Beijing: Dong Han is an ideal customer for Mercedes Benz's booming car sales in China. A 27-year-old advertising agent with a double-income household and no children, she's upwardly mobile and highly conscious of style. But it's not Mercedes' SLK sports car or top-end S-class that strikes her fancy. Like a fast-growing number of affluent, hip Chinese, Dong is enamored with Daimler's other brand, Smart, the tiny but nimble, colorful two-seater that looks almost more toy than transport. When I test drove the Smart, I loved it right away and made up my mind. It's special, said Dong, who goes by the English name of Kathy. Not many people drive this kind of car, so it gets noticed. People don't know much about the car and ask me about it, and I quite like that too. Smart, along with the compact A class and B class, is part of Mercedes' drive to transform itself from a luxury car maker into a full-range producer. The division tallied 5,440 sales in China in the first half of this year, surpassing its entire 2010 total, and challenging sales in the United States, which have stalled after a promising start. That makes China, now the world's biggest auto market, a must-win play for Smart, which currently counts Germany and Italy as its biggest markets. Read Full : Mercedes' tiny Smart takes on big boys in China
