Smart Car Outselling Mini, Beetle in Canada

High Smart sales surprise even its parent company

FRANCOIS SHALOM, The Montreal Gazette
July 21, 2005, View Article

Daniel Noiseux couldn't wait to get his hands on a Smart car, that truncated, cartoonish minicar that makes a Toyota Echo look like a spacious sedan.

The owner of five La Pizzaiolle restaurants did buy one as soon as parent company Mercedes Benz launched the Smart car last September. But getting his hands on it is a different story.

"Don't know how it happened, but it turned into my son's first car," Noiseux said. "He drove it all winter."

Noiseux is one of roughly 3,200 Canadians whose fancy was caught by the two-seater made in the "smartville" production facilities in Hambach in the Lorraine region of France.

Between September and June 30, Canadians bought 2,900 Smart cars, said Mercedes Benz Canada spokesperson JoAnne Caza, and about 3,200 by the end of this month.

True to their marked preference for compact cars, Quebecers bought 801 of the 2,900, proportionally more than in other regions of Canada.

In its first year in Canada, the Smart car is already outselling the two other "it" niche minicars, the Volkswagen Beetle, re-introduced in 1998, and BMW Canada's Mini Cooper, which was resurrected in 2002.

VW Canada spokesperson Shawn Stephens said his firm sold 1,781 Beetles in 2004, and 676 in the first six months of this year. Annemarie Gerber of BMW Canada said the Mini Cooper sold 2,800 units last year and 1,721 this year, a slightly lower rate than the Smart car.

One car industry analyst, who declined to be named, called the Smart launch "extremely good for that segment, really unexpected."

The vehicle's novelty aspect and fuel prices might be two factors for its success, but far from the only ones, he said, adding they are probably not even the major reasons.

People for whom the price of gas is the major factor will buy a sub-compact or a used car, rather than shell out between $16,500 and $22,000 for a two-seater.

The cars are aimed at people who want a toy, or people who don't like cars, but see them as necessary evils, the analyst added.

The stellar early numbers for the Smart car, though, do not secure its future.

Stephens said the Beetle sold 9,209 units in 1998, but then dropped to 7,765 the following year, 6,023 in 2000, 4,190 in 2001, 2,010 in 2002, 2,851 in 2003 and 1,781 last year.

He attributed the near-steady slide to the lack of redesigns, adding that the car is getting a facelift for 2006. But the analyst downplayed that, calling it "an extremely mild redesign that won't do anything," and blamed the car's engine performance, instead.

Caza said the company might have sold even more cars but for weather-related supply problems at Halifax, the car's port of entry from Europe.

"They had a lot of snow last winter, and the cars weren't coming in. Still, 916 (sold from October to December) was beyond our expectations. We'd budgeted for far, far less than that."

The most positive sign, Caza said, was that demand was "pan-Canadian, rather than in the three main markets (of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver). We thought it would be an urban demand, but it's selling in places like Halifax, Regina, Saskatoon and Victoria."

Guillaume Noiseux, 18, is also thinking pan-Canadian - he's considering trekking cross-country in the Smart car with a buddy, although his father called that "more in the planning stages than in the sphere of reality."

Noiseux pere said the first 10 months have gone "surprisingly well. It's simple, dependable and economical. My kid used it to go to college all year, and it cost him $12 to $15 in gas every two weeks. It's actually less expensive than a bus pass."

The car aficionado - one of his restaurants even uses a long discontinued 1960s grey Citroen truck that was a workhorse for deliverymen in France as an advertising billboard - also had encouraging words for the Smart car's operating performance.

"In the snow, the weight of the motor in the rear makes it quite sturdy, quite stable. I was surprised."

But he's still on the losing end of the "squabbles about who gets to take the car."

Noiseux was not entirely shut out of the Smart car business, though. Buying snow tires fell to him, as did buying the ski rack - a small one - for Guillaume's snowboard.

"It wasn't hard finding the tires," Guillaume said. "Dad got them at the (Mercedes) dealer." The rack was found off-the-rack.

"It's good for my budget - $13 a week," he said. The avid young golfer was worried about bags, though. "My buddy and I wondered if we could both fit our golf bags in - it was a relief when we were able to."

But one Smart car owner said a drawback of driving the itty-bitty car is the number of people braving life and limb on the highway to take a good, full look at it.

July 21, 2005, Article
Online at Montreal Gazette
fshalom@thegazette.canwest.com