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A LITTLE DIESEL GOES A LONG WAY
They don’t come much greener than Smart’s fortwo cdi city car. Steve Walker reports.

The fortwo is Smart’s view of what the modern city car should be all about. With the cdi engine installed, its one of the greenest cars it’s possible to buy and if you can do without rear seats and much of a boot, it’s a great, trendy way of getting about town. The fortwo is less at home on longer trips but can take to the motorway in an emergency.

As oil prices soar along with traffic congestion and air pollution, the small car concept that Smart launched on the world back in 1998 only looks more prescient. The original Smart car may have evolved into today’s Smart fortwo but the basic theory behind it has scarcely altered. What has changed is that Smart’s prediction that one day our cities and conurbations will be crawling with cars like this now looks likely to be realised. The Smart fortwo diesel certainly makes a compelling case for city dwellers to downsize. It’s taken a while but motorists are gradually coming round to Smart’s way of thinking. Smart’s problem is that rival manufacturers are too. The fortwo once stood virtually alone as a city car that adhered strictly to the principles of compact size, light weight, maximum fuel economy and a trendy urban cool image. Nowadays, you can’t move at the motorshows for dinky vehicles from rival manufacturers trying to annex a slice of Smart’s territory. To date, however, the fortwo remains arguably the purest exponent of the genre. Whether its reluctance to bend its own rules will give it an edge in the small car future remains to be seen. The diesel engine that features in the Smart fortwo cdi is certainly a tiddler. 45bhp from an engine of 799cc with two valves for each of its three cylinders leads one to expect two things; fiendishly thrifty fuel consumption and performance that’s relaxed to the point of being dead. Sure enough, the 19.8s it takes the diesel fortwo to cover 0-62mph sprint makes the word sprint look grossly inappropriate but remember the Smart’s unflinching focus on urban motoring. On the road in its metropolitan element, the increment it takes the fortwo cdi to reach motorway cruising speeds is an irrelevance. The 110Nm maximum torque that’s available between 2,000 and 2,500rpm is about what you’d expect from a 1.2-litre petrol engine. As a result, the Smart feels nippy when firing away from the lights and is relatively unfazed by inclines. The turning circle is hilariously tight and if there’s an easier car to park, we’d like to see it. There’s almost enough room for a pair of smarts to double up in most conventional parking bays.

"85.6mpg combined economy with 88g/km emissions will endow the fortwo cdi with a powerful appeal …"

Smart’s designers did the decent thing and have done away with the sequential gearbox that was used in the original car, swapping its jerky six-gear set-up for a faster shifting, five-speed unit. The standard manual shift option gives decent control, letting you prod the lever to select gears yourself or flip the optional steering wheel paddles. Lift off the gas as you do this and it manages nicely enough but the softouch fully-automatic mode that features on the Passion models is preferable most of the time. This still isn’t one of the great sequential auto boxes. There’s still a strong desire amongst city car buyers to have rear seats, even though they’re likely to be used less regularly than the Queen’s skateboard. A boot of more than 220-litres is another feature that the Smart deems unnecessary but the indications are that people like to have one all the same. You could also argue that the Smart is a little too small at under three meters in length and just over 1.5m wide. Still, it’s perfect in town even if outside the city limits the car is towered over by tailgating HGVs and buffeted by cross winds. Smart, of course, would counter that all of this frippery falls outside the fortwo’s remit of providing affordable, funky urban transport - something it does do exceedingly well. Taken in isolation, the fortwo doesn’t look too different to its immediate predecessor but sit the two cars back to back and it’s easy to see where the changes were made. For a start, the smart has swelled by almost 20cm in length and 4.3cm in width but don’t worry, it’s still tiny. The track and the wheelbase have also been stretched but the majority of the length was imposed upon the company by pedestrian crash legislation. Inside, the fortwo now feels like part of the Mercedes-Benz family, rather than the scruffy stepchild that Smart’s prestigious parent company would rather forget. Space for the two occupants is surprisingly generous, the switchgear feels quite upmarket and build quality is strong while the trademark funky design remains. Available in both two-door ‘coupe’ form and soft top cabrio, the fortwo is offered in three familiar mainstream trim levels - pure, pulse and passion – with sporty-looking BRABUS versions at the top of the range. The entry-level pure model is designed as econobasic entry-level transport, with a two-spoke steering wheel, a black grooved plastic roof and steel wheels. The lower part of the instrument panel is made of grained black plastic, as are the door trims. There are even manual window winders. Everything bar the essentials for two adults to get cheaply and stylishly about town is stripped away by the fortwo and motorists have shown some reluctance to go to these extremes. You have to admire the Smart’s no compromise philosophy but rival manufacturers have shown that most of the fortwo’s benefits are achievable in tandem with greater practicality and better performance in out of town driving. That the likes of Toyota’s iQ and Citroen’s C1 have been influenced by Smart design is a given. In the current climate, a headline-grabbing fuel economy figure can do wonders for a car’s profile and sales. The fortwo cdi certainly has one. It’s takes a notoriously long time for a diesel city car doing a low annual mileage to justify in fuel savings the higher purchase price it commands over a petrol model. That said, 85.6mpg combined economy with 88g/km emissions will endow the fortwo cdi with a powerful appeal for anyone keen to do their bit for the planet, dip under the cut off point for congestion charging schemes or benefit from the convenience of a car capable of going from Dover to Prague on a single tank of fuel. Quite simply, this is one of the greenest cars on the road. Insurance costs are driven down by the fortwo’s ease of repair, the elastic plastic body panels being capable of shrugging off typical parking knocks. The white, black or yellow panels are flexible and the colour is deep moulded in, so superficial scratches are hard to spot. It also means that a more seriously damaged panel can be replaced inexpensively without need for costly and time-consuming repainting. There will be plenty of motorists who really don’t need a car that can do any more than the fortwo does but they’ll need to overcome the desire many of us share to have the capability in reserve ‘just in case’. If your excursions beyond the city limits are infrequent enough or you’re simply willing to put up with the little Smart’s lack of poke on the open road, you’ll benefit from a vehicle that’s perfectly at home in the urban landscape. The diesel engine’s fuel economy and emissions are tough to beat in the mainstream market and the Smart still cuts it in the fashion stakes. The fortwo’s strict adherence to its urban transport concept is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Other manufacturers have appropriated elements of Smart design and now there are rival products that fulfil a similar role with more of the concessions to practicality and flexibility that many customers want. None can better the environmental performance of the fortwo cdi, however, and there’s still kudos attached to owning the city car that showed the others the way.

Facts At A Glance CAR: smart fortwo cdi PRICE: £10,000 [est] – on the road INSURANCE GROUP: 1 CO2 EMISSIONS: 88g/km PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 19.8s / Max Speed 84mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 85.6mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front airbags, ABS, recessed wipers, ESP WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height 2695/1559/1542mm

ET TU BRABUS?
If you want a Smart with attitude, you need to break out the Brabus catalogue. Andy Enright reports

For most, Brabus is associated with massively powerful Mercedes limousines. Captains of European industry sit in the back and are swept across featureless autobahns at speeds more akin to private aviation than wheeled transport. Fortunately for us, we can now get the Brabus touch on less than Euro commissioner salaries in the form of the Smart ForTwo Brabus, a citycar with real attitude.

The 1.0-litre powerplant has been massaged to give a full 98bhp, up from the 84bhp offered by the turbo model in the standard range or the 61 or 71bhp options served up by more humble Smart ForTwos. This is enough to thrust the shoebox sized car to 60mph in a smidgeon under ten seconds, around two seconds faster than the Brabus version of the first generation ForTwo. It’s also feels surprisingly quick, despite the gearbox remaining a little dull-witted off the mark and is more than enough to give other city motorists the humiliating view of your blunt back end. That said, there’s no way they’ll mistake the Brabus model for a common or garden Smart variety. A number of body styling features distinguish the Brabus version including lovely Brabus alloy wheels, a deeper front spoiler and rear valance, plus a sports exhaust and heat shield.The effect of these styling touches is to bring the car even lower to the ground, giving the optical appearance of a rather rapidly moving block. Otherwise, it’s the usual Smart recipe – albeit a rather expensive one. The coupe is priced at £13,525 (around £1,200 more than the MK1 equivalent) with the cabrio weighing in at around £2,000 more. This is comparable to cars like a nicely specified MINI Cooper or one of the plushest Fiat 500s, both vehicles with their own dollop of style and a good deal more day to day practicality than the little Smart. The Fortwo has its own very individual street presence however – and of course it’s smaller for mopre convenient urban use: try parking a MINI or a Fiat 500 at a 90-degree angle to the pavement. On second thoughts, don’t. As with all smart models, the Brabus features standard-fit Electronic Stability Control Programme (ESP): basically, if you get the car out of shape, the electronics will automatically use throttle and brake inputs to correct the situation. And this Brabus version is plenty quick enough to get into quite a situation should you try: 96mph on the flat will see this Smart easily keeping up with the cut and thrust of typical British motorway traffic. Strangely, it’s in the city that the smart feels a little clumsy. Yes, it is ridiculously easy to park, but the clutch take up in stop/start traffic is rather severe and you’ll dread negotiating speed humps. Even at low speeds the lurch feels pretty nauseating.

"It’s the usual Smart recipe – albeit a rather expensive one"

If you owned one of the original Fortwo models and haven’t tried the latest one, you’ll find that it’s a little larger than before, having swelled almost 20cm in length and 4.3cm in width. The track and the wheelbase have also been stretched but the majority of the length has been imposed upon the company by new pedestrian crash legislation. Space inside was always pretty good for two adults (if not their baggage), but the latest car is better still. Somewhat unusually, the passenger seat is mounted 15cm further back than the driver’s seat so that shoulder room can be maximised. Smart claims that passengers have an additional three centimetres of elbow room compared to the old car which never felt small even for taller people. Luggage room has also usefully increased from 150 to 220 litres. The car’s face looks a little different, with projector lights and a smiling grille aperture, while the side reveals a slimmer aspect to the tridion safety cell in the sill and door area. The door handles have also been rotated around ninety degrees for ease of use. The rear wings are more contoured and the rear window has more slope to it than before. Four instead of six rear lights are now apparent, the fog light and reversing lights now slotted beneath the brake lights and indicator composite units. There aren’t too many cars that can beat a Fortwo in terms of cost of ownership. The key thing driving down the pence per mile figure is the residual value of a used example, and though Brabus variants aren’t the best in the range in this regard, the latest model still looks set to better its predecessor in terms of used desirability. Then there’s the fuel economy. Granted, Fortwos don’t tend to soak up big mileages but they are often used in cities where many conventional cars return lousy fuel consumption figures. Expect a combined figure of about 55mpg from this car. This model will also emit just 124g/km of carbon dioxide, making it one of the cleaner cars on sale and therefore very attractive if one is using the car in congestion charging zones. Insurance costs are driven down by the Fortwo’s ease of repair, the elastic plastic body panels being capable of shrugging off typical parking knocks. The panels are flexible and the colour is deep moulded in, so superficial scratches are hard to spot. It also means that a more seriously damaged panel can be replaced inexpensively without need for costly and time-consuming repainting. If they were priced more accessibly, there would be a quite a few reasons to recommend the Brabus smart models but the stratospheric asking prices relegate them to the ranks of expensive curios. The novelty wearing off one of these is a rather costly sound.

Facts At A Glance CAR: Smart Fortwo Brabus PRICE: £13,525-£15,475 – on the road INSURANCE GROUP: 8 CO2 EMISSIONS: 124g/km PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 9.9s / Max Speed 95mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: (urban) 43.5mpg / (extra urban) 64.2mpg / (combined) 54.3mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front airbags, ABS, Trustplus, ESP WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Heightmm 2695/1559/1542mm

WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER
By Andy Enright

Think of the smart car franchise and you think of the smart fortwo, the tiny little citycar that launched this car in Europe back at the turn of the century. Brand owners Daimler Chrysler unwisely tried to broaden the marque’s appeal with more expensive models in subsequent years – and paid the financial price. Which is why the future plan for this brand is centred solely around the second generation fortwo model we’re looking at here.

This fortwo may look almost the same as its predecessor but in fact, exactly 451 changes have been made. They were needed. After all, though there was a lot about the old smart fortwo’s driving experience that was very good, many felt that the overall effect was ruined by an utterly hateful gearbox and steering which felt as if it was attached to the front wheels by bungee cords. The good news is that both of these issues have been addressed in the latest fortwo. The six-speed automated manual gearbox has been replaced by a Getrag five-speed unit which still automates the shift with the help of an electric motor but shift times have been halved which means that you’ll no longer suffer that lurch, pregnant pause and then gradual take up of power the old car suffered. Otherwise, it looks much the same with the option of paddles to marshal the gearchange on all models (bar the plush pulse variant where they are fitted as standard). There’s also a kickdown function to drop two gears when the driver really wants to get a hustle on. The steering has been made ten per cent quicker, the standard rack now just 3.5 turns lock to lock. It’s still not what you’d call racy but it’s a good deal less flabby feeling than before. Electric power steering is also an option, sharpening feel still further. Prices start from £6,900. Engine-wise, the cubic capacity has leapt from 0.7 litres to 1.0-litre. Two normally-aspirated powerplants are offered, of either 61 or 71bhp and there’s also an 84bhp turbo model. This litre lump has been developed in conjunction with Mitsubishi and all three versions offer considerably more torque than the equivalent engine in the previous generation fortwo. Your dealer can also tell you about a 45bhp diesel model which will sup around 3.5 litres of fuel per 100km - which is just over 81mpg in old money. No wonder the Yanks don’t get it.

"The latest fortwo is certainly bigger and cleverer"

Taken in isolation, this fortwo doesn’t look too different to its immediate predecessor but sit the two cars back to back and it’s easy to see where the changes have been made. For a start, the smart is no longer quite the pure design of old, having swelled almost 20cm in length and 4.3cm in width. The track and the wheelbase have also been stretched but the majority of the length has been imposed upon the company by new pedestrian crash legislation. The car’s face looks a little different, with projector lights and a smiling grille aperture, while the side reveals a slimmer aspect to the tridion safety cell in the sill and door area. The door handles have also been rotated around ninety degrees for ease of use. The rear wings are more contoured and the rear window has more slop to it than before. Four instead of six rear lights are now apparent, the fog light and reversing lights now slotted beneath the brake lights and indicator composite units. Space inside was always very good for two adults (if not their baggage), but the latest car is better still. Somewhat unusually, the passenger seat is mounted 15cm further back than the driver’s seat so that shoulder room can be maximised. Smart claims that passengers have an additional three centimetres of elbow room compared to the old car which never felt small even for taller people. Luggage room has also usefully increased from 150 to 220 litres. Available in both two-door ‘coupe’ form and soft top cabrio, the fortwo, priced from around £7,000, is offered in three familiar mainstream trim levels - pure, pulse and passion – with sporty-looking BRABUS versions at the top of the range. The entry-level pure model is designed as econobasic entry-level transport, with a two-spoke steering wheel, a black grooved plastic roof and steel wheels. The lower part of the instrument panel is made of grained black plastic, as are the door trims. There are even manual window winders. If utilitarian chic isn’t doing it for you, best to pass the pure by and take a look at the pulse. This is an altogether sportier affair, with a black or silver tridion cell, six-spoke alloy wheels with wider tyres and coordinated fabric on the seats, door trims, knee pads and instrument panel. A transparent polycarbonate roof is joined by a rev counter, clock, three-spoke sports steering wheel, shift paddles, electric front windows, front fog lights and an additional storage compartment in the tailgate. The passion model gets silver painted door mirrors and front grille, twelve-spoke alloys, air conditioning, leather trimmed steering wheel, softouch gear shift plus a luggage compartment cover with a net bag. There aren’t too many cars that can beat a fortwo in terms of cost of ownership. The key thing driving down the pence per mile figure is the residual value of a used example, and this latest model looks set to better its predecessor in terms of used desirability. Then there’s the fuel economy. Granted, fortwos don’t tend to soak up big mileages but they are often used in cities where many conventional cars return lousy fuel consumption figures. The 61bhp petrol engine will average around 60mpg and the diesel model around 80mpg but around town expect about 55mpg from the diesel car. This will also emit just 90g/km of carbon dioxide, making it one of the cleanest cars on sale and therefore very attractive if one is using the car in congestion charging zones. Insurance costs are driven down by the fortwo’s ease of repair, the elastic plastic body panels being capable of shrugging off typical parking knocks. The white, black or yellow panels are flexible and the colour is deep moulded in, so superficial scratches are hard to spot. It also means that a more seriously damaged panel can be replaced inexpensively without need for costly and time-consuming repainting. Smart sold over 770,000 units of the old car but still made a big loss. This time round, the company needs, to coin a phrase, to work smarter not harder and the latest fortwo points to the fact that an expensive lesson has finally been learned. Although it is bigger in both body and engine to its predecessor, it nets big wins both in terms of driveability and safety. The challenge may well come in communicating these facts to a public that will in all likelihood see this car as a facelift of a model that dated back to 1998. The irony is that the smart has never been more relevant. Should pragmatism win the day over a public demand for the most fashionable shape, smart can yet become a jewel in the Daimler Chrysler firmament. Tiny steps, tiny steps…

Facts At A Glance CAR: smart fortwo range PRICES: £6,900-£15,470 – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 1-8 CO2 EMISSIONS: 112-124g/km PERFORMANCE: [71bhp] Max Speed 91mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: [71bhp] (urban) 46.3mpg / (extra urban) 70.6mpg / (combined) 60.1mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front airbags, ABS, recessed wipers, ESP WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height 2695/1559/1542mm WHO TO SEE:

AIR ON A SHOE-STRING
Open-air urban transport doesn’t come much trendier than this. Steve Walker checks out the smart fortwo cabrio

Isn’t an open-topped citycar a contradiction in terms? Do urban dwellers really want to breathe in each other’s exhaust fumes? Apparently so, at least according to the thousands of buyers who have been snapping up the clever smart car in its trendy fortwo cabrio form.

Here, we’re looking at the second generation version which looks the same as its predecessor but in fact is very different. Today’s model is significantly improved – and bigger. For example, i’s 19.5cm longer from nose to tail but crucially, it’s 5cm longer in the wheelbase with a wider track and wider tyres. As a result, it’s more comfortable on the open road, cornering with some composure and with less of the worrying body roll that can afflict narrow, high-sided vehicles. There are better handling city cars but the fortwo has definite benefits in terms of manoeuvrability, and ease of use around town. The optional power steering lacks feel and I’d settle for the unassisted helm if you can put up with the extra effort needed to execute low speed manoeuvres. With the roof up, the cabrio model we look at here is barely any noisier at cruising speeds than the hard-topped coupe with just an extra rustle of wind noise reminding you you’re in the convertible. The trio of 1.0-litre petrol engines smart offers are all highly refined but the entry-level 61bhp model feels under-powered and even the 71bhp option is found wanting at higher speeds. These cheaper units are fine for pottering about town but the lively 84bhp turbocharged option is the way to go if you plan on covering bigger distances. That or the 98bhp unit used in the flagship Brabus version. The smart people have done away with the sequential gearbox that was used in the old car, swapping its jerky six-gear set-up for a faster shifting, five-speed unit. The standard manual shift option gives decent control, letting you prod the lever to select gears yourself or flip the optional steering wheel paddles. Lift off the gas as you do this and it manages quite nicely but the softouch fully-automatic mode on the Passion models is preferable most of the time.

"This car represents a clever idea, cleverly executed…"

The cabriolet’s folding fabric roof is easily operated at any speed at the touch of a button. It retreats backwards in the manner of a conventional sun roof revealing a big slice of sky overhead but drivers wanting to go fully convert their smart will need to stop and get out. Removable side roof bars unclip and can be stowed in a special compartment in the tailgate while the rear roof section, once released, drops down to sit on top of the boot. It’s hard to argue with the suitability of the fortwo concept to its urban transport role. With two seats, tiny dimensions, that self-shifting gearbox and fuel-sipping engines, it makes all kinds of sense for all kinds of reasons. The fortwo cabrio seems less sensible, exposing its occupants to the noise and smog of the city but it’s more extrovert, more stylish and more fun and these attributes are just as important to the smart package. The fact that there is a boot to speak of hints at the way this fortwo cabrio has grown-up. Owners get a respectable 220-litre luggage capacity in the back, there’s a glass rear window to improve visibility and on the inside, the fortwo now feels like part of the Mercedes-Benz family, rather than the scruffy stepchild that smart’s prestigious parent company would rather forget. Prices start at under £10,000 and the latest fortwo attacks the market with familiar Pure, Pulse and Passion trim levels. Pure keeps it simple with steel wheels and manual windows but buyers do get ABS brakes, twin front airbags and ESP stability control – a laudable standard inclusion on a car in this sector. The Pulse models offer a sporty flavour with a rev counter, racy trim materials, a sports steering wheel, electric windows, alloy wheels and front fog lights. The range-topping Passion delivers air-conditioning, different alloy wheels, a silver grille and the softouch automatic gear shift option but if you want a seriously high-spec smart there’s loads of personalisation potential in the options list. If you can afford around £15,500, the flagship Brabus model offers a unique dose of urban chic. Given the dimensions of the car and its engine, you wouldn’t expect the fortwo to achieve anything but the most miserly fuel economy. Sure enough, the combined cycle figure for the mid-range 71bhp cabrio is 58mpg. The drop top models are 40kg heavier but that will only cost owners a couple of miles in the gallon and CO2 emissions are pegged at 116g/km for the 71bhp car, 4g/km up on the equivalent coupe. The insurance groups are similarly low, partly thanks to the smart’s plastic bodyshell which is both surprisingly durable against minor knocks and inexpensive to replace after bigger ones. It’s often the way that a model which pioneers a market sector fails to capitalise on its visionary design. Copycat rivals are usually quick to emerge which do it all a little bit better. Although the original smart was certainly groundbreaking and remained the only city car to be seen in around our cities’ fashionable districts, it never felt like the complete package. The latest fortwo cabrio model is a far more sophisticated prospect, at home doing far more than parking or creeping along in traffic. This car represents a clever idea, cleverly executed. If you like the idea of an open-top and space is not important, then the latest fortwo cabio is worth a look, as long as you can afford the rather high price tag. Provided you don’t mind being stared at of course.

Facts At A Glance CAR: smart fortwo cabrio range PRICES: £9,240-£15,470 – on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 3-8 CO2 EMISSIONS: 116-124g/km PERFORMANCE: [71bhp] Max Speed 91mph FUEL CONSUMPTION: [71bhp] (urban) 46.3mpg / (extra urban) 70.6mpg / (combined) 60.1mpg STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front airbags, ABS, recessed wipers, ESP WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height 2695/1559/1542mm