Only five years ago the very survival of the marque was also in doubt. “I gave it no more than a 50-50 chance when I arrived,” said Andreas Renschler, the Daimler whiz-kid who was put in charge of Smart in 1999. Smart has never met its original sales targets, nor even made any money for its parent company. In fact Smart was never even intended to be part of DaimlerChrysler, and what became the Smart grew out of Hayek’s Swatchmobile.
Hayek was sure the principles he had used to devise and market funky, inexpensive Swatch watches could be applied to cars. His chosen partner was Volkswagen, and in 1991 his company and the car maker set up a joint venture to research and develop a small city car.
Hayek planned something with youth appeal that would be cheap to buy and run, would be available with electric or hybrid power, and with “space for two people and two cases of beer”. His great ally was Daniel Goeudevert, the Frenchman who was the chief of VW and unusual among motor bosses in promoting the idea of integrated transport systems. Their vision of the future was a simple city car that could be parked easily and rented for self-drive from ranks outside stations and airports.
But the project didn’t go well at an engineering level, and VW’s boffins naturally questioned what watchmakers knew about making cars. VW also carried out market research into the small-car market and discovered that young people didn’t want a baby two-seater but a proper car with room to take three friends. This was the signal for the VW-Swatch deal to end. Goeudevert was on his way out, and Ferdinand Piech, who had other ideas for ultra-economical small cars, became chairman of the Volkswagen Group.
Undaunted, Hayek took his ideas to Mercedes, part of the DaimlerChrysler group, which was starting to spread its wings under a new boss, Helmut Werner. A revolutionary small car, the A-class, was already planned, but maybe the Swatch idea could fit underneath it as a separate business that could explore new ways of making and selling cars.
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The Swatch team joined forces with Mercedes, announcing the MCC (Micro Compact Car) joint venture in 1994. Although Hayek was still keen on a hybrid version, Mercedes took over the engineering side and developed the car that became the Smart City Coupé, along with the turbocharged 600cc engine that sits between its rear wheels.
Hayek was sure that his Swatchmobile would sell 200,000 a year, and Mercedes took that prediction on board. The MCC factory opened in October 1997 but, feeling excluded from the launch of what was his idea, Hayek held a fringe meeting to explain his intention of pursuing alternative fuels for cars. Soon after, DaimlerChrysler bought out Hayek’s share.
The Smart’s sales launch, planned for March 1998, was postponed to October. Mercedes’ A-class had rolled over in a handling test, raising the fear that small, upright cars were unsafe, so changes were made to the Smart’s suspension, and stability control was fitted.
Motoring journalists were lukewarm. In the first review in this newspaper I concluded: “The Smart City Coupé is fun to be in but not to drive. Judged as a normal car, the Smart does not make it. But, undoubtedly, it has fashion appeal.”
It was an immediate success in Rome and Paris, but made no impact in most of northern Europe. Only 20,000 cars were sold in 1998 — one-tenth of the original target — and parts suppliers for the Smart had to be compensated for the lack of forecast business.
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Mercedes had become part of Daimler- Chrysler and in May 1999 the man in charge, Jürgen Schrempp, issued an ultimatum: make 80,000 cars in the coming year or we close Smart down. This wouldn’t make it break even but Schrempp thought it would show a potential for growth and profitability.
By October 1999 it was clear that the target would be met, and Smart had its reprieve. But it was also clear that the two-seater City Coupé and Cabriolet did not represent a viable business and that if Smart were to have a long-term future it would need to broaden its range. The Roadster and Roadster Coupé were relatively easy — and effective — variants, which with their low stance and larger wheels dealt with many of the objections to the original. With those new models included, 124,700 Smarts were made in 2003.
Now there is the new ForFour, Smart’s first four-seater, which will show whether the brand can have mainstream appeal. Although it has dent-resistant plastic body panels, underneath it is a regular supermini, sharing its structure with the new Colt from Mitsubishi.
The ForFour is a long way from Hayek’s vision for cheap urban transportation. Perhaps its real test will be how acceptable it is to the Smartclub’s members on the Brighton rally.
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For details about the Smart London to Brighton run next Sunday, see www.thesmartclub.co.uk