. The emission rules in Europe are different. According to MB, the diesel gets 75 mpg! I was in Germany last year and saw them everywhere.

 

Are there any plans of modifying the diesel to meet EPA standards? I would definately buySmart if they offered a diesel! This Civic is solame. lol

 

We always lose out on the cool cars. Even Australia gets some nice ones. But we get stuck with SUVs, Ford and Chevy! I'll admit though, seeing the Saturn Astra was great

 

We do lose out on some stuff mostly because of the laws hee in America. The Mercedes V Class, Nissan Skyline(pain in the *** to get over here) the old 500SEL, HSV Coupe GTS, Thickford TS50 and a lot of other cool European cars.

 

I wonder what are these laws? seems like some are tailored made to avoid certain cars from coming here. And some should be defunct.
Maybe the whole plan was to set it so that we would get stuck with SUVs chevy and Ford.

Yet maybe the SUV part kinda backfired as they aint selling too well and people seem to be starting to takea liking to them small jap cars.

Even though the Skyline isnt nor probably never will be my type/style of car, it is something and sad that many of the pita to get and even more of a pita to get on the road legally once ya get it over here.

I think you can import the old 500sel with relative ease (compared to importing a euro new S-class) but the issue is finding one now. Even in Europe they are rare as hell and when ya do find one, the owner usually have no intentions of getting rid of it or it's half past dead.

I guess sometimes it's the fear of certain vehicles wont do well in an American taste (i'e and Audi A6 station wagen, mercedes vans, Bmw 1 series four door, and others which are common sight in Euro) Or maybe they dont think there is really enough market demand. Like if they sell the skyline (not including the new GT-R), i think it would be a hit especially among tuners but at what price and at what amount of the skyline's character would have to be sacrificed to meet the "us standards".


I dont think mercedes would bother modifying the diesel to meet epa standards for the SMart car. Which would probably explain why there isnt really many recent mercedes diesels in the states, while all mercedes models have a diesel version out there.

As much as the civic is good on gas, that seems to be just about the only positive and for the price I rather buy somethiing else and rather sacrifice gas mileage for a bit more appeal to me, comfort, and fit for me. I dotn want a car that I yan everytime I think about driving it. I want a car that I can stand by and proudly say, "yes, that's my car." basically I want a car I like and will be willing to sacrifice a few gas mileage to get one that I like over something I dislike with good gas mileage. If it ever gets to a point where gas mileage is the only thing I have to look at, that means I rather hang up my keys and ride a bike to work and keep the gas hog V-12 in garage for weekend activities. To me, gas is just another form of car expense. And if I cant afford a few dollar increase then I probably cant afford a car and even the gas sippers are exspensive to buy. Hmmm I can choose between a Prius, about $25,000 or a 1999 S-Class $14,000 around. $9,000 is hell of a lot of gas.

 

They are cool.

 

well Ford is coming up with a new car called the Fiesta, the car gets north of 65 mpg. But US residents wont get it because its "too expensive" for Ford to sell it in the US.....

Go figure