Smart Forfour in Malaysia
DaimlerChrysler Malaysia is set to go after the premium compact car segment, intending to capture 35-40% of the segment with the new Smart Forfour.
The Smart Forfour comes in 1.3 and 1.5 liter variants and they are priced at RM101,931.15 and RM116,918.25 respectively.
The Smart Fortwo did not really do very well as Malaysian’s tastes in the compact car segment is not really suited to two-door or two-seater cars. The high price of the Fortwo did not really justify being able to bring only the driver and a passanger around.
The new Smart Forfour would be able to compete with the Honda Jazz and Suzuki Swift who have proven that the four-door four-seater formula works in the premium compact car segment.
The Smart Forfour’s 1.3 petrol engine makes 95hp and the 1.5 liter engine makes 109hp. These figures are ample to give the Smart forfour a zippy driving experience. There are also turbodiesel variants. Fuel consumption is rated at 5.9 liters per 100km, and service intervals are every 20,000km or roughly 12 months. Economical!
The car also comes with safety features like dual frontal airbags and dual side airbags. It also comes with ESP stability control and an anti-lock braking system. The car also has a panoramic sunroof.
A unique feature belonging to both the Smart forfour and Smart fortwo is the owner exchangeable body panels. There are 18 different colour combinations to choose from. Kind of like Nokia’s Xpress-On covers for their handphones. The owner can change the panels to whatever colour they want themselves in the comfort of their garage.
I’ve already seen the Smart forfour in Malaysia in SS2 on Saturday night. Managed to snap a picture of it. It looked really cute, but the dual-colours of the body panels gives it a unique look and needs a little getting used to for me.
September 19, 2005 @ 12:16 pm
cool design.. and sporty too..
economic oso.. what else?
just the price.. maybe up to 60K ++ if below tha 50 .
savvy go die-lah!
September 19, 2005 @ 12:17 pm
sorry.. not read carefully.. paul noticed the pric up to 100K ?wth!.. too exspensive i think.. hurmmpph..
September 19, 2005 @ 12:21 pm
hi Paul,
do you have the dimension of the car? if bigger than myvi, then maybe a good choice. i drive a 1.5 iswara..which one is more powerful?
September 19, 2005 @ 12:30 pm
The engines are sourced from Mitsu, right Paul? with MIVEC..
September 19, 2005 @ 12:41 pm
SMART Forfour platform is the same as Mitsubishi COLT, and all 4 doors outer skin are made of Plastics. This car has a unique modular door system, intergrated the Door locking system and Regulator system and very closed to WAJA’s door system. That’s why the door handle is BLACK in color. SMART cars apply many Plastic technology, very closed to PLASTIC car or TOYS looks vehicle. Due to plastic painted parts has the color matching problem with Metal painted parts, therefore TWO tone color was applied on this car same like Smart ForTWO case.
For me, it is too risky and costly to use this kind of car for daily usage because if KENA kiss by car or scratched by KL SAMSING sure dry your pocket out.
Some more OVER RM100k!! crazy car and crazy price and crazy owner!! Only RICH people will buy it as their 3rd or 4th TOYS car lei.
September 19, 2005 @ 12:49 pm
No doubt the EXTERIORs and INTERIORs design…including the 4 SPOKEs RIMs are Awesome too!!…..Good shape good shape!!…I think If less than RM80 maybe can sell in Malaysia lah!!
September 19, 2005 @ 12:50 pm
if less then 100k…i think DaimlerChrysler will lose their status as a high class car manufacture, correct?…
September 19, 2005 @ 12:56 pm
hi rafreez!
How to keep something in high class just based on CAR PRICES? Do you means IF POTONG selling GEN2 for RM100K and it will become High class?
The Forfour expensive was due to TAX!! not the original car price! CORRECT ME IF I am wrong!
September 19, 2005 @ 1:00 pm
For the first time I agree witb DTW. This car is a waste of time. I think the patent was initially by mercedes (german) and swatch (Swiss watchwaker) right? Now with Mitsubishi in the team, they could reduce cost by using Colt platform ( Isn’t Satria using it too?)
The Smart for two was a flop in the amrket, despite its apparent advantages in Europe.
why waste time? when we should go hybrid
we want hybrid (repeat many times)
we want it now
September 19, 2005 @ 1:18 pm
Yeaaa… Tax made it expensive.. blardy tax… anyway if no tax.. POTONG is dead.. P2 is dead.. Daimler & POTONG.. mana lu mau .. hahaha..
I hoe the gov will give 50% off tax for hybrid car..
September 19, 2005 @ 1:37 pm
the dual colour scheme makes it look like a proyotype being disguised and tested.
September 19, 2005 @ 1:50 pm
Looks nice, but twice the price of Myvi and Savvy, I don’t think it stands much chance no?
September 19, 2005 @ 2:09 pm
This is *the* car for Parisians! I see this car the most there, and it suits their personal needs, city roads and parking problems. In fact, this car was also featured in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code book (which was cast in Paris).
September 19, 2005 @ 2:13 pm
The Smart’s have always been expensive, even in native Europe. This has been the primary hurdle of ownership, with everything else being relatively cheap. To get replacement panels have been touted by Smart to be “relatively cheap” compared to metal cousins as light dings and dents will not alter the shape of the panel. The initial gimmic for the ForTwo (initially called the city car or some such) was that you would be able to “swap” panels to match your mood, much like a Nokia handphone.
With that said, they’ve not been able to recoup their costs as the amount of money going into the R&D of the car outweighed its reasonable selling price. No doubt this is a PREMIUM item no matter the market, but it is also one of the safest.
Ref: 5th Gear test, they drove smarts into a similarly sized Fiat, the Fiat was anihilated, the Smart was still good to go, then they drove the smart into a Benz (s-class I think), the Benz was ok (due to the large size), the Smart was flung into the air from the force of the impact, but the four wheels and passenger safety cell was still in tact. Only when they drove it into a concrete barrier used in road construction works at 60 Mph (could’ve been 40) that the Smart’s safety cell (the TRIDION) was comprimised (pretty badly too, due to its size and the proximity of the passenger to the engine bay).
The high cost could be why they had paired up with Mitsu to produce the ForFour and to lower the cost of R&D. The Smart car’s premise has always been trendy vehicles (due to initial involvement with watchmaker SWATCH), that are both safe and economical, and as with everything else in this world, desirable items come with a price.
September 19, 2005 @ 2:27 pm
Real cute and a truly a city car. A bit pricey for the m’sian market and m’sian money, with that budget, one can get a entry level mid-size saloon from Toyota or Honda. Both the Jazz an Swift is much cheaper than the Smart. It’s not very smart at that.
September 19, 2005 @ 2:33 pm
look like proton tiara( night PIC)…….. the doors…….
September 19, 2005 @ 2:40 pm
Read the “premium compact car segment”. I’ve no idea if Jazz and Swift are even in that market segment.. so, 35-40% shouldn’t be hard for them to achieve I guess. Anyway, Smart ForFour is competing in super-mini segment here in the UK alongside with VW Polo and the likes.. cost? RRP of £13K.
September 19, 2005 @ 2:57 pm
The smart-4-2 and smart-4-4 has already been in the market for quite some time.
if you like to see smart-4-4 can just drop by any daimler showroom…
i wonder why the comment says that is going to launch soon while it has been all this while in Malaysia?
September 19, 2005 @ 2:59 pm
I read somewhere that this car have paddle gear shift behind the steering wheel!! ( just like the one on FI car) together with normal gear handle. I guess they transfer this know how from their McLaren F1 Car. So you do get what you pay for with the hefty price tag. The only other car that I know that have this feature are Lambo or Ferrari.(if u can actually affort them)
September 19, 2005 @ 3:59 pm
That’s a car? Looks more like a joke.
100 k for a joke? I’d rather shag a sheep for a good laugh.
jesus.
September 19, 2005 @ 5:05 pm
… better do it in the night December; this sheep has got wing mirrors ! Anyway, wish you a good time. Heh, heh, heh.
September 19, 2005 @ 5:14 pm
i tink the price is so rediculous , beside,thers alot of uncentainty regarding smart ,i tink daimler chrysler n mitsubishi want to close down the brand bcos it has bn making losses since its launch…i bn into one in 1u,few mnths back in a showroom,i can tell the interior quality is nothing like a 100k car…i can say its on par with a normal honda city.vios quality,nothing more,which means,knock on any part of the dashboard,n u will hear that iritating plastick knock…
September 19, 2005 @ 5:23 pm
i oso tink the xchangeable body panels surely compromises the body rigidityof the car in case of accidents
September 19, 2005 @ 6:17 pm
oh.. this car… i saw it at Damansara Jaya last week. damm shock.. i though is Smart car… good design. COOL man
September 19, 2005 @ 7:35 pm
Only people who don’t don’t know what to do with their money are going to buy this car - maybe as a 2nd or 3rd car.
September 19, 2005 @ 7:40 pm
I was told Mercedes A-Serius use the same platform as Mitsubishi COLT too………….
September 19, 2005 @ 9:19 pm
This car price at RM120K
September 20, 2005 @ 8:43 am
“i oso tink the xchangeable body panels surely compromises the body rigidityof the car in case of accidents ”
These panels are non-load bearing, thus have no impact on the rigidity of the vehicle. The Smarts have always been the safests cars in their segment. Its part of their core philosophy.
September 20, 2005 @ 11:29 am
The pricing is aimed at the Honda Jazz. Between a Honda and this, I’d rather choose this. Check the specs - dual airbags, side-bags, ESP, ABS and the list goes on. Jazz got what? Think safety and you’ll know which makes sense. Do remember the recent accident in Penang. Casualties could have been minimised if the driver was able to maintain control of the car with ESP and ABS and in the event of collision, all the bags deploying.
September 20, 2005 @ 12:13 pm
michael lee…lol
September 20, 2005 @ 3:31 pm
hurmmm.. this one looks more like a car compared with its cousin, smart-4-2.. really cute.. but paul, when u mentioned the plastic panels as “outer skin”, so there is metal panels below the plastic panels izzit? correct me if i’m wrong.. and guys, for all that features and a slightly powerful than average power for a compact car, i think the price is ok laa.. summore it is from chrysler.. sure good quality and no hanky panky problems that are found in local but not so cheap cars.. rite haa?
September 23, 2005 @ 12:32 am
I saw it in 1 Utama last sunday hanging from the shopping complexes ceiling…it looks fabulous but for the price, add 20k more and get the latest Grand Vitara. Full of safety features including the side airbags..good eh.
September 24, 2005 @ 6:35 pm
Macam katak je..
October 10, 2005 @ 12:53 am
look nice but expensive. With 100k,i prefer perdana……..!
October 16, 2005 @ 8:45 pm
frankly…. for rm 100k… i’d rather go for the new ‘05 Honda City… bigger and nicer… u wan fuel efficiency? take the i-DSi version, rm84k… u wan more power? take the VTEC version, rm89k… both with spare change for u to either soup up ur bodykit or if u like, paint the car body to 2-tone colour (HAHAHAHA!!!!)
October 23, 2005 @ 10:16 pm
Well, perdana, city, jazz, good value if ou want old technology. What the 100K gets you is a Pseudo Mercedes Benz, you can get the technology which you otherwise might have to pay what is it 290K for a C class Mercedes?
Cutting edge technology like the ESP, the state of the art automatic manual transmission, good power to weight ratio, futuristic styling. Maybe the Smart cars are for those radicals who want to be ‘diferent’(and maybe got loads of cash to splash)
November 28, 2005 @ 11:59 am
Betul lah Hj Said, macam katak jer… heheheee…
Korang nie….ingatkan nak beli keta smart forfour ni tuko spectra yang kuat makan minyak ni.. tapi tak jadi coz korang kutuk… keta smart forfour ni minyak dia 1KM berapa sen? keta spectra ni 1KM = 18.5 sen… makan minyak banyak…macam nak sumbat ngan air jer… ada idea nak jimatkan minyak untuk keta spectra nie???
December 8, 2005 @ 10:16 am
hi paul,
do u have more info about smart forfour? because i have a college assignment regarding about this car… have to search for presentation…
January 20, 2006 @ 8:53 am
[...] The Mitsubishi Colt CZC will be produced at NedCar’s plant in The Netherlands. NedCar used to be the plant that produced Mitsubishi-Volvo joint venture platform vehicles, a partnership that has since failed. NedCar also makes the smart forfour. [...]
June 20, 2006 @ 2:31 pm
Tze said-”The Smart’s have always been expensive, even in native Europe. This has been the primary hurdle of ownership, with everything else being relatively cheap.” Well the fourfor petrol engine (colt engine) models cost about the same as mitsubishi colt OTR but the diesel models (mercedes A class) engines are cheaper then the A class by about 2-3 K pounds. The specs for smart forfour 1.5 and colt 1.5 are very similar. At 8-10K they are competitively priced in UK. Here paradoxically you have to be rich to get extraordinary fuel economy and drive a low emission vehicle. If fuel prices continue to be manipulated to skyrocket and motor vehicular population in M’sia continues to rise exponentially highly fuel efficient low emission vehicles are what everyone needs to have in future and the government has to step up and do something about this rather than sit on its ass guzzling oil revenues to fuel its budget deficit and wasteful spending on road infrastructure and fancy government buildings.
September 12, 2006 @ 7:56 pm
[...] Everyone is into the SUV craze and so is Smart, the small car manufacturer division of Daimler Chrysler. Wikipedia says the Smart formore was supposed to be an SUV based on the same platform as the Mercedes Benz C-class, sharing an architecture that would be used for a future Mercedes Benz MLK-class. But some other sources have said it’s built up from the Smart Forfour chassis which was based on the 2003 Mitsubishi Colt. The Smart formore would have followed Smart’s classic body styling - interchangeable plastic body panels on a steel frame. The SUV was to be powered by Mitsubishi’s 4G15 1.5 petrol unit, which was also used in the Brabus-tuned version of the Smart forfour. [...]
July 25, 2007 @ 8:54 am
This car is crap. Im currently a malaysian living in the birth country of Smarts so i know quite alot about this car coz its scattered around Berlin like Kancils in MidValley.
In euros, a basic manual transmition costs around 11,300 EUR and it goes to 27,000 EUR for the Brabus model. In Malaysia, this may look cute and promising but its just a Mitsubishi Colt underneth. The design may attract the young and sporty, but in Malaysia, for over RM100,000? the price tag seems to be targeted at business men/parents who may not like the design.
In Berlin, theres loads of students and young families with this car coz its cheap, its longer than any other compact MPVs such as Daihatsu’s and Toyota’s MPVs and its also cheaper than Audi A3, Ford Focus and the VW Golf not to mention its stylish and cheap (in Europe that is). But power wise, its not a good choice.
I was thinking of getting this car for my 18th in 5 months but im thinking twice about it coz there are much bigger cars here with the similar price. But if you’re looking for style, agility, and a brand name that has respect from the world around, this may be the car for you.