2016 Smart Fortwo Passion Coupe on 2040-cars

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Missouri Mercedes dealer offering free Smart with every SLS AMG purchase

The Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT is an exquisite sports car that probably needs no help flying off dealer lots, even with a starting price of almost $200,000, but Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City has come up with an interesting incentive to sweeten the deal. For buyers who purchase a new SLS AMG from dealer stock before the end of the year, the dealership is throwing in a new Smart Fortwo from its inventory at no charge... with a required coupon no less.
In addition to being a great tactic to get a little free press, the spare car also makes sense as an alternative to the SLS, which measures more than 15-feet long - almost twice the length of a Fortwo - and has a 563-horsepower engine that sucks down gas at the rate of 13 miles per gallon in city driving (and even that's provided you don't give in to the devil on your shoulder). Plus, at the end of the day, this really isn't that big of an incentive. Being given a slow-selling $12,490 car for the purchase of a model starting at $199,500 represents about a six percent incentive, which is along the lines of a $1,900 rebate for a $30,000 car.
To get the free Smart, just visit the Mercedes-Benz of Kansas City Facebook page, redeem the coupon and then go buy yourself a new SLS AMG. Congratulations!

Smart highlights safety of new Fortwo by crashing into much bigger brother

Smart is just getting ready to launch its new Fortwo and Forfour minicars, riding on a completely different platform, and the diminutive brand wants to show that its latest creations can stand up to some serious abuse. For such a tiny car, the crashworthiness of the Smarts is a legitimate concern when taking on larger, heavier vehicles. To prove their survivability, the company filmed a head-on collision pitting the latest Fortwo against a Mercedes-Benz S-Class weighing more than twice as much.
When it unveiled the latest cars, Smart touted that it crash-tested them against the larger Mercedes-Benz C-Class and S-Class. Among their updates, the Fortwo and Forfour use a substructure containing ultra-high strength, hot-formed steel and maximum-strength, multiphase steel. They also have larger crumple zones.
Of course, Smart can make all the claims that it wants about the cars' safety, but actually showing it to people is much more convincing. At 5,088 pounds, the S-Class dominates the 2,478-pound Fortwo in terms of weight. Scroll down to see how the little hatchback fares against the more expensive, luxury sedan in a 31-mile-per-hour frontal crash.

Smart ForTwo Brabus Electric Drive is a black and green upgrade

If given the choice, we'd grab the keys to an all-electric Smart ForTwo way before its gasoline-powered sibling, if for no other reason than it would mean we wouldn't have to put up with that horrid automated manual transmission. But such faint praise isn't really fair to the Brabus Electric Drive. After all, it's got 80 horsepower on tap, which is plenty for the little urban runabout, and its 100 pound-feet of torque ought to be available from zero rpm.
Brabus has also seen fit to lower the Smart ED 10 millimeters closer to the pavement, which, along with the 16-inch front and 17-inch rear monoblock wheels, should improve the way it handles. Less convincing an upgrade is the onboard sound generator... though perhaps one strategically pulled fuse might make short work of that oversight.
Feel free to peruse the press release below, but not before checking out our high-res image gallery of live photos from the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.