Straightline

Smart Unveils The Virtual Press Conference

Smart is sort of the pilot fish to Mercedes-Benz' shark, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that the minicar division didn't have its own press conference to unveil the Fortwo model that it's bringing to the U.S. Instead, it just rode along with Mercedes and used a few of the main company's press-conference minutes.

In fact, there wasn't even an actual Smart anywhere near the conference. Instead, Roger Penske, who will head the U.S. distribution for Smart, appeared, God-like, on a huge, ceiling-mounted screen to have a conversation with Dieter Zetsche. He noted that while he wasn't standing on ice, as Dr. Z was, he was standing next to a really "cool car." And that, as they say, was that. -- Daniel Pund