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His biggest concern was servicing that must be done at a Mercedes dealer and they seem to "find" additional service work that they say 'needs to be done'.
My Dad was all set to buy a Smart and then the Mercedes dealer said it needed $400CAD worth of service every 8000km (5000mi) and $800 worth of service every 16,000km. It was the deal breaker!
Two climate control systems, one inside and the other at the tailpipe.
2007 Camry Hybrid (in service June 2006)
2004 Sienna (in service May 2003)
My Dad was all set to buy a Smart and then the Mercedes dealer said it needed $400CAD worth of service every 8000km (5000mi) and $800 worth of service every 16,000km. It was the deal breaker!
Well well I have heard this story before.....smart Canada/Mercedes-Benz Canada have revised their A and B Service pricing: A Services will cost $120 CAD including synthetic oil and filter, and B Services will cost $169 CAD including synthetic oil, filter and air filter, at ANY dealer in Canada as of two weeks ago.
For me, that is a reduction of about $15 on an A Service and a reduction of about $75 on a B Service. In other words, the estimates you got were a joke. Literally.
The smart determines what the actual service interval is going to be, and it is 10,500 km in my case. It depends upon how you drive the car. 8000 km is the default.
It won't be a new network; Penske will sell the smart at selected existing car dealers: Mercedes, Toyota, Dodge, etc, all under the smart brand.
If D-C takes the SmartCar seriously, it will probably sell. This is *definately* a niche car, but you can be profitable with a niche car if you know what you're doing. GM would royally screw this up, of course. But D-C might have a shot.
I would think the that D-C would have to train their dealers HOW to sell this car. An 800 pound, 2-seat vehicle that's only 4' wide and 9' long certainly isn't for everyone. It probably isn't suitable as a primary vehicle either. But as a secondary car (ie commuter car), it's got the FE advantage and ludicrously easy to park.
Is there a website similar to the fuel economy .gov that rates cars from all countries? I keep hearing about cleaner diesel cars in Europe and Argentina (bio-fuel) - I would like to see stats on cars from all counties.
Thanks,
Here's a link to VCA figures as refered to in the UK - most of the top figures are set by small european diesels.
It won't be a new network; Penske will sell the smart at selected existing car dealers: Mercedes, Toyota, Dodge, etc, all under the smart brand.
Umm, I think we're crossing our terms. Daimler Chrysler have said it will be a new network:
Quote:
Former race car driver Roger Penske has signed on to develop a network of up to 50 Smart dealerships across the U.S.
I agree with you that these are likely to be existing dealerships, even if Smart insists on separate brick-and-mortar buildings, but they won't be sold through the Mercedes or Dodge networks. That means a whole new organization. If they just slapped a Dodge logo on it, they'd avoid that rigamarole.
An 800 pound, 2-seat vehicle that's only 4' wide and 9' long certainly isn't for everyone.
If my smart weighed 800 lbs, I'd be winning drag races against VW GTIs. The truth is they typically weigh 730-740 kg, or 1620-1640 lbs. Also, the car is 5' wide, excluding mirrors.
A good sales model for Penske to follow would be Three Point Motors in Victoria BC Canada.
There, Mercedes-Benz and smart are on the same lot, but smart has a separate and funkier showroom. Most CDN M-B dealers have the smarts off in a dark corner somewhere, in the Benz showroom. Amazing really, that some of the dealers manage to sell any cars.....and yet sales are up 14-20% over last year, in recent months.....
Re: Smart Car
Two climate control systems, one inside and the other at the tailpipe. 
Would-be hypermiler
