Intent on putting 2009 – and its devastating 41-percent sales plunge – into distant memory, Smart USA is rolling out its first lease incentive program designed to kick-start sales (along those lines, former Saturn general manager Jill Lajdziak was appointed as president of the company just two weeks ago). Smart has run pilot leasing programs in the past, but this is the first program offered nationwide.

Launched two years ago, sales of the tiny Fortwo were initially strong. However, as the novelty wore off the unimpressive subcompact and gas prices dropped, customers grew cold. The failing economy only made matters worse. First year sales were 24,622 units. In 2009, Smart USA moved just 14,595 cars.

The terms of the Daimler Financial Services deal include a 36-month/10,000-mile lease with less than $2,000 out of pocket. Payments are $169 plus tax. The program is scheduled to run through the end of February.


http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/20/r...-u-s-lease-pr/

 

Um, you can lease a (much nicer) Civic for less than that. Saw an ad in the paper this morning that was $2,590 down, including first month's payment and security deposit, and $109/mo. Don't really see this helping them out much.

 

In terms of the North American market, the Smart makes sense if you live in NYC or Quebec, but that's about it. It doesn't even make much sense in Los Angeles. And certainly not in big "sprawl" cities like Vegas or even ATL.

I see a couple of them running around here in Charleston, it's just totally out of its element. So many better cars you can buy (or lease!) for the money.

They hired the ex-Saturn marketing lady to turn Smart around. Yeahhhhh.....

 

Yes, Smart's decline in the US market was noted months ago and comes as no surprise to me.

 

I think Smart priced themselves to fail. How can they charge Yaris/Civic/Corolla money for that car? The first year sales were definitely due to novelty. I think they were trying to follow the path of Mini in terms of overpriced compact cars, but Mini actually has the engineering and driving experience to back up some of the novelty factor. Meanwhile, Smart has... nothing to offer, except that it's tiny and generally useless.