DaimlerChrysler driven round the bend by not-so-smart car Friday, January 29, 1999 from Dispatch Online

HAMBURG -- DaimlerChrysler's innovative Smart minicar is driving its makers to distraction with niggling faults, handling quirks and a costly bill for modification. It was announced this week that the stubby little two-door car will now be recalled and fitted with a revised electronic traction control system called "Trust Plus" to stop it careering off icy roads.

The development could hardly be more embarrassing for the German-US DaimlerChrysler conglomerate whose German half is still licking its wounds after the luckless introduction of another small car, the A-class saloon.

That model was retro-fitted last year with an electronic box of tricks after its failure to cope with a low speed avoidance manoeuvre called the "Elk Test" led to bad publicity across the nation.

Electronics are coming to the aid of the hapless Smart too but the damage to the car's image may have already been done.

The Smart, which does not carry Daimler's famous three-pointed star, has received plenty of publicity in Germany but not always of the kind DaimlerChrysler would like to see.

A photo in Der Spiegel magazine this week shows an up-ended Smart in a pile of snow next to a Swiss highway "sitting on its backside like a little circus elephant".

What may look comical in print is no laughing matter for Daimler subsidiary MCC (Micro Compact Car) which produces the car at a custom-built factory in Hambach just over the border from Germany in France.

No sooner was the Smart ready for the showrooms than its creator, idiosyncratic Swiss watch entrepreneur Nicolas Hayek, sold his stake in MCC -- leaving DaimlerChrysler to go it alone.

When it finally arrived the car, which has only two seats and minimum luggage space, was mauled by the motoring press.

They said it was unrefined and cramped inside.

"It can't even carry a crate of beer properly," one tester lamented.

Owner Frank Kasper of Hamburg is happy with his Smart which draws crowds when parked in the city centre.

"It tends to oversteer a little but it does not feel dangerous," said Kasper who has been driving a Smart for just over two weeks.

More irritating are the traces of surface rust already visible on the suspension.

Although sales have been fairly brisk, with several car hire firms taking sizeable contingents, the Smart fared poorly in comparative tests with conventional compacts from Volkswagen and Ford.

A Nissan Micra and a Mercedes A-class completed the same test satisfactorily.

"It really drives you to despair," Der Spiegel quoted top DaimlerChrysler manager Juergen Hubbert as saying.

The problems are particularly galling for DaimlerChrysler since it risks losing public sympathy gained after the A-class debacle. Back then Daimler, which has often been perceived as arrogant, scored points by admitting its mistakes and doing everything to put them right.

One small consolation for DaimlerChrysler is that the Smart which disgraced itself in Switzerland did so because it was not fitted with the correct winter tyres and not because of a handling fault. -- Sapa-DPA