Prices for Smart's new four-seater small car will start at about £8000 when it goes on sale in September 2004. Smart says 80,000 ForFour's will be sold annually worldwide taking total volume for the marque past 200,000.
Motability has brought the two-seater smart city-coupe and cabrio vehicles into the scheme.
Smart is to launch a new range of equipment and accessories next month for owners of the city-coupe and cabrio.
DaimlerChrysler UK has signed new contracts for sales and servicing with Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Jeep and Smart retailers focusing on the selective distribution system. But Suzuki surprised analysts by announcing plans to go down the exclusive route, in contrast to most of its rivals.
Bristol-based Smart Repairs UK plans to set up a national network after it was taken over by a rapidly expanding investment group, Clifton Group Holdings.
DaimlerChrysler has been proving critics wrong with its Smart car since the launch in 2000. Sales of the city coupe across Europe rose year-to-June by 6.3 per cent to 62,450 units - 4415 in the UK, up 51.7 per cent - exceeding most expectations.
Hyundai bills its Accent as a C-class-sized car for a B-class price - giving its dealers the sales hook of Focus dimensions at Fiesta money. Smart marketing, and it gets smarter: five-year warranty (“I'm sticking with you, 'cos I'm made out of glue”), and the perception of superior efficiency associated with a common rail turbodiesel engine (“Anything that you might do, I'm gonna do too”).
The City of London Police force has conscripted a micromini Smart car on to its fleet.
The Smart range of micro cars will be expanded from April with the launch of the Roadster and Roadster-coupe.
Independent parts supplier Motaquip is strengthening its support for factors and expanding its product programme in a bid to raise sales and attract new business.
DaimlerChrysler UK is looking to incorporate Smart as its small car division after holding the company at arms' length for much of its two-year existence.
Professional vehicle workshops of the near future will have a state of the art parts cleaner similar to a new system developed by Rozone, a Midlands-based engine management specialist predicts. Tony Starmer, who runs Auto Diagnostics in Loughborough and who has 46 years' trade experience, first saw Rozone's SmartWasher at the European Automotive Trade Show.
Richard Pepper, the former chief executive of failed smart repair firm Scuffs, has been appointed to a new high profile position.
Mercedes-Benz has opened a £4m flagship operation in Exeter to retail its own brand and Smart cars - the latter from a facility named Smart Box. The City West Country site was funded by City Motor Holdings and took 100 days to build.
Mercedes-Benz is the second manufacturer to withdraw from this year's Birmingham motor show, although Chrysler, Jeep and Smart will be there. It joins BMW, which announced its decision last year. The company says it has decided to channel resources to other customer events during the year, including equestrian pursuits like the Blenheim horse trials.
Reg Vardy has opened its first Smart Repair drive-in centre as it seeks to boost retail business by exploiting growing consumer interest in cosmetic repair services.
The national expansion of the sales network for Smart continues with the appointment of five new sales centres.
Three more Mercedes-Benz dealers have been awarded the Smart franchise. They are Derwent Vehicles in Holbeck, Leeds, Mercedes-Benz of Gatwick, in Crawley, and Western Automobile Company, in Edinburgh.
A new single-passenger taxi service in London is set to become the biggest Smart fleet in Europe.
Walter Scherg, general manager of Smart UK, told his staff to carry hunting knives in the early days of the brand's existence on these shores. He talks to AM-online.
