The Failure of the Smart Automotive Market in the United States

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Selling less than 6000 units in the first 9 months of this year is massive sales hits, down more than 30 percent from the year before. The other competitors in the market tout similar fuel economies, the trait that set the Smart apart from its competitions. One of these competitors includes the Nissan Versa.

While it only has 36 miles per gallon average in comparison to Smarts 40mpg, it has more storage room, can fit 4 people compared to 2 and is competitively priced 5 to 7 thousand dollars less than the Smart.

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Cars like the Versa actually benefit the most from the Smart leaving the marketplace, as there would be less competition in the economy subcompact car market. This allows more room for research and development rather than marketing and sales promotion. With the Smart being one, a car like the Versa could seek to reinvent itself similar to how the Ford Fiesta has done. The Ford Fiesta used to be much in the same seat (pun intended) as the Nissan Versa.

It was Ford's cheap subcompact car that was an affordable and hot sell. These cars both had to deal with a foreign subcompact competitor that, while they have a relatively niche market, they are very good at selling to that market and taking away from the rest of the domestic car market for those types of vehicles. In the 1980's during the selling of the original Fiesta, Ford encountered competition directly from Germany with the Volkswagen Beetle as well as competition from Asia with cars like the Datsun 510 and the Toyota Corolla.

When the Fiesta was brought back however in the 2000's Ford decided to go a different direction with it entirely.

They have brought it back and although it is a subcompact car, has become a staple in Ford's motorsports racing family as a rally and rally-cross car. With these specialty applications, Ford has begun to shift some of these performance increases and more aggressive stylings into their production cars allowing people to feel as though they are driving a much sportier car than a small front wheel drive hot hatch. With all of these things in place in this day and age, removing a competition and an option from a consumer's side of things makes everything a little bit more simple when trying to purchase an item as important as a car.

It also benefits the brands selling the competing cars because they inevitably share some of the profits last that would have gone to Smart. If I happened to be in charge of the Smart marketing department or consulting with Smart in this day and age to save them as a brand I would realistically try to see if there is more that they can do with their car or if they can introduce new models into their lineup to become a more versatile brand. The best example of this happening and it helping save a brand I believe is another car company. Fiat has done this in the past 10 years where they have stopped only offering their 500 (one of Smart's competing cars) and began offering variations on the car like the 500c which is a cabriolet top of sorts and the 500L which is a slightly larger version of their original product. All of these helped improve their brand and made them a more marketable car company as they are relatable to more car shopper and I believe doing the same or a similar strategy with Smart may just be what they would need to stay afloat in the United States.