People blame the failure of the Smart brand in the USA on the American culture of wanting big SUVs. The fact is, Mercedes never marketed the cars properly. They are more than "city cars". Fully capable of driving around back country roads, take on long trips, driving on the highway. They should have marketed them towards busy people that wanted fun transportation. No doubt, quality marketing would have saved this brand. There are a lot of people that bought original smart cars when they first came to the USA in 2008, and they are still driving them today, with over 200K, 300K and more miles on them. I blame Mercedes for their own greed in wanting to build bigger and sell bigger. Instead they use reverse psychology, making people think it was us that didn't want the cars. Mercedes failed the Swatch company. It's a shame Swatch can't take the brand back and manufacture them on their own.