# Mercedes Nafa



## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

I came across about this in a recent article on a german site. Apparently, Mercedes Benz was developing an ultra-small city vehicle back in 1986. I've checked their corporate site and it was there indeed.

Mercedes Nafa

At the end of the text, they say that the ideas introduced on the Nafa are living on the A-Class, which debuted 9 years later and the Smart, which debuted 10 years later (although Smart was the idea of Swatch founder hayek)

Here's a picture










It's a concept and like almost every concept, it's ugly. I don't know why it didn't go into production at that time, since similar cars with the same concept have been built and successfuly sold long time ago (MINI, Fiat etc). Maybe it had to do with the brand image of MB at that time. Anyway, I found it quite interesting and thought I'd share it.


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## racerdave (Sep 15, 2003)

It looks like a phone booth on wheels... or just the center portion of the Popemobile, minus the hood and trunk.


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

racerdave said:


> It looks like a phone booth on wheels... or just the center portion of the Popemobile, minus the hood and trunk.


But it has sport seats


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## Just Bryce (Sep 23, 2005)

Alex Baumann said:


> But it has sport seats


A MOMO steering wheel and some Dubs w/ spinners that thing would be cool :rofl: :rofl:


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## LmtdSlip (May 28, 2003)

I am guessing they werent focusing on side impact protection back in 1986.

Its fun to look back on emerging technology and then see how it was actually applied.


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## Betcour (May 23, 2003)

Alex Baumann said:


> I don't know why it didn't go into production at that time, since similar cars with the same concept have been built and successfuly sold long time ago (MINI, Fiat etc).


AFAIK the original Mini and the Fiat 500 were 4 seats car, this one looks to be a two seater only, which further limits the market.


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

Betcour said:


> AFAIK the original Mini and the Fiat 500 were 4 seats car, this one looks to be a two seater only, which further limits the market.


You're correct, they were 4-seaters.

Kinda weird, small cars (a la Smart, Fiat 500) is having a hard time to conquer market shares, although driving big cars in (european) metropole cities can easily be a nightmare.

They tried everything to push the Smart sales, but it didn't really take off. They offered special fares in garages (2 Smart on one parking space for half of the regular price), Rail and Drive (special ticket prices for Smart drivers) etc., nothing really helped. Last time I heard that Mercedes was planning to dump the brand. (or already did)

As all these things were in the media, a recent research revealed that average utilization of a vehicle was 1.2 person in Germany. Go figure


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## Betcour (May 23, 2003)

Alex Baumann said:


> Kinda weird, small cars (a la Smart, Fiat 500) is having a hard time to conquer market shares, although driving big cars in (european) metropole cities can easily be a nightmare.


Indeed, and the size increase in every generation gets ridiculous. I was looking at buying a house downtown and most of the garages, built after the war, can't accomodate anything bigger than a new Mini 



> They tried everything to push the Smart sales, but it didn't really take off. They offered special fares in garages (2 Smart on one parking space for half of the regular price), Rail and Drive (special ticket prices for Smart drivers) etc., nothing really helped. Last time I heard that Mercedes was planning to dump the brand. (or already did)


I think one of the bigger issue is the Smart's price : it's the same price as bigger, more versatile cars. The developpement should probably have been done with a manufacturer more used to building tiny and affordable cars (ie : Fiat) and reuse some components. It would sell like hotcakes at 6 or 7k€ but not 12k€ :tsk:


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## Alex Baumann (Dec 19, 2001)

Betcour said:


> I think one of the bigger issue is the Smart's price : it's the same price as bigger, more versatile cars. The developpement should probably have been done with a manufacturer more used to building tiny and affordable cars (ie : Fiat) and reuse some components. It would sell like hotcakes at 6 or 7k€ *but not 12k€* :tsk:


This is very true. At €12k, there are 'real' cars with 4 doors 

Yes, I think wrong pricing strategy ruined the success of the concept. Unfortunately they couldn't repeat what they achieved with Swatch (funky and cheap Swiss watches). Well, they did the funky part, but the cheap part was nowhere to be seen.


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## armaq (Apr 18, 2003)

You guys forgot the BMW E1 concept of 1991? Looked good back in the day in magazines and IMO still looks pretty modern today.


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## armaq (Apr 18, 2003)

Thought I'd seen a very small Z car, and after some googling here it is, the Z13


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