The Smart ForTwo's compact size makes for easy parking, but it doesn't drive well and it's too expensive for what it is. See more photos of the Smart in today's slideshow. The Smart ForTwo isn’t designed for subdued colors, like the black (with black interior) on the car driven for this review. With its stubby appearance and uniquely compact size, it’s a car that you buy for the goofy fun it seems to promote. Every ForTwo (or “Smart Car,” as the vehicle is popularly known) should be bright yellow to maximize the “cheap and cheerful” image it aims to present.
The Smart needs to look as much like a happy little vehicle as possible to offset the unpleasant driving experience it offers people who have paid real-car money to own one.
There are some things you must of course expect to give up when you buy a Smart, a two-seater that at 106 inches long takes up less of a parking space than half a Lincoln Town Car, or that with just 70 horsepower coming from its 1-liter 3-cylinder engine offers less than half the power of the average compact economy car.
You can’t really expect power or refinement from such a car, nor be too upset at the Smart for failing to deliver them. Try to accelerate and you get sluggish response and lots of angry buzzing from the little rear-mounted engine, as if you’ve missed the gas pedal outright and instead jammed your foot into a wasp’s nest. The lack of zip is not so extreme that someone who’s used to economy cars of a decade or more ago (or the small cars still sold today in Europe) would find a problem, but other new cars are quicker. The Smart was able to safely make a right turn up a steep hill onto a decently trafficked road – for readers in Alexandria, Va., Valley Drive to Braddock Road – but it didn’t like it.
This test drive was unable to include the interstate, but Smarts have been spotted cruising at speed there. But as with accelerating up a hill, it likely requires all the power the engine can offer, and little engines rarely feel or sound good when they’re at full capacity.
You also can’t really expect a smooth ride from a car with such a short wheelbase. It bounces and jumps over cratered pavement even at low speeds, and it’s likely far worse on the highway. Its short wheelbase of just 73.5 inches contributes to this, as does a stiff suspension that’s needed for keeping a car that’s tall and narrow from feeling like it could tip over as it goes around a corner.
Smart ForTwo interior
And you often can’t expect a high-quality interior in an inexpensive vehicle. The Smart’s is well-assembled but has a basic look and feel, even with the optional leather seats. The black interior on the car driven for this review does not help – brighter, cheerier trim is also available that would help the interior’s ambiance, but it can’t disguise low-quality materials and uncovered seat tracks.
But the Smart doesn’t deliver some things that you really should be able to expect from a tiny, spunky city car. You don’t get quick steering that lets you dart in and out of traffic. You don’t get great visibility, at least to the rear. You don’t get fantastic gas mileage – an EPA estimated 36 miles per gallon in mixed driving, but on premium gas.
It also offers up some quirks that should not be inherent to a small car.
The only available transmission is an automated manual, which means it has a clutch but the driver doesn’t get to operate it as the car chooses among five gears. Which is unfortunate, because the electronics that manage the Smart’s shifting don’t do a great job. Many reviews have likened the slow, jerky shifts to someone learning to drive stick shift; my mother, who joined me for the test drive, independently reached the same conclusion. Another review compared the smoothness and quickness of the car’s shifts to hitting the brake pedal instead of the clutch before clumsily correcting yourself. These are not exaggerations – the transmission is laugh-out-loud awful on a different plane from any other car sold today in the U.S.
There is a manual mode for the transmission, but that only lets you choose the time at which the car will change gears without improving shift quality. Edmunds.com, which bought a Smart for a yearlong test, eventually developed a technique of hitting the gas while using the manual mode to smooth things out a bit; other owners may be able to do the same. But a transmission that tosses the car around, especially at low speeds, is a potential dealbreaker in a car that’s supposed to be at its best on stop-and-go congested streets.
Another irritation exclusive to the Smart is its pedal configuration. The accelerator is backward, with its hinge sitting on the floor near the driver, leaving the pedal pointing up and away. The brake pedal, too, is mounted on the floor, and feels stiff. And the hand-operated parking brake, while conventionally located between the seats, is a bar that seems to extend all the way to the rear wheels, rather than just a short handle to pull up that's wired to the brakes that's far less cumbersome. (See a photo in today's slideshow)
But there are also some aspects of the Smart that are better than one might expect.
The car’s two seats are actually quite comfortable, mounted high and with decent legroom and lots of head space. It’s narrow, so a portly passenger might encroach on the driver’s space, but looking forward the feel is rather like a minivan more than the smallest car on the market. There’s also acceptable cargo space behind the front seats, but the weight of the cars’ occupants and cargo can’t exceed more than about 500 pounds.
And despite its tiny size, the Smart is hardly a deathtrap. In crash testing, it bounced off barriers and spun around, but was not compressed into something even smaller, thanks to a sturdy structure the company calls the “tridion safety cell.” But because the car essentially lacks crumple zones, a high-speed crash would effectively turn the car into a hockey puck; it would come out looking all right, but its occupants would experience high acceleration forces. Nonetheless, the car is tougher than it looks, and barring any standardized crash tests above 40 miles per hour, it’s impossible to say whether any other new small car would do any better, and any compact car more than 10 years old would do much worse.
The Smart also maximizes the basic strength of its compact dimensions. It fits easily into any parking space, and its plastic body panels are sturdy and cheap to replace, making it resistant against parking scuffs. Its 14.4-foot turning radius makes it maneuverable.
But as tested, the Smart costs more than $16,000, and most of that cost over the base $11,900 model is such goodies as air conditioning, power steering, a stereo, and power windows and locks.
The Smart has a certain appeal, mostly in its unique appearance but also in its tidy maneuverability. It could make sense for a city dweller who has enough disposable income to maintain a real car for anything but commuting and would pay a price premium for something that occupies the smallest footprint – like D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, whose ForTwo can work its way around crowds and camera equipment at his daily press conferences more easily than his other car, a Lincoln Navigator full-size SUV.
But for any other use, the Smart falls short. For its unpleasant driving dynamics, for its limited usability on the highway, for its premium fuel demands, for its cheap interior, for its horrid transmission, and for its rather high price, the Smart alienates the cheap-chic urbanites that have canceled the reservations the company had once employed to deal with high demand.
If you do get one, however, don’t get it in black.
Vehicle tested: 2009 Smart ForTwo
Vehicle base price (MSRP): $11,990
Version tested: Passion Coupe
Version base price (MSRP): $13,990
Vehicle price as tested (MSRP): $16,050
Test vehicles provided by: Lindsay Smart of Alexandria, Va.
Key specifications:
Length: 106.1 inches
Width: 61.4 inches
Height: 60.7 inches
Wheelbase: 73.5 inches
Weight: 1,808 pounds
Cargo volume: 12.0 cubic feet
Turning radius: 14.4 feet
Engine: 1.0-liter I3 with 70 horsepower
Transmission: 5-speed automated manual
EPA city mileage: 33 miles per gallon
EPA highway mileage: 41 miles per gallon
EPA mixed driving: 36 miles per gallon
Comments
LOL -- the wasp nest metaphor
I guess the question is -- why not just buy a base Corolla?
Car and Driver magazine asked virtually the same question of a Smart representative when the car first came out. The response was something like "Your neighbors wouldn't come over and talk to you over any old small car."
Of course, besides the exclusivity/uniqueness, you do have very easy parking jobs. But at no small cost.
A really sad review by someone who only took time to perform a cursory test.
I own a SmartCar and love it. I also own a Corvette so I know what power and speed is all about. For every day driving, I prefer the SmartCar. It is much more practical.
It gets around town easily and my SmartCar can do 90 miles per hour on the highway. I normally drive 70 to 75 mph, however. Acceleration is acceptable although it certainly is no drag racer. It does that while getting more than 40 miles per gallon, 45 to 50 miles per gallon if I keep the speed down. As noted in the review, the SmartCar gets very high safety reviews from all the various safety agencies.
I agree that the ride is bumpy. I don't think it could be anything else in a car with a very short wheelbase.
The car is very comfortable to sit in; excellent seats and a surprising amount of headroom. I know a SmartCar owner who is 6 feet 4 and he reports that he has enough headroom to wear a hat.
I like the Corvette but love the
But is there anything that your Smart does that a bigger -- yet no more expensive -- competitor could not, and are those strengths worth all the things you have to sacrifice to get one: the rear seat, the ride comfort, the extra pep, the smooth shifts, the premium fuel...
And as to the duration of the test, my request for a loan of a Smart from the company that would have given me more experience with the car was denied, so I was only able to go with what I found on a test drive at a dealership.
Which was still quite a lot.
Agree that the smart needs more 'friendly' color choices and that it is a safe small car. Disagree on about everything else. I've completed multiple road trips in the smart, the last was almost 2,000 miles, in and around small towns like DC, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Indianapolis, etc. on small interstates like I-95, I-81, I-75, I-85, etc. It is no barn burner, but it is adequate. I only miss cruise control as an option, which you overlooked in your review. I average in the mid-40s for mileage and have hit 52 mpg as a high. This mileage easily offsets .20 a gallon when it takes 7.5 gallons to fill it up. The EPA ratings are just a starting point, not the gospel. The transmission in auto mode is a quirk. If you drive it for the manual it is, everything's fine. I always drive in manual mode and can shift as smooth as any other manual transmission. The ride on my car was improved with 195/50 15" tires all the way around. You also missed the inability to rotate tires front/rear when stock.
It only takes 7.5 gallons to fill up because it has a little tiny gas tank...and there's never an advantage to having a small tank.
And again, I never said it was inadequate. I said that you can do better for $16,000.
Couple other things... Steering issues? Did you have a car with power steering or without? Mine is without on purpose, but the difference at low speeds is noticeable and I've driven both.
Actually, my favorite features are size (it it fits in my garage and no other car would) and the removable plastic body panels - no door dings or hail damage since the roof is also plastic and you can swap them out yourself if something is damaged. I fixed my car myself after a deer strike which destroyed a headlight, but rebounded off the plastic panels. No bodywork required! Since several colors aren't painted, you don't have to worry about scratches or chips much either - it's the same color all the way through the panel. I've also changed colors from white to red.
Also, the insurance rating (you didn't mention insurance) on my '08 smart is the best available at my insurer and was $360/yr less than my '07 Civic. And, I have more room for my 6'2" , 285lb frame in the smart than the Civic
Skip the leather, heated seats, etc. and don't pay $16K if you don't want the options. But, you don't have to pay extra for safety features like ABS, ESP, EBD, etc. on any smart model. It's not for everyone, especially if you NEED a larger vehicle, but it's fine for a commuter or even long trips if you just have two people.
At 45 mpg, an 8.7 gallon tank is plenty fine and better than some other vehicles. I usually refill around 7.5 - 8.0 gallons.
Skip the leather, heated seats, etc. and don't pay $16K if you don't want the options. But, you don't have to pay extra for safety features like ABS, ESP, EBD, etc. on any smart model. It's not for everyone, especially if you NEED a larger vehicle, but it's fine for a commuter or even long trips if you just have two people.
At 45 mpg, an 8.7 gallon tank is plenty fine and better than some other vehicles. I usually refill around 7.5 - 8.0 gallons.
This review is is for the Americanized smartcar that Detroit allowed to be imported in 2008. I drive the REAL smartcar, a 2006, with the 799cc turbocharged Diesel by Mercedes. It gets 60mpg in Canadian urban driving and 68mpg on long haul interstates. Six speed gears, steering column paddle shifters, lots of low speed torque and is one of the best cars I have driven in any city. The latest model with a similar spec motor gives a really great fuel saving at 85mpg but is not available in North America, (Detroit would be shamed).
I just bought a little 2009 Suzuki SX4 sedan 5-spd for $12,000 after all the rebates. It's been getting me 34mpg, rides very nicely, plenty of room for 4 people plus luggage in the trunk, very spunky 2 litre, 143hp engine with lots of low end torque. Parking has been a breeze because the car is compact enough to fit in small spaces. Car is warrantied up to 100,000 miles. There's no deductable if I have to the warranty, and if I ever sell the car, there's no fee to transfer the warranty to the new owner.
Mate, I'm writting you from Spain, Europe. This is the best car I've ever bought! It's awesome. Easy to park and it is not so expensive as people would might think and above all, very practical. Cheap insurance, cheap taxes.... and it's safe too! In Europe where saving space is a must, this car is perfect! You guys in North America (used to big cars) should allow an oportunity to this great little car. Cheers!
Mate, I'm writting you from Spain, Europe. This is the best car I've ever bought! It's awesome. Easy to park and it is not so expensive as people would might think and above all, very practical. Cheap insurance, cheap taxes.... and it's safe too! In Europe where saving space is a must, this car is perfect! You guys in North America (used to big cars) should allow an oportunity to this great little car. Cheers!
I agree about the bright color. If not just to see the tiny tot better.
The reviewer knocks highway performance - without having driven it on the highway? With 17,000 miles on my 2008 Passion, here is some long-term realities: The suspension improves a bit with miles: at 10K it looses a bit of the rough ride. The transmission upgrade for 2009 (firmware change for earlier models)definately improves gear changes in "automatic" mode - the lag/jerk is nearly eliminated. However using the paddle shifters (not offered on the Pure model) in manual mode gives best response and even feels quite sporty. Mixed driving gives 42MPG with care, 39MPG for a more normal person. My driving is 40/60 city/hwy for consistant 42MPG on regular. Yes, Premium is recommended, but have never had any issue with cheep regular, only putting in mid-grade if the temps are over 80F as insurance. OK on the highway, but over 75MPH needs full attention if sidewinds are present. Microfiber wash to preserve plastics finish. Not for everyone, but practical (& fun) for many!
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