vLane Blog

A Closer Look at Smart Car

From LesleyB, Featured Contributor
Posted on June 24, 2008

Filed under Industry, Europe, History, Misc, Smart

It turns out that Smart fortwo was not so named because it is a car for smart, space conscious people, as I had always thought. Rather, the maker of Swatch (the watches) wanted to create a vehicle that would be innovative, easy to park and affordable for young people. Originally called the 'Swatchmobile' the brand was named 'Smart' after it settled on Daimler as a manufacturing partner. The name smart is an acronym: 'Swatch Mercedes ART'.

Swatch pulled out of the joint venture after it lost money, and the car didn't meet the design expectations of the watchmaker; however, Mercedes continued to produce cars under the smart brand. Smart has lots of fun limited edition versions of the fortwo, and artists, advertisers seem to love the car alike. Now that I know the car's roots, it makes sense that the brand emphasizes personal style. A car that has 'ART' in its name? It's a whole different approach, and it makes me want to keep my eye on the brand.

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Here are some of my favorite limited edition and customized smart cars out there:

Smart Shark

Lots of people seem to paint sharks on their smart cars. Here's one in England, but I found examples from around Europe.

Swiss Smart

Here's one with the Swiss flag.

Smart Peacock

And one painted like a peacock.

Pink Smart

The pink Smart was available in the UK on a limited basis. I'm not sure how it sold.

Smart Brabus

The Smart Brabus is a collaboration between Smart and Brabus, and it's a more powerful pimped out Smart car that's available in Europe.

Smart Limited One

Smart Limited One is a 'luxury' Smart car with leather interior available in Canada, among other places.

ROJO Smart

Catalina Estrada designed this ROJO limited edition Smart which was presented during Milan design week.

Concept Cars and Advertising

Smartforfun2

This car originally appeared at the Athens Motor Show in 2005. Encouraged by Mercedes Benz, the creators further developed the concept car, giving it the the body of a smart fortwo and the platform from the Mercedes Unimog series.

Smaaart

The smaaart stretch car was built by carbonite UK, which uses it for promotions. The middle part is shaped like a soft drink can, so it's probably most often used to promote beverages.

Lindt Chocolate Bunny Smart

The Lindt Chocolate Bunny smart cars were spotted driving around the US during a promotion.

Read More:

• How-To: #carchat
• Opinion: The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro
• Learning to Drive, With a Twist

LesleyB is a featured contributor for vLane.