Piaggio does not want to buy DaimlerChrysler’s troubled Smart unit – report – Forbes.com: “FRANKFURT (AFX) – IMMSI SpA, the holding company which owns a majority stake in Piaggio & C SpA, does not want to buy DaimlerChrysler AG’s troubled Smart unit, the Financial Times Deutschland reported citing industry sources.
DaimlerChrysler hired Goldman Sachs to seek out buyers for the business, but when it approached IMMSI its management said that Smart’s problems were far too extensive for it to tackle, a source told the newspaper.
Earlier press reports indicated Smart would post an operating loss of about 600 mln eur in 2005. “
Darn… how cool would that have been? A Piaggio Smart? I still love the design of the original Smart. Small, efficient and safe. “Safe!?!” you say? Check the video. I think we won’t be seeing the Smart in the USA, even though they made the announcement for introduction in 2007. So sad.
24. January 2006 at 6:17 pm
Here’s a great video:
http://avtomoto.siol.net/?article_id=11181010511211052090
Lots of scooters and mopeds including: Tomos, Derb, Vespa, Peugeot, Aprilia, Gilera, Piaggio, Yamaha, Kymco, and Hosung. It starts off with the honda E4-01 and GRF-1. Note to Honda – if you aren’t going to put the Griffon into production stop showcasing it.
24. January 2006 at 6:46 pm
Dudel’s Griffon obsession… (did another deep Google search)… this guy seems to think the Griffon concept is a “a prototype which prefigures a model that we will probably see soon” [from the Dec-05 Milan show]:
http://borgosrv.comune.borgomanero.no.it/borgo/news.nsf/0/6f5aed42b6accc88c12570cf002bda0d?OpenDocument
At the recent Milan Motorcycle Show, displayed are some of the most beautiful motorcycles. Indeed, the beautiful-ist ones! Like the new Honda Grf-1, currently only a concept-bike, but it is a prototype which prefigures a model that we will probably see soon. In the case of the Grf-1 concept, it has something extremely interesting and in a position to offering something truly new to the motorcyclist: a “motorcycle-scooter”. A vehicle that has the performance and characteristics of a motorcycle, but also the versatility and the comforts of a scooter. Nearly a bet. But to the Honda they are accustomed to bet and nearly always they win.