With US retail sales of the small two seater currently at disappointing levels manufacturer Mercedes Benz initiates a pilot rental program in the Lone Star State.

smart fortwo

At LotPro.com, we’ve never really disliked the smart fortwo. Our argument with the car has always been that its focus may be just too narrow. In addition, trying to make an economic case for it as a first, or even second, car is difficult.

The base pure model starts at $11,990, about the same as a Chevy Aveo 5. For that price, neither vehicle comes with air conditioning or power windows. The Aveo comes standard with a 1.6-liter 4 making 108 hp, while the pure comes equipped with a 1.0-liter 3 and 71 hp.

Stepping up to the passion trim gives you, among other things, air conditioning and a radio, but with a jump in price to $13,990 – and now we’re only a grand away from the base Honda Fit. It should also be pointed out that both the Aveo 5 and the Fit also include back seats and a decent amount of storage – something both smart models lack.

In any case, taking retail sales numbers into account (September sales were down over 50% from 2008 with year to date sales down by almost 33%), the bloom may well be off the rose for the fortwo.

So to prop up numbers, parent company Daimler AG has come up with a tried-and-true method to boost its numbers – rental fleets.

car2go

On Tuesday, Daimler announced that in partnership with the City of Austin it was launching its car2go pilot project in North America. As a bonus, Austin also becomes the official headquarters of car2go North America LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler.

At the outset, 200 smart fortwo vehicles will be made available within the city for all registered car2go members. The fleet will be available 24/7 and, after a one-time registration process, customers can access vehicles on the street or by online reservation and may use the fortwo for as long as they like with charges based on time and rates starting by the minute.

The first-ever pilot took place in Ulm, Germany in October of 2008. During that pilot, the fleet of 200 smarts was rented between 500 and 1,000 times per day and was used by 15,000 customers with 90% of the rentals taking place outside the reservation process.