The Fortwo is a small-packaging miracle. But is the rest of the car equally smart?


Execs from Smart USA like to point out that the vast majority of cars on the road in the U.S. have only one person in them. Smart USA president David Schembri likens our commuting habits to going to a restaurant alone but ordering meals for the whole family. An extreme analogy, but the man has a point.

Given that logic, we should all commute on motorcycles, right? This would also serve to purge the gene pool of a great number of dimwits, nincompoops, and other morons who would no doubt try to dial phones, check e-mail, or read the morning paper on two wheels. Of course, motorcycles comprise only the smallest percentage of annual motor vehicle sales, and what of those stuck in seasonal climates like the one about to throw our Hogback Road office into a dark gray funk for six months?

The Smart solution is the Fortwo, a car with two seats and reasonable luggage space in a body about the same size and weight as your average Honda Gold Wing trike.

Like an Energy Bar: Lots of Nutrients in a Small Package

Pricing starts at $11,590 plus a destination fee that hasn’t been worked out yet. We presume it will be lower than the industry average because the guys down at the docks can pack more miniature Fortwos onto each truckload. No, that’s not true.

This little automotive energy bar manages 45 cubic feet of passenger space and 12 cubes of cargo space in a body just 106 inches—8 feet, 10 inches—long. Thanks to its upright stance, the Fortwo offers 40 inches of headroom—within an inch of a Cadillac Escalade—and just 0.1 inch less legroom than the ’Slade. We sent a 6’7” staffer to drive the Smart and he fit.

Consider this: at 6’7” and 260 pounds, our man is 75 percent as tall as the Fortwo is long and 14 percent of the Smart’s 1800-pound curb weight. In order to package equivalently-sized passengers, the last Ford F-150 we tested would have had to accommodate a pair of people measuring 13 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing over 800 pounds apiece. Say what you will about the American public’s obesity problem, but we are a long ways from that sort of height.

Clever Engineering and Intelligent Design

It’s not just space that the interior boasts, but excellent execution as well. It’s a simple, yet attractive, mix of black and gray plastics and fabric trim matching the seats in red, tan, or black. In front of the driver and behind the steering wheel sits a single large gauge, an analog speedometer with digital fuel and water-temp gauges below. An optional package sprouts a tach and an analog clock mid-dash on a pair of alien eye stalks.

Especially considering the Smart’s low price, the interior surprises with its quality feel and thoughtful detailing. Glossy plastic color-matched to the interior fabrics trims the instrumentation and tops the turn-signal and windshield-wiper stalks, and instead of generic knobs for the climate controls, a pair of vertical sliders—one for temp and one for fan speed—flank the fan control knob, all of which are molded in a classy satin-silver plastic and set in the middle of the dash.

It May Look Like an Egg, But Just Try to Crack It

Though opinions on the Fortwo’s styling vary greatly, we like it. The overall shape of the car eliminates many possible descriptors, but we will absolutely call it cute. The upright stance, tall windows, contrasting colors of the body panels and the safety cage (more on that in a second), double-almond headlights, and upturned edges on the grille lend the Smart a friendly, disarming appearance. This is not the sort of car that gets the finger from any other motorist.

That band of contrasting color wrapping over and around the Fortwo is not just a stylistic element; it is actually the car’s most important safety feature. Called the Tridion Safety Cell by Smart, it is essentially a roll cage. If you’ve ever watched a race driver walk away from a horrific, tumbling wreck and wondered how a person could survive that, it is primarily because the roll cage keeps the car from collapsing in on the driver.

A cage of beefy steel that completely surrounds the cabin, the Tridion Cell performs the same function as a race car’s roll cage, minimizing dangerous collapse of the cabin and intrusion into the passenger compartment by foreign objects—be they trees, SUV bumpers, or charging elephants—and ensuring that the bodies of the passengers can decelerate without cracking heads and rib cages on structural metal. In addition to the cell, the doors in the Fortwo are filled with considerable bracing.

NHTSA has yet to stuff a Smart into a wall, but Europe’s crash-happy NCAP administration—which scores cars only in collisions with similarly-sized vehicles—awarded the Fortwo four out of five stars for occupant protection. We’re skeptical about how the rigid body shell and tiny crumple zones transmit the force of a larger crash to the occupants of the tiny Fortwo, but Smart has data from an offset frontal crash test with a Mercedes-Benz S-class (both cars traveling at 31 mph, for a combined speed of 62 mph) that shows the Smart does indeed crash and protect its occupants like a much bigger car.

I Thought I Ordered This Well Done

Despite the thorough engineering of space and safety, not all aspects of the Smart are equally well-prepared. The three-cylinder gasoline engine (the only engine we get in the U.S.) sips fuel at the miserly rate expected of a 1.0-liter mill, but it idles like a cold ’81 Peugeot diesel, produces barely more power than a single Ferrari F430 Scuderia cylinder—70 hp—and requires premium fuel. Even so, with gas over $3.00 a gallon, an extra 20 cents per is offset by the 33/40 city/highway mpg estimate Smart is expecting from the EPA.

Smart predicts 0–60 in 12.8 seconds, but we know that judging the Fortwo on its performance is like criticizing a Dodge Viper for its poor fuel economy. We can forgive the weak engine because it will help the Smart achieve its fuel-sipping goal, but the transmission is another matter.

Between the rear-mounted three-cylinder and the driven rear wheels sits a five-speed manual transmission with automated shifting, the only available transmission. Similar to Ferrari’s F1, Lamborghini’s e-gear, or BMW’s SMG, this feels like an early test-version of those transmissions. Upshifts come way too early and gear changes are slow enough to let the Kenworth in the next lane over catch up between cogs. And clutch takeup from a stop is as smooth as that of a first-time self-shifter in driver’s ed.

Shifts can be affected manually using either the shifter or paddles mounted behind the steering wheel, but that only improves their timing. They still take aching seconds and the information display calls for upshifts way too early for the small-displacement three, sometimes dropping the tach as low as 1500 rpm. A Corvette Z06’s LS7 can comfortably lug at those speeds but, with a torque peak of 470 lb-ft, that V-8 betters the Fortwo’s 68 pound-feet of torque by 402.

Once under way, the Smart is uncharacteristically stiff, riding more like a sports car than a stingy fuel sipper. Perhaps that’s in the interest of momentum preservation, since obtaining it is no easy task. At highway speeds, rough roads get awfully unsettling and 80 mph can be downright scary, with the car darting around its lane in crosswinds and bouncing over pavement imperfections. Good thing it’s so narrow and can therefore weave a lot without leaving its lane.

Going isn’t the only problem the Fortwo has. It isn’t particularly happy stopping, either. The brake pedal is almost as stiff as an unboosted system, and offers no feel at all. Stops in the Smart tend to lurch like the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera we drove recently.

Did They Make You a Pie When You Moved In?

As much as we object to the way the car goes and stops, we still like the idea of the Smart—a minimalist yet voluminous transport capsule for two people and a large load of groceries that doesn’t take up a ton of space on the highway. But this is the second generation of a car that’s been on sale in Europe for nine years, and we expected it to accelerate and brake with far more polish.

Just look at the Toyota Yaris, a similarly priced car with slightly inferior fuel-economy numbers that has a back seat for those occasions when the whole family goes to dinner. The Yaris isn’t one of our favorites, either, but the execution is much better. Schembri points out that the Yaris isn’t the kind of car that your neighbors will come over to talk about, which is true. We guess it’s a question of how much you like your neighbors.



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M

Nice writeup by C & D. It is pretty dismaying to hear about the driving characteristics of the car...crappy engine, poor driving comfort, bad brake pedal feel, sluggish transmission. You would think MB could at least throw in a good old 5-speed Auto, drop in an A-Class brake mechanism, and maybe offer a Bluetec engine.

You have to remember how small car it is. The standard 5-spd auto tranny Mercedes uses wouldn't propably fit and it would also be too heavy. Same goes for the Bluetec. This car has a 3-cylinder engine, remember? Bluetec would be far too complicated a system to be fit into the very limited space the smart has.

The auto-tranny is way too heavy, way too big for the small car.
It would increase the mpg a lot, too.
Last but not least, these auto-gearbox needs hp to go, they don't fit on such little motor. With this gearbox, with this torque, the smart would not be able to move at all...

For the first generation, smallest Fortwo, they had a 6-speed gearbox. Do you know why?

Because it was so small that they created a...3-gears gearbox, and when you asked for the fourth gear, it putted the first and changed the ratio of the gearbox (like a suv when you put the reduction, the slowest ratio for hard terrain).

So basically it was a 3-gears with two ratios...the 1,2 and 3 were using the "reducted" ratio, then it engages the "normal" ratio and put the 1, 2 and 3 again... That is why the gearchanges were slightly slower from 3 to 4 and from 4 to 3.

Ah, thanks for the info!! Makes a lot more sense. Still, does the performance have to be that compromised?

The smart needs to be economical, and does not need a big, heavy motor. It is made for the city, where power is not really a must. The three first gears are short, so the car is really nervous in the city traffic.

The gearbox is a bit slow, because it can't cost as much as the whole car...

Overall the smart is a very funny car to drive, I liked it a lot (never tried the second generation though).

Parking in perpendicular is...just fabulous.

Would you ever suggest that someone buy one?

Or go for some other (comparably priced) car?

Well the problem is that it has only 2 seats, obviously, so it depends of your needs.
Perpendicular parking is fabulous in a city, and you really can park everywhere with a smart.

I found it very pleasant to drive in the city, more than many other small cars. It's a toy, it looks good, the interior is fun too, it is relatively well-equipped. Surprisingly vast inside.

But the finition is rather poor, the gearbox is not excellent, and the comfort quite firm. Is there a storm with a lot of side-wind and you will have to slow down because the car will move sideways...

Overall, it is extraordinary in the city, but not really on the highways.

Try it, it is very special to drive. Either you love it, or you hate it.

I was very happy with mine, a first-gen cabrio with the little cdi-diesel motor (very weak, I advise the petrol engines with the impressive Porsche-wannabe noise. Don't know if the 2nd gen still make it).

Yes is still gives you the Porsche-wannabe noise, I bought one last December and yes it's city driving only. I posted some pictures and a short write-up

With gas prices what they are, I need a small car (to run small deliveries) that gets great gas mileage, is safe and won't destroy my wallet. So far it sounds good


That's exactly what I'm worried about. Instead of the Smart, I was thinking about used VW Golfs or Jettas, but the last model ones are increasingly hard to find.

Do you have any opinions?

Thanks for the response, by the way