2009 Smart Fortwo Brabus on 2040-cars

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Smart offers $75 lease deal to Car2go users in San Diego

If you've been saving money by sharing a car instead of buying your own, then maybe you have enough left over to go lease one. Because if there's anything that sharing a car should teach you, it's to want your own, right? We're confused, too. Whatever the reasoning, Car2go users in San Diego are being offered an unusual – but darn affordable – deal on a new Smart ForTwo lease: just $75 a month for the Pure model (with $1,493 due at signing, plus government fees and taxes). To put that into Car2go carsharing terms, that's as much as it would cost to share the car for about 182 minutes (or for five hours at the $14.99 hourly max, if you're renting the car that way). The deal is only good for Car2go San Diego members and their family and friends at Smart Center San Diego until January 2, 2015. If you want the Passion model, it'll cost you $99 a month (plus the aforementioned $1,493 at signing). Smart sales a doing okay in the US this year. Through November 2014, Smart has sold 9,480 ForTwos in the US. That's up 13 percent from the 8,409 sold through November 2013. If you'd like to add to the total, and meet the qualifications, we've got the fine print disclosures below, including details on the 10,000 miles a year limit and a $395 turn-in fee. *Disclosure for pure model: Available only to qualified customers through Mercedes-Benz Financial services at only smart center San Diego only through 1/2/2015. On approved above average credit. Advertised lease payment based on MSRP of $14,370. All advertise prices exclude government fees and taxes, any finance charges, any dealer document processing charge, any electronic filing charge, and any emission testing charge. Cash Due at signing Includes $295 acquisition fee, first month's lease payment of $75, total due at signing $1,493 plus government fees and taxes. No security deposit required. Total payments equal $4,448. AT lease end, lessee pays for any amounts due under the lease, any official fees, and taxes related to the scheduled termination, excess wear and use plus 0.25/mile over 30,000 total miles, and a $395 turn-in fee. Purchase option at lease end for $8,478 plus taxes (and any other fees and charges due under the applicable lease agreement) in example shown. Specific vehicles are subject to availability and may have to be ordered. See dealer for details.

Smart Fortwo successor spotted wearing new nose

Judging by the numerous concept vehicles from Smart lately, we can pretty much already tell what the future has in store for the brand's growing lineup. Still, these new spy shots give us our first look at the next Fortwo being tested with what looks to be a production-ready nose.
Although this mule still uses cobbled together pieces from a Renault Twingo that we've seen in previous spy shots, the camouflaged front end shows a likeness to recent concepts like the Fourjoy and Forstars. This includes the short, flat nose, an enlarged grille and the headlight shape, but one noticeable difference is the addition of marker lights positioned just below the main beams. From what we hear, the next-gen Fortwo will be unveiled early next year at the Geneva Motor Show, and it will be slightly bigger than the current model.

Car2go kills all-EV fleet in San Diego, replaces it with gas cars

The all-electric car sharing Car2go fleet started with a bang in 2011. The mood was positively sunny, with then-CEO of Car2go North America Nick Cole telling me that these small, short-term rental EVs were, "a realistic alternative to traditional car ownership." Despite the rapid acceptance of the zero-emission runabouts by thousands of local users, things have turned sour. After updating the fleet to newer EVs last year and even providing incentives to users to charge up when they were done driving, Car2go has announced it will get rid of all of the electric Smart Fortwos and replace them with gas-powered cars. Car2go is laying part of the blame on the Department of Energy, which had a plan to install 1,000 charging stations in San Diego by the end of 2011. There are only 400 installed around the city today, and only 126 are inside the Car2go Home Area. That's why, "we've all been left with inadequate EV charging infrastructure in San Diego that makes it very difficult to maintain an EV fleet," Car2go says in an email. For the rest of the year, Car2go San Diego is dropping its prices to just 19 cents a minute (the usual price is 41 cents). San Diego city councilman Todd Gloria told The San Diego Union-Tribune that, the announcement is "a lesson to all of us that we have to work harder to build the infrastructure necessary to support electric vehicles and other transportation modes." The company's headline on the email announcing this change? "Want to go father for less? Of course you do!" You can read the whole thing below. Related Video: Want to go father for less? Of course you do! When we launched car2go San Diego in 2011, we were excited to make San Diego the first city in America with a fully electric (EV) carsharing fleet. Our bold decision to go 100% EV was based on the Department of Energy's commitment to install 1,000 Blink charging stations through a company called ECOtality by the end of 2011. Unfortunately, that just didn't happen. Not even close. ECOtality went bankrupt in 2013, and despite efforts by the City of San Diego to encourage additional charging stations, we've all been left with inadequate EV charging infrastructure in San Diego that makes it very difficult to maintain an EV fleet. For that reason, as of May 1, we are replacing our San Diego EV fleet with the same internal combustion smart fortwo car2gos used by hundreds of thousands of members in our 12 other North American locations.