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No longer a "Smart" car, it's now "just" a small car. Ingenuity at Smart probably died a long time ago (along with it' semi-independence), sad really. So hope it's more interesting to drive than it looks (guess the fun/individuality could be squeezed out of that too).
P.S God knows what a new Roadster would look like, if it'll ever appear now.
To throw my to two pence into this, I think I will struggle with this Smart series.
With the 450, 451 (bar the engine) and the 452, at least you knew it was a Smart. Chassis, bodywork, everything you could touch was Smart. I know the 454 wasn't entirely like that and perhaps that is the direction (sadly) Smart is going in but even the 454 made a good effort to be a Smart all around.
The 453 just feels like a cost cutting exercise (not without reason I should think) gone too far. I look at the camo pictures and see a Renault, not a Smart. If it doesn't look like a Smart, then to me it isn't. I am sure the engine, chassis and all the stuff that makes it "be a car" is good and very EU-compliant but did it really have to go this way? You don't buy a Smart to be normal and the 453 just feels (externally at any rate)... normal.
When they take the camo off, I am hoping that they, at least, kept to the damn design philosophy and have a Tridion + plastic panels (the video certainly suggested that at there is a Tridion). If there isn't, then Smart as we know it has died a death.
EDIT: After watching a video of it being stress tested, it has grown on me a little. I think I could accept it so long as I think boxy 451. Still must have a Tridion and plastic panels though.
Last edited by Ocracoke; 27-03-14, 09:51 PM.
Reason: Opinion adjusted
I'm a big fan of Smarts (currently on 3rd ForTwo & a Roadster) but a big part of why I liked them was there size & their difference to all other cars out there, even going with the extra costs involved with Merc because it is different. Making them bigger & more like everything else (especially if they remain with the 'relatively' expensive pricing) will just mean that more people will start to look elsewhere - "ooh look, for less money I can have X and it is still the same size car" etc etc.
I hope I am wrong (I came around to the 'larger for the US market' 451 eventually ), but from all of the things I seen so far, I don't think I will be...as I said on Twitter to SmartUK, pricing will be key to its success this time out.
Making them bigger & more like everything else (especially if they remain with the 'relatively' expensive pricing) will just mean that more people will start to look elsewhere - "ooh look, for less money I can have X and it is still the same size car" etc etc.
A small amount of editing to the above gives...
Making them bigger & more like everything else (especially if they remain with the 'relatively' expensive pricing) will just mean that more people will start to look elsewhere - "ooh look, for less money I can have A Renault Twingo and it is still the same car" .
We know the new fortwo is the same length as the 451 so I can only assume there is some camouflage going on up front.
Hope that you are right evolution, as I would like to see that bonnet a little shorter, to retain the unique shape of the Fortwo, rather than look like the front of a Toyota IQ.
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