Under design director Jens Manske in autumn 1998, Smart's 14 person design and engineering team began to sketch possible future Smart cars. With new management, new marketing initiatives, and continuing revisions to the car's engineering to answer public concerns, future vehicle plans, including the development of a four-seat model, had not been far advanced. Inside the company, the evangelical buzz surrounding the launch of the radical City-Coupe quickly evaporated. Production projections were slashed from 200,000 per year to 80,000, close to disastrous for a new brand with just one product. Public concerns over the car's stability, combined with Smart's elitist marketing and the sheer radicality of the car's design, proved damaging to initial sales. These forced a package of alterations to be made that were both expensive and compromised the car's handling, ride, and gear shift. The City Coupe had stability problems that were discovered only immediately prior to launch. It was also the beginning of a difficult period for Smart.
![rodstar rodstar](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PF6XRh4RVbY/maxresdefault.jpg)
This was the beginning of a new car brand and one of the more radical vehicle concepts to hit the European market since the bubble cars of the 1950s. ( August 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Īt the 1998 Paris Motor Show, the two-seat, 2.5 m (98 in)-long Smart City-Coupe (later named Smart Fortwo) was launched. Please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance.
![rodstar rodstar](https://www.championx.com/assets/images/blogs/Header.jpg)
This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information.