Smart is the brand that is famous throughout its lengthy history for incredibly high sales, profits and investment returns for its owners.
Oh no, wait, that’s not it. This is a brand where sales have almost always been poor with very few exceptions here and there.
The original car that set them up is the Smart ForTwo. That model is due for a 2014 replacement, which is quite a delayed release.
In order to make it available as quickly as possible Daimler ordered up Smart to find a proper partner to develop the car.
As it happened the French at Renault were the ones who got the opportunity to develop a Smart ForTwo of the future. Now however reports are coming in about a break-up.
It seems that Renault have backed out of the agreement and that Daimler are once again going in solo on the development of one of the ForTwo.
No actual details are available on what exactly caused them to disagree and part ways but this should mean something quite significant for the future of the Renault Twingo.
Since the French city car would have shared the platform with the Smart, there was a good chance at it being a rear wheel drive vehicle.
Having such a crazy setup at the disposal of the company’s RenaultSport division would have made for a lot more interesting developments in the future.
This break up will likely mean that Smart’s new ForTwo will actually be more expensive now.
