A Few Quick Words With Dave Schembri

smartUSA officially introduced the Brabus coupe and cabriolet at the Los Angeles show. Since I've covered the Brabus editions already, I'm not going to retrace my steps. I would only add that smartUSA announced they would be offering a whole range of Brabus accessories at their dealerships. After the press conference, smartUSA President Dave Schembri was kind enough to grant me a very short interiew.

Since the Brabus editions sold out so quickly, I asked Mr. Schembri I we might see a special edition each year. Mr. Schembri said that smartUSA would definitely be doing different things to keep interest levels high and limited edition models are certainly one way to do that. My own impression is that smartUSA will definitely be milking this cow for a long time.

One disappointment with the Brabus edition was that it did not sport the higher powered, 98hp turbo motor. I asked if we might see that engine here in the USA and Mr. Schembri indicated that it is certainly something that they are looking into. If you ask me, I think we'll see a turbo offering in the USA in the next few years.

Now we'll get to a few items that Mr. Schembri isn't interested in at all: extending the factory bumper to bumper warranty, diesel engines and micro hybrid drive. According to Mr. Schembri, customers are very happy with the fact that smart did not bake the cost of a longer warranty into the list price of the car. I certainly don't have information as to how smartUSA obtained that data, but my experience on enthusiast boards has been that everyone would prefer at least a 3/36 warranty. I have to say, Mr. Schembri seemed pretty comfortable in his position, but I suppose if smart sales start taking a dive they could revisit this one. Speaking of sales, I asked Mr. Schembri if he had begun to see a lot of orphans stacking up at dealerships. I mentioned the apparent 17 orphans that had been spotted at smart center Portland. Mr. Schembri said that there had been no increase in the "days to turn" and that October actually had a lower "days to turn" than September. Mr. Schembri said that a stop/start here in the USA would not be effective given the large amount of highway driving that we do. As for the diesel, well, he just didn't seem interested at all.

My final question was more of a fishing trip. I mentioned to Mr. Schembri that a few smart fortwo's have been spotted at Northern California's electric car manufacturer Tesla, "Really?!" he exclaimed with a smile on his face. Mr. Schembri then directed me to call then Daimler engineer in charge of electric smarts. I couldn't really tell if Dave knew more than he was letting on with regards to electric smarts. It's my own belief that Los Angeles will be the first test market for the electric fortwo, but I don't have any confirmation from official sources.