Land of the Giants

In anticipation of U.S. sales beginning in 2006 and Canada sales this fall, executives and engineers for Smart GmbH, the microcar-making unit of DaimlerChrysler AG, demonstrate the structural integrity of their miniscule 2-seater, the Smart Fortwo, by crashing it head-on into a Mercedes E-Class sedan, a car twice its size and weight.

The 40% offset frontal collision, with both vehicles traveling 31 mph (50 km/h), slams the Fortwo into a half-spin 8 ft. (2.4 m) away — but engineers say both occupants would walk away from the crash. Smart officials flaunt the tiny car's performance in this type of test because they say it will help prove to potential buyers that Smarts — vehicles whose brand character largely is related to their acute smallness — will be a safe choice in the U.S., land of the mammoth SUV.

The first U.S.-bound Smart — an all-new variant called Formore, based on a platform larger and more content-rich than today's Fortwo or the larger 4-passenger Forfour — doesn't come until September 2006, says Mark Ramsey, product manager for Smart U.S.A. But Smart is nonetheless anxious to establish in the U.S. the same reputation for stellar safety the brand enjoys in the 32 markets where Smarts already are on sale. The Fortwo reaches Canadian dealerships later this year.

Helmut Wawra, vice-president, engineering and design, Smart GmbH, says the Formore sold in the U.S. — although built on an as-yet unreleased new platform — will incorporate Smart's cornerstone safety technology: the so-called “Tridion” safety cell. The Tridion concept, he says, essentially consists of a trio of hyper-strong transverse bars that channel crash energy into paths that minimize intrusion into the passenger compartment.

In the crash between the Smart Fortwo and the Mercedes E-Class journalists witness at the sprawling Mercedes Car Group Safety Center in Stuttgart, Germany, the Tridion concept proves its efficacy: Although the collision between the two cars essentially is head-on, there is extensive structural deformation at the rear of the Smart. That, says Wawra, is precisely the way the safety cage and energy management modeling dictates the crash should be handled to diminish injury to passengers. The car is a write-off, but your body isn't.

In conjunction with the Tridion design, equally important is Smart's access to parent Mercedes-Benz's portfolio of top-flight safety technology, such as the car's high-energy-capacity passenger restraints and the standard-equipment stability control and brake-assist systems, says Wawra. Stability and traction controls are important active-safety measures for a car that is just 8.2 ft. (2.5 m) long and has a rear-mounted engine driving the rear wheels.

Smart officials hope they can translate to upcoming U.S. prospects the same message that has made Smart an acknowledged safety leader with the European hipsters who favor the tiny cars: “Small” doesn't translate to “unsafe.”

Even when surrounded by the Brobdingnags that congest U.S. highways and cities?

No problem, Wawra believes. “We haven't always communicated Smart's great safety features,” he says. In addition to the Tridion construction and advanced active and passive safety equipment, Smart cars are designed to minimize the height incompatibility between cars and the high-riding pickup trucks and SUVs that are all but nonexistent in Smart's native markets.

The bonus is that because of the Mercedes affiliation the small Smart can offer big safety — at a small price. Scott Keogh, Smart U.S.A. general manager, says the Formore sold in the U.S. in 2006 will retail for about $20,000. In addition to the raft of active and passive safety technologies, the Formore will include all-wheel drive and a “Mercedes-made” gasoline engine that is “much larger” than Smart's current gasoline and diesel 3-cyls.

U.S. Formore volume is pegged at about 30,000 units. The company sees the Formore competing with entry SUVs such as the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4.