Smart celebrates its 10th anniversary

[spdickey]

http://wot.motortrend.com/6269191/au...ary/index.html





They grow up so fast don't they? It seems like it was just yesterday that they rolled into our lives, and look now, this one is almost 1800 pounds! Yes, celebrating its 10th birthday is not a gigantic child, but a super small car, the smart fortwo. The smart fortwo, which actually started life as a design for the "car of the future" in the 1970s, officially hit showrooms in October 1998, and has managed to stay around because of its charmingly practical appeal -- or the prospect of being able to use an oversized refrigerator box as your garage.

Throughout its youth, the smart car was designed and destined for Europe. After engineers at Mercedes created some designs for the super-compact automobile in the 1970s, Nicolas G. Hayek (the inventor of the Swatch) partnered with Merc to develope the tiny coupe with the goal of easy city driving in mind. The world premiere for the Smart took place in Frankfurt in 1997, followed by the establishment of the assembly line in the French town of Hambach. Today, the smart has found its way all around the world, including the U.S., and is now available in 32 countries.

There have been several other models produced by the Daimler AG owned Smart company but none as successful or longlasting as the smart fortwo coupe. Two failed experiments included the smart roadster-coupe and four-seat smart forfour which came onto the automotive scene in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Both were down and out by mid-2006. The relatively young automotive maker also developed two concept vehicles, the 2002 smart crossblade and 2005 smart crosstown show car. The crossblade was missing some useful parts like the roof, doors and windshield and the crosstown exhibited a 'trendsetting' hybrid drive system.

Smart now relies on its virtues of extreme fuel economy and environmental friendliness for sales and offers several different engine choices ranging from an 'I can definitely walk faster than this' 61 horsepower engine to a 'that guy on his bicycle just passed me again' 98 horsepower turbocharged BRABUS tuned engine. All options are three cylinders and they all sit in the back of the car. For ultimate tree hugging action Smart also offers the smart fortwo cdi which develops 45 horses but can travel about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) before refueling.

After ten years this kid still has tiny feet so he can't play games with the big boys, but those same tiny feet give him something that prospective buyers are very interested in. A tiny carbon footprint.

Source: Smart

[jwight]

When's the party!

[donnyonee]

Happy Birthday Smart! 10 years old, lets celebrate! - SoCal Smarties (Los Angeles, CA) - Meetup.com