Re: [T3] Hybrids

[Steven Ayres <comwest@att.net>]

<x-flowed>JimA=> Was that actually the problem? Or was there just a decision that a
=> market crazed about SUVs (the bigger the better!) was not ready for
=> even the best economy car?

My partner and I were hoping to get a dealership here and following 
developments pretty closely. The market in Arizona, with its retirement 
and golf communities full of people on fixed incomes, is a better fit 
for Smart than many realize.  It's true that DaimlerChrysler could 
probably have eventually got them in if it had kept pushing and 
lobbying, but the regulatory hurdles placed by the government were huge 
and the company would have had to keep investing heavily through an 
uncertain period in hopes of winning a market with unproven demand. The 
Smart didn't fit a lot of the assumptions that DoT builds in.

Steven Ayres, Prescott AZ

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