By Sam HaymartPublished: January 11, 2010Posted in: Cars, RandomTags: daimler, Diesel, ForTwo, penske, Smart 
Sales of the Smart ForTwo in the U.S. plunged 41% to 14,600 cars last year. Starting off with huge backlogs of reservations in late 2008, the cute little ForTwo has seemed to lose its steam in America. While parent company Daimler and U.S. importer Penske Auto Group seem to be looking for ways to remarket and reboot sales of the demure little commuter car, we have a suggestion.
Diesel.
One of the biggest problems with the Smart ForTwo as sold in America is that it barely gets better fuel efficiency than many “normal” cars that have a back seat and cost the same or less. Struggling to get 40 mpg, Smart chose to outfit U.S. bound cars with the largest and least fuel efficient powerplant they have. In Europe, you can get much more miserly gasoline and diesel powered models that exceed 80 mpg!
According to the Smart UK website, the Smart ForTwo CDI achieves 83.1 mpg and CO2 emissions of just 89g/km. That makes the Smart ForTwo CDI the world’s most fuel efficient and lowest CO2 emitting combustion drive production car.
Granted the Smart ForTwo is trendy and cool, but that only lasts so long in a rough marketplace. For this car to ever rise above boutique status, it needs to give you something substantial in exchange for the compromises in size and safety. We suggest that if the $15,000 Smart ForTwo was offering buyers 80mpg through diesel power, their coffers might not be plunging 41%.
Without such a hook, why the hell would you buy one when you can get a Toyota Yaris or Ford Fiesta for similar money, get similar mpg, and you get a real car with a real back seat. Smart needs to get smart if they intend to stay in America.
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