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Smart has given its most famous model a makeover - we find out if the rear-engined, rear-wheel drive Fortwo is still the ultimate city car
The super compact Smart Fortwo is one of the most important city cars on sale today. Its tiny dimensions make it a hugely popular choice for people who live in densely populated cities, and makes other city cars like the Volkswagen Polo look utterly gargantuan - even the little Up is quite a bit bigger. The new car keeps the same formula as before, but has matured under the skin. That means it’s still tiny - at 2.69 metres in length it’s just as short as before (though it is a little wider than before) - but gets a better chassis this time around.
We drove the new Renault Twingo, with which it shares underpinnings, and really enjoyed its inner-city agility. But with the Smart nearly a metre shorter than its French companion, we decided to spend a day finding out how the new Fortwo handles city driving, as well as putting it through its paces on motorways and sweeping countryside roads. Here’s what we loved and hated
Love: City steering is fantastic
One of the Fortwo’s trump cards is its maneuverability. It’s really short and narrow, and its turning radius is ridiculously good; at 6.95 metres, its more agile than a London taxi. On full lock, the front wheels are pointing at the sort of angle you’d expect from a professional drift car. Steering is also light, making even the narrowest, most complex city commute a breeze. It’s also incredibly easy to find a parking space.
Hate: High speed cornering isn't confidence inspiring
At higher speeds cornering is a little less accomplished. Largely due to the short wheelbase, high sides and light steering, chucking the car into a corner leads to the sensation you’re about to tip over. Obviously, this isn’t a car for such holligan antics, but if you’re looking for a city car you can take for a blast from time to time, you’d best look elsewhere.
Hate: The more powerful engine
I know this kind of goes against Car Throttle convention, but when it comes to choosing between the two three-cylinder petrol engines - a 71bhp naturally-aspirated 999cc engine or 898cc turbocharged effort making 90bhp - we’d choose the one with fewer horses.
Simply put, while the turbo certainly feels punchier, the throttle response is truly bizarre. When you lift off the pedal, there’s a momentary sensation that you’ve accelerated briefly. It’s counter-intuitive, but we weren’t the only ones to pick up on it, so it wasn’t just a quirk with our test car. It makes for jerky progress, and with the rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout, all the weight transfers rearwards under acceleration, feeling like you’re trying to pop a particularly pathetic wheelie instead of accelerating smoothly. It also makes an annoyingly parpy noise, and resonates a noticeable chug through the cabin at idle.
Love: The less powerful engine
You’re better off with the wheezy 71bhp engine. Sure it’s down on power, but the turbo’s hardly a rocketship so it’s barely noticable. What is noticeable is the smoother delivery and much quieter progress. Hills and joining motorways requires a bit of extra forethought, but it’s a small price to pay.
Love: The old auto's been ditched
The biggest complaint levelled at the old Fortwo was the automatic gearbox. Nobody had a good word to say about it, so the new car’s choice of manual or dual-clutch automatic is welcome.
Smart only had manuals available for testing, as the DCT won’t be available in the UK until after April (when it’ll be a £995 option). As for the five-speed manual, it was decent with a smooth and direct throw, though the ratios are clearly tuned to city driving - on the motorway you’re left wishing there was just one more cog.
Hate: wind noise
For a car that’s built for the city, high speed cruising is unsurprisingly not its forte. Once you’re up to around 70mph the sound of tyres on tarmac drones on, while the widely protruding door handles catch the wind and whistle behind your ears.
Love: The ride is surprisingly well damped
Being such a small city car, I was expecting a firm and unforgiving ride out on the open road. The suspension has been reworked for extra travel, and the front axle has adopted elements of the previous generation Mercedes C-class. The results are positive, soaking up most of the surface imperfections you come across in town without fuss.
Hate: Bumps and yumps are not your friend
While smaller bumps and coarse surfaces are dispatched impressively, larger undulations in the scenery can cause trouble. The suspension travel may have been increased, but it’s still relatively short, as I found out when I hit two large yumps in quick succession at high speed. With the suspension fully compressed I hit the second bump, which pushed me vertical and massively unsettled the car. Nerve-wracking stuff. It was my own fault for getting carried away in such a car, but it brought the Fortwo’s limitations to the foreground.
Love: The Tridion safety cell
In such a small car, safety will always be a concern, but the Fortwo sees its famed Tridion safety cell make a return. Made from “ultra-high strength hot-formed steels and maximum-strength multiphase steel,” it acts as a rigid cage to protect the occupants. The surrounding crumple zones evenly distribute crash forces into the shell to dissipate the energy.
A Fortwo that had been crashed head on with a Mercedes S-class was on display, and the structure stood up incredibly well. The impact speed was only 30mph with a 50 per cent overlap, but that’s a fair representation of an inner city crash. The doors still opened, and the dash, pedals and steering wheel were not pushed into the passenger cabin.
Love: The interior is spacious and well equipped
If you’ve never sat in a Fortwo before, you might be surprised to learn that the interior is very spacious. The dashboard is a decent size, the windscreen’s quite far away, and the passenger gets loads of leg room. It’s not until you look behind you that you remember you’re in something so short.
The Fortwo suffers from the Daimler group protruding screen problem, there’s a tacky tachometer plonked on the dashboard, and the satellite navigation is a little slow to catch up with your location (though on the plus side it’s quick and easy to navigate). The entertainment system is very good quality, and is actually higher quality than you’d find in many more expensive cars. The JBL speakers, complete with removable subwoofer in the boot, provide very good quality sound.
Hate: Brightly coloured cloth dashboard
You can spec one of a number of brightly coloured cloth dashboard coverings. I’d recommend going for a more sedate colour than the bright orange I had in the first test car I drove. I’m not a huge fan of overly funky interiors, but the Smart feels like it can get away with it. The problem is that the cloth reflects in the windscreen, so I had a bright orange tint to my driving experience.
I admit, the photo above is pretty rubbish (it was taken on my phone inside the museum that marked the start of our test route), but it demonstrates the way the dash reflects. It was quite distracting.
Hate: The pedals are cramped
Although the interior feels Tardis-like, there are a couple of problems that break the illusion. My main gripe is that there’s nowhere to rest your left foot, other than behind the clutch pedal. I kept catching the pedal as I lifted my foot to change gear, and when I rested my foot behind the pedals against the centre console, my trainer kept getting caught under the plastic trim. I do have ridiculously long legs, but I doubt it’d be much more comfortable for the more vertically challenged among you.
In conclusion
With prices starting at £11,125, other small city cars such as the VW Up (starting at around £8000) are considerably less expensive, sure, but if you live in a huge city and spend half your life in rush hour traffic and endlessly searching for a parking space, the Smart is the one to go for. It’s stupidly agile, is well equipped, and can fit almost anywhere.
As far as city cars go, it’s still in a league of its own.
Ref:carthrottle
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