A successor to the original Smart Roadster->ke1312 has been in the pipeline longer than we can even remember so it figures that it's only a matter of time before we see an image of the new car hit the Web.
Well, thanks to a Smart customer, we may finally have the first rendering of what the new Roadster is going to look like. There's no word yet on what kind of powertrain the new Roadster will carry, but judging from the rendering, the new Roadster does bear some striking similarities to the ForSpeed Concept that we saw last March at the Geneva Motor Show.
Dare we say, there might even some Mercedes->ke187, Porsche->ke57 and MINI->ke57 design elements added to the car's classy yet sporty overall profile. Then again, we're not the least bit surprised that there's some Merc design influence on it, seeing as Mercedes' parent company, Daimler, also owns Smart.
Similarly, the underpinning for the new Roadster hasn't been revealed yet, although you could point out to the recent collaboration between Daimler and Renault->ke72-Nissan->ke62 to develop a new rear-drive platform as a hint of what lies ahead for the new Roadster.
All this, of course, is still a matter of conjecture. But we're nonetheless excited to see some progress being made on the upcoming release of the next-generation Smart Roadster, which has been penciled in, by the way, for 2012.
2012 Smart Roadster
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- Model: 2012 Smart Roadster
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