Smart insurance quotes and insurance groups

Insurance group ratings take into account performance, security, damage and parts costs, new car values, availability of body shells and repair costs and times. What you'll typically find is that cars in lower insurance groups cost less to insure, whilst cars in higher insurance groups attract a higher premium - usually because they are high performance models or have high repair or replacement costs.

Smart is an automotive brand of Daimler AG, based in Germany and produced in France.

The idea behind the original smart car was to create a vehicle that would be affordable to young people and easy to park "nose in" to the kerb. The project was started by Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch and to realise this dream Swatch CEO Nicolas Hayek approached three established car manufacturers – General Motors, Volkswagen and Daimler-Benz. After plans fell through with Volkswagen, a purpose built factory was established in 1994 in a joint venture between Swatch and Daimler-Benz.

1997 saw the official launch of the Smart city-coupé and within one year the vehicle was available in nine countries. Today the Smart is available in 25 countries and recorded sales are in excess of 750,000.

In 2006, the joint venture company was absorbed into Mercedes Benz, and the extra financial prowess has allowed the company to design the Smart EV. The EV is an electric vehicle and is due to be released in 2009.