Guess Which Car Brand Is Not Predicted To Survive After 2016

Nov. 08, 2015 2:30 PM ET by Jay Traugott Rumor / 17 Comments

We doubt there'll be any tears.

Let's face it, the auto industry is ridiculously competitive. Customers have high expectations these days in terms of, well, everything. Safety, value, features – you name it. If a certain make or model can't hack it, then it's gone. That simple. According to USA Today and 24/7 Wall St, one carmaker in particular may not have a future post-2016, in the US at least. Which one could it be? That'd be Smart. Big surprise. According to the study, the Mercedes-Benz-owned brand has sold only 5,432 units in the US in the first nine months of this year.

That's down 32.8% from that time last year. Heck, Maserati sold more cars than Smart – and the cheapest Maserati costs over $70,000. The typical Smart car goes for about $19k. Although they're compact and fuel efficient, Smart cars are pretty expensive considering the competition. One example is the Nissan Versa. It has a base price of just $11,990 and over 110,000 examples were sold in the US so far in 2015. Thanks to significant decreases in US gas prices, forking over nearly $20k for a Smart car doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And – let's face it – Smart cars never caught on in the US the way Daimler-Benz hoped they would.