My Take on This:
This is the same sort of genius marketing that DaimlerChrysler believed in for years, which kept the smart out of our market. Now the MCC smart is a HUGE success in the USA, with a more than one-year wait get one. To get on the list, by the way, you have to plop down $99 at http://smartusa.com/ .
A friend of mine was helping people bring in the original smart, grey-market. Those people were inundated with questions regarding the tiny car, with an outcome mostly of, “where can I get one?” My friend lobbied his powerful friends at Mercedes-Benz to get its parent to import the smart, but it fell on deaf ear, “Americans aren’t interested in the smart,” they would claim.
Now years later, we have it and its waiting list. Moreover, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz import diesel models into the USA. Demand is high for these vehicle and they’re hard to get, mostly due to their limited import numbers. Proving these vehicles are popular in the States is easy—check the resale values of diesels past. A 2006 Volkswagen Jetta Diesel sells for approximately 20% higher than it’s gasoline sibling. 20%! In current dollars, that equates to $6,000 in better resale. Even a used 1990’s Mercedes diesel sells for thousands over the gasoline version of the same model, and usually with a higher odometer reading!
In all, Ford is about as effective as Microsoft when it comes to understanding their market and launching new product as a result. It’s no wonder they’re are nearly doomed to nonexistence. If it wasn’t for their European and Australian division, and massive asset sell-off, Ford would be out of business now.
One last note: this series of Focus was determined too expensive for our market, so they just re-skinned the OLD Focus, called it new and dumped it on our market. The European Focus is considered one of the finest small cars made, while the U.S. Focus not—another brilliant move in Ford’s treacherous past.
