Photo: Daimler AG
The tiny city car heads up the list of top loss-making cars in recent history, according to the figures provided by BersteinResearch automotive analysts, making it the biggest product failure in the last two decades from this point of view.
According to Autocar, the analysts from BernsteinResearch estimate that Mercedes-Benz invested approximately three and a half billion Euros in building the smart brand from scratch, which was a huge risk to begin with considering they were talking about the cheaper end of the market, which relies mostly on volume.
On top of it, the Germans apparently didn't meet their initial sales target for the fortwo by over 40 per cent either.
What the automotive analysts fail to mention is that the smart fortwo is actually the most successful smart model that the company manufactured over the years, with the roadster, roadster-coupe and the forfour splitting most of the blame for the billion Euros losses that the brand actually had until 2006.
With a third generation of the fortwo coming in just a few months, a fortwo+2, otherwise known as the next forfour, and a small crossover/SUV coming in the next couple of years, we think it's safe to say that the smart brand has risen back from its ashes, while the current fortwo is far from being a slow seller.
Story via Autocar
According to Autocar, the analysts from BernsteinResearch estimate that Mercedes-Benz invested approximately three and a half billion Euros in building the smart brand from scratch, which was a huge risk to begin with considering they were talking about the cheaper end of the market, which relies mostly on volume.
On top of it, the Germans apparently didn't meet their initial sales target for the fortwo by over 40 per cent either.
What the automotive analysts fail to mention is that the smart fortwo is actually the most successful smart model that the company manufactured over the years, with the roadster, roadster-coupe and the forfour splitting most of the blame for the billion Euros losses that the brand actually had until 2006.
With a third generation of the fortwo coming in just a few months, a fortwo+2, otherwise known as the next forfour, and a small crossover/SUV coming in the next couple of years, we think it's safe to say that the smart brand has risen back from its ashes, while the current fortwo is far from being a slow seller.
Story via Autocar
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