Smart cars: Are Canadians ready for tiny two-seaters?

The "smart fortwo" car has been available in Canada for four years, but despite soaring fuel prices and the push to conserve, the tiny two-seater is still a relatively rare sight. It's one of the smallest and most fuel-efficient cars on the road at a time when North American automakers are struggling because ofslumping demand for large vehicles, but some still questionwhetherthe average Canadian is truly ready to let go of traditional small and mid-size cars and embrace the European trend of micro-rides.

In theory, mini-compacts are a great idea, particularly for city dwellers and people in congested neighbourhoods.Though in practice, size continues to trump efficiency in this country when it comes to what most people are actually driving off car lots.

"Within the limitation of what it does, it [smart fortwo] is a practical car," says Jim Kenzie, chief auto reviewer for the Toronto Star Wheels section and commentator on TSN's Motoring program. "It's certainly fuel efficient and you can park the thing anywhere."

However, Kenzie adds, "We are a big country and our cars have to cover a lot of territory. We are used to having cars that are big."

While there are no direct competitors in Canada for the micro-sized smart fortwo, it is up against sub-compacts such as the Toyota Yaris, which is good on gas, easy to park, comparable in price and has four seats. Based on price, efficiency and the amount of car per cubic metre, many buyers see larger cars like the Yaris asa case ofgettingmore for the money.

The image factor

Still, the "green" image of micro cars is boosting their attraction these days.

"If you are buying a Yaris, you are just buying a small car," Kenzie says. "With the smart, you are buying an image you're making a statement. 'I'm hip. I'm a cool person. I'm doing my part for the environment.'"

Claude Arcand, a teacher in Aurora, doesn't deny that the car's uniqueness is what prompted him to buy one. "I was visiting friends in Germany in 2000, and I saw [a smart fortwo] and said 'wow, what a cool-looking car.'"

He immediately visited a dealership to inquire how he could get one of his own. "We can't sell to America," was the salesman's reply. Years passed, gas prices continued to creep higher, and finally Mercedes-Benz announced at the 2004 Toronto Auto Show that the smart fortwo would be coming to Canada.

"The day I heard that, I went to the nearest Mercedes dealership and plopped down my $500 deposit," Arcand says.

Eight months later, Arcand got his green smart fortwo Pulse. "There's lots of them on the road now, but it's still something out of the ordinary. I like to drive something that not everyone on the road has."

That's not to say they aren't carving out a market. The company passed the 10,000 mark in Canada in August 2007, and it says sales "continue to do consistently well month after month."

"In the first generation, we thought we would sell 3,000 units, and we sold over 10,000," says JoAnne Caza, director, communication and public relations with Mercedes-Benz Canada.

From September to December 2004, Mercedes-Benz sold 915 smarts in Canada. In 2005, a total of 4,080 smarts rolled off car lots the best year yet for the mini-compacts in Canada. But sales cooled in 2006 and 2007 3,027 and 2,433 respectively as the company prepared to launch the second generation of the vehicle.

But even with a cheaper new model and gas prices continuing to climb, smart sales haven't shifted into higher gear betweenthe gen-two launch in December 2007 and April 2008,just 1,350 sets of keys were handed over to Canadian buyers.

Still, rising fuel prices are creating a more fertile market for micro cars, andinterest is picking up south of the border. Until this year Canada was the only North American country to sell the uber-mini vehicle, but in January it appeared on American interstates. As of the end of April, 6,159 cars had hit U.S. roadways a decent number for a country known to have a "bigger is better" automotive attitude.

The company is holding its financial cards close and won't say if the smart has been profitable in Canada. In a speech earlier this year, Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the Daimler board, said: "In 2007, as a whole, the smart fortwo slightly topped the prior year's sales figure." He added that the division is in the black, "as promised."

Safety

One reason micro vehicles haven't taken the North American auto market by storm, despite the increasing price of gas and long distances many Canadians regularly drive, may be consumer wariness over the thought of being in a micro-car crash. Arcand was an early adopter of the smart fortwo and was often approached by friends and strangers about the car's intricacies. Once people grasped that the car was gasoline-powered and didn't run on D-cell batteries, safety was next on the list of questions - a question that Kenzie often gets as well.

"Everybody is concerned about the safety," says Kenzie. "They just don't think a car that small can be as safe as it is."

It's a perception problem that tiny cars need to overcome. Recent safety tests by the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave the smart fortwo the highest rating for front-end impact when compared to other cars of similar size and weight.

"All things being equal in safety, bigger and heavier is always better," said Adrian Lund, U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety president. "But among the smallest cars, the engineers at smart did their homework and designed a high level of safety into a very small package."

The key feature to the car's safety is the black tridion safety cell (the black or grey detailing) that encompasses the car and acts like a shield. The cell's transverse and lateral struts transfer some of the impact energy to the crumple zones of the other vehicle involved in a crash. Additionally, the smart car's steel frame is reinforced at important stress points to absorb much of the impact energy.

Crash test videos on YouTube show how these features come into play.One videoshows a smart fortwo crashing into a wall, and in asecond video, a Mercedes S-Class. In both instances, the smart fortwo does what it's supposed to - it stays relatively intact and bounces off the items of impact.

"It's pretty remarkable, given that it is so small but can survive so well," Kenzie says.

Market-changer?

These minute three-cylinder vehicles may be safe, cute and all the rage in Europe, but how attractive and practical are they for the average Canadian?

According to Arcand, his six-foot-two-inch frame has no problem getting around in his smart fortwo, and he finds the headspace and legroom to be sufficient, as is the storage space. Getting groceries isn't a problem, and neither is fitting four winter tires (when folding down the seats). But despite his affection for the micro car, he admits his family couldn't function without their minivan.

"There are six members of our family, so if we want to go anywhere we need a bigger vehicle," he says. "The smart is good for a second car, or a car where there's only two people."

That's why even with gas prices reaching record highs and showing few signs of decline, market watchers don't expect the smart fortwo to become as commonplace on Canadian roads as the fast and furious Honda Civic, the car that helped compacts break into the mass market in North America when bigger sedans were all the rage, any time soon. But the smart fortwo is prompting people to think aboutchanges inthe concept of personaltransportationin Canada, and Kenzie has high hopes for the eco-friendly vehicle and the micro-cars that will likely follow in its tracks.

"Its size is an advantage and a disadvantage," says Kenzie. "It's a two-seater, but so is a Mazda Miata, and nobody expects it to be anything more."

Kenzie says that as gas prices go up, he expects Canadian car preferences will evolve. And that could gradually open doors for the smart and other micro-cars in Canada. "I think the smart will attract enough attention to establish itself as a car that people know, are prepared to drive, and that it will have an ongoing position in the market."

The author is a Canadian freelance writer.