Do Swatch Makers Have “Smart” Car? Published: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1997 By Barry James

FRANKFURT: The first sight that greets visitors to the Frankfurt auto show is a large glass tower containing 16 curious, brightly colored automobiles stacked on top of one another.

It looks like a watch display in a department store, and the resemblance is probably intentional, for this is the long-awaited "Smart" car produced in eastern France by Daimler-Benz AG from a concept developed by Swiss Watch Co., which is known by the initials SMH.

The Smart car is the size of an electric golf cart, but its developers say it can carry two passengers and their luggage in comfort, reach a highway speed of 130 kilometers (80 miles) an hour and stay intact in a crash with much larger vehicles. The company that makes the auto, Micro Compact Car AG, which is owned 81 percent by the Mercedes-Benz unit of Daimler-Benz AG and 19 percent by SMH, hopes that the little vehicle will become ubiquitous on crowded city streets and as trendy as SMH's Swatch throwaway timepieces.

Motor-industry analysts describe the Smart as evidence of new thinking by automobile manufacturers amid concern about increasing congestion and pollution in cities. VW's Audi division showed an all-aluminum four-seat turbo-diesel vehicle that it says will run 100 kilometers (62 miles) on only three liters (about 0.8 gallon) of fuel.

Mercedes-Benz has already introduced its compact A-series car, and it is showing an idea for a computer-controlled three-wheeled vehicle for two passengers in line that it says will combine the advantages of a motorbike and a city car.

The Smart car is an attempt to combat the tyranny of the car in many modern cities. According to Juergen Hubbert, the president of Micro Compact Car AG, it will restore freedom and individuality to driving.

Nicolas Hayek, the vice president, called it "a symbol of our common European future."

The auto-show display for the Smart car includes a model that was crashed head-on into a large Mercedes sedan at 50 kilometers (30 miles) an hour. Both vehicles appeared to have sustained the same amount of damage, and the passenger compartment of the Smart car was not deformed