Buck-a-litre fuel only boosting interest in already popular Smart car
By STEVE MERTL
The fuel-sipping, diesel-engined Smart is getting more attention with pump prices pushing through the $1-a-litre barrier. (CP PHOTO/ho-Dean Husby)
VANCOUVER (CP) - As fuel prices break the buck-a-litre barrier across Canada, buyers of those cute little Smart cars are looking, well, smart.
"I laugh at my friends who have trucks who pay $100 at the gas station," says Alexandra Carstens of Vancouver. "For me it's about $18 to $20 dollars and that will take me all the way to Kamloops."
But even before pump prices passed the $1 psychological threshold, Smart car dealers were selling out of the tiny two-seat runabouts, which resemble oversized athletic shoes on wheels.
"The Smart has been exceptionally successful," says auto industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers. "For the type of vehicle it is, it's really struck a chord in Canada."
Smart, a unit of automotive giant DaimlerChrysler, was launched in Canada last fall after six years in the European marketplace.
Sales of 2,390 cars as of July seem small in Canada's 1.5-million annual auto sales but DesRosiers says Smart has outsold a host of mainstream models, including BMW and Mercedes SUVs, Cadillac, Suzuki and Mini Cooper.
"Gas prices I think are part of it but equally important if not more important is the fact that it is a vehicle you could differentiate yourself with," he says. "The Smart car does that better than virtually any other vehicle in the marketplace."
Smart marketing director JoAnne Caza says the car - offered in hardtop and convertible models - has outperformed projections.
"We were very conservative with our numbers from the beginning and the consumer demand just was there," she says. "Some dealerships are still sold out."
Smarts, which start at about $16,700 and top out around $23,000, are sold in 46 out of Canada's 55 Mercedes-Benz dealerships, helped in part by customer word-of-mouth.
"They're very happy with their purchase and they're telling everybody how much of a miser the vehicle is in terms of fuel consumption," says Caza.
The Smart gets by with an 800-cubic-centimetre, three-cylinder turbo diesel motor producing 41 horsepower, helped by the fact it weighs only 730 kilograms, compared with 1,280 kg for the diminutive, 108-hp Toyota Echo.
Carstens and her husband are averaging 4.4 litres per 100 kilometres in fuel economy - about 60 miles per gallon - close Smart's advertised 4.2 l/100 km average. The Echo's city/highway mileage ratings are 6.7 and 5.2 l/100 km respectively.
The Smart's small - 2.5-metre - footprint has prompted Vancouver to offer drivers cheaper parking at city-owned lots. The city of Duncan, on Vancouver Island, has created special micro-car parking spots that allow Smarts nose-in curb parking.
The Smart appears to resonate even in oil-rich Alberta.
"We sell on average 15 to 16 a month," says Mike Edgar, managing partner of Hyatt Mercedes-Benz in Calgary.
"It's amazing to me," said Edgar, who viewed Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal as Smart's natural habitat. "I missed the mark. I can't believe how well the car has been received."
Carstens and her husband Dean Husby, both of them are business consultants, ordered their Smart last December after a client suggested it.
"The test drive was all we really needed," says Carstens. "We went back to the dealership, put our money down and began the excruciating six-month wait."
The car is a conversation starter, to say the least.
"I had one woman almost hurl herself in front of my car to stop so she could ask me questions about it," says Carstens.
The couple has since helped start a Smart car club, which recently took a trip to Seattle.
"There you get completely mobbed," says Carstens, who says Smart's highway performance belies its urban runabout image. "You can't go anywhere without being stopped.
"There biggest reaction is I wish we could get them here."
Caza says Smart Canada gets 10 to 15 calls and e-mails a week from Americans. But DaimlerChrysler has no plans to sell the French-built car in the United States.
The Smart's Canadian success and it's absence from the U.S. market is more evidence of how drivers in the two countries have taken different forks in the road, says DesRosiers.
The entry-level auto segment - from subcompacts like the Smart to cars like the Toyota Corolla - make up 40 per cent of the Canadian market and growing.
"In America it's 22 per cent and declining," says DesRosiers.
The large luxury-sports segment - which includes the biggest SUVs - make up about 10 per cent of Canadian sales, compared with 27 per cent in the United States.
Canadians bought just over 10,000 large SUVs last year, while Americans bought one million.
