Mercedes-Benz UK President Compares Mini To A Blackberry And SMART To An iPhone - Shouldn't It Be The Other Way Around?

Speaking to Car Dealer Magazine, Mercedes-Benz UK president and CEO said that while the Smart brand has a very positive future, he would like to see the Three-Pointed Star produce a premium supermini to take the fight to BMW’s Mini brand and Audi’s posh A1.

‘I preach to Stuttgart day and night for Mercedes-Benz to have a supermini car that would be a Mini fighter and to wear a Mercedes badge,’ Marcus Breitschwerdt told us. ‘I am not the mainstream though – I am a lone guy on this.’

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TheSteve - 9/20/2013 2:37:43 PM

+2 Boost

MB's spokesperson is clueless. He says, "...We almost closed down Smart completely at one point and we reduced the brand down to one model. BMW needed 45 years to make it from a young man showoff brand to an acceptable premium brand with Mini." Not so! The original MINI brand existed long before BMW bought it. This accounts for nearly all of the "45 years" Mr. MB-UK sites. When BMW bought Rover and MINI, they transformed the brand (and cars) in short order to what we know today. It happened virtually overnight, not over 45 years.

And while MB "almost closed down Smart completely at one point" due to uninspiring sales, MINI has been a strong seller right out of the gate, and there has never been a thought of shutting down the post-BMW MINI success story.

jeffgall - 9/20/2013 4:03:29 PM

+1 Boost

I get what he is saying in terms do the smart being less configurable, but in this case, Blackberry would win. At least in the U.S.