a smart hatchback 5 doors: For our American neighbors

The American distributor of tiny smart Fortwo, Roger Penske, plans to offer a five-door hatchback version bearing the smart brand.

Recall that in Canada, the tiny smart Fortwo is distributed through the network of Mercedes-Benz dealerships.

Whether our neighbors to the south or here in Canada, sales of smart Fortwo accuse significant declines. Except that for the United States, the 75 brand dealers sell only small smart Fortwo or substantially and are not associated to the Mercedes-Benz brand. It is for this reason that many legitimate our American friends will be the only ones able to afford that new car.

Association with Nissan

To do this, we concluded an agreement with the Japanese automaker Nissan to design and develop a small car subcompact five-door hatchback that will rub small Ford Fiesta, Honda Fit, Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio, Mazda2 and Toyota Yaris . The future smart four-seater five-door will be designed and developed based on the model of Nissan Micra.

Responsibility to assemble this new subcompact hatchback return to employees of the Mexican Aguascalientes plant. Out there, it already assembles the Sentra and Versa models for North American markets.

Group Roger Penske wants to quickly and expects to sell this little car somewhere in 2012 ...