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Car2go shuts down in the UK

Until now, the trajectory of the Car2go carsharing service has been growth, growth, growth. But the expansion has hit a snag in jolly old England, where Daimler has announced it will shut down operations there. This means that the two Car2go UK locations, London and Birmingham, will no longer offer one-way, short-term car rentals as of tomorrow. Car2go is blaming "the UK's strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership" for the failure of the carsharing program in England. The company isn't giving up yet, and says it will "continue to observe the UK market for cultural changes towards the 'free-floating [carsharing] model'." UK Car2go members will still be able to use their moovel-accounts at Car2go projects in other European cities. The problem, a spokesman told Reuters, is that Car2go never registered over 10,000 users in the UK. Globally, there are over 750,000 Car2go users. Car2go started offering trips in the UK in the fall of 2012, when things were much more positive. The company said that it convinced the City of Birmingham to partner with it on a urban mobility pilot project thanks to Car2go's "unique features and many years of global experience in the sector of urban mobility." WITHDRAWAL FROM UK MARKET car2go, the pioneer of "free-floating" car sharing, will be withdrawing from the UK with effect from 30 May 2014. We've listened closely to customer feedback and taking the UK's strong culture and tradition of private vehicle ownership into account, we have decided to withdraw from the UK market place. car2go launched in Birmingham in 2013 and has been operating in three London boroughs since December 2012. The unique challenges we encountered were more significant than expected. As the world's largest free-floating carsharing provider, we will continue to observe the UK market for cultural changes towards the "free-floating model". car2go will continue to be a worldwide success story as we operate in a total of 25 cities around the World with more than 700,000 customers. With a moovel-account and a validated driving licence you will be still able to use car2go in all other 12 European car2go cities. === CLOSURE OF CAR2GO BIRMINGHAM AND WITHDRAWAL FROM UK MARKET car2go, the pioneer of "free-floating" car sharing, will be withdrawing from Birmingham with effect from 30 May 2014.

Junkyard Gem: 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion

Even as American drivers tended to choose increasingly massive trucks for their daily commutes, Daimler AG decided that money could be made selling a microscopic two-seater with a 73-1/2" wheelbase here. Sales never met Stuttgart's expectations, but sufficient Smart Fortwos were sold to Americans that used-up examples show up occasionally in the car graveyards I frequent. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of the Fortwos sold here during its optimistic first model year, found in a boneyard in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month. Many European cities allow perpendicular parking on streets for vehicles as short as the Fortwo, which meant that drivers could squeeze two Fortwos into a space that would fit just a single parallel-parked ordinary car. For the most part, this parking method couldn't be done legally in the United States, negating the Smart's primary practicality advantage. Fuel economy wasn't great for such a tiny machine: 33 mph city, 40 mpg highway, worse than the gas mileage of both the 2008 Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid. Still, fuel prices spiked hard in 2008, with average per-gallon cost of gasoline hitting $4.11 in July of that year (about $5.91 in 2023 dollars), and the Fortwo's decent fuel economy must have helped sales. The curb weight of the '08 Fortwo was just a bit over 1,800 pounds, or about the same as a mid-1980s Honda Civic. In fact, this car's 70 horsepower falls neatly between the 60 horses of the 1985 Honda Civic 1300 and the 76 horses of the 1985 Honda Civic 1500. This car was optimized for one trait, at which it excelled: short overall length. It's even shorter than Japan's kei specifications (its width is too great to allow it to be registered as a kei car in Japan, though Smart eventually made a narrowed Japanese-market version). As the owner and daily driver of a genuine kei van (which gets 60 mpg in town and seats four), the only thing I envy about the Fortwo is its superior highway-speed capability. That's the advantage of a mighty 999cc Mitsubishi three-cylinder over a kei-compliant 658cc Subaru four-cylinder. This is the Passion trim level, which came with air conditioning and this sunroof. The MSRP was $13,590, or about $19,531 in 2023 dollars. It appears that the driver's airbag deployed at some point and was then taped up. That crash damage may have been what doomed this car. After taking a shot at selling electric Fortwos here, Smart gave up on the US-market Fortwo after 2019.

Fashion designer Jeremy Scott gives Smart Fortwo Electric some wing bling [w/video]

If you were to gaze upon the Smart Fortwo Electric Drive and ponder what you might add to sort of, you know, set it off a bit, you probably wouldn't consider adding a pair of wings. That's because you are not Jeremy Scott. He, on the other hand, would do exactly that. And has.
That's right, that winged wonder you see pictured above is not some sort of Redbull-induced hallucination. Rather, it is the result of a creative collaboration between Mercedes-Benz Cars Advanced Design Studios and the aforementioned famed fashion designer called, appropriately enough, the Smart ForJeremy. And, it has just made its debut at the LA Auto Show.
Besides the faux-feather flourishes that light up when the brakes are applied, the outward appearance of this 2013 limited special edition is tarted up with a custom set of propeller-inspired wheels with just enough shiny to balance the chromed finish of its tridion shell, mirrors and, um, "eyebrows."