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Smart tries to get smarter—and sells Nissan built cars
Smart has been performing very poorly lately, and is apparently trying to save its behind in the U.S. market: Automotive News reports that Smart will sell a larger five-door, “B segment” car built by Nissan in the United States next year. Its only model, the crumb-sized “Smart Fortwo” has been selling poorly for the last couple of years—and it’s no wonder: the shrunken, two-seat, barely-the-size-of-a-golf-cart economy car offers little interior room, poor engine performance and fuel economy that is very mediocre considering its tiny overall size. Smart sold over 24,000 cars in the U.S. in 2008, but sales have collapsed monumentally since then: Smart has sold less than 5000 cars in the U.S. this year with only about 2 ½ months left in 2010. Yikes!
Source: Automotive News (http://www.autonews.com) 10/6/10
The new 2011 Dodge Charger debuts
Bo and Luke Duke from “The Dukes of Hazzard” would be proud of this: Chrysler took the wraps off the new 2011 Dodge Charger on Tuesday, Autoblog reports: The refreshed Charger gets a new interior, re-skinned exterior styling (the rear-end of the car, including the taillights, borrows strong styling cues from the 1969 Dodge Charger—a.k.a. “The General Lee”), the new 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 engine, an optional 5.7 liter Hemi V8 and a host of other refinements to complete the updated package.
Source: Autoblog (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/10/05/2011-dodge-charger-first-official-images-details-released/#continued) 10/5/10
P. Scott
The Car Exam 