The Smart two-seater baby car is now on Irish sale officially. This evening it is being launched at Motor Distributors on Dublin's Naas road, on behalf of two Dublin dealerships, Annesley Williams and Ballsbridge Motors.
Irish-registered Smart cars have been around for a few years but in left-hand drive format. Imported privately, many have been used for promotional activities and carry advertising slogans.
Right-hand-drive versions went on sale in Britain almost two years ago and it appeared there was little interest until now, in extending their influence into the Irish market.
Irish prices start at €12,995 for the City coupé which means that the Smart is more expensive than some traditional bigger four-seat small cars like the Daewoo Matiz, €1,000 less at €11,995. But Bill Duffy, sales director of Mercedes-Benz here, thinks other attributes are important such as low tax and insurance and exceptional mpg.
The range relies on a 698cc three-cylinder engine with a variety of outputs, 50, 61, 73 and up to 80bhp for the the Roadster version The Smart importation here is a tripartitite initiative involving Smart Gmbh, Daimler Chrysler UK and Motor Distributors, the Mercedes-Benz Irish importers. Other models in the line-up are the City coupé cabriolet, €17,495; roadster, €26,995 and roadster coupé €28,995.
Four-seat Smarts will arrive here in September 2004 and, according to Bill Duffy, sales between now and then between the two dealerships of the two-seater cars should be around 350.
The Smart car project began in 1995 in a new custom-built plant at Hambach on the French-German border. At the start the Swatch watch boss, Nicholas Hayek, had 50 per cent equity along with Daimler-Chrysler.
The car had a faltering start on the market. Hayek pulled out and it became a 100 per cent DaimlerChrysler operation.
In latter cars, Smart has lived up to its name and in several European cities, especially Rome, it's extremely popular as a chic fashionable runabout.
Duffy envisages other Smart dealer appointments next year, relating to other urban areas such as Cork, Limerick and Galway.