Buster
06-01-2008, 08:46 PM
http://tarmacphilosopher.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/2008-smart-fortwo-pure.jpgChances are, you've seen one by now: the bubble-shaped, Jettsonsesque minicar skirting around traffic with hug-me styling and a no-parking-spot-is-too-small attitude. Despite looks to the contrary, it's not a hybrid car or an electric vehicle. It's the Smart ForTwo, an ultra-compact 2-passenger car out to wiggle its way into the hearts and garages of truck- and SUV-loving Americans.
ForTwo is available in coupe and convertible bodystyles in Pure and up-level Passion trims. Power gets to the rear wheels via a 70-horsepower 3-cylinder engine and 5-speed automated manual transmission. Built by a division of Mercedes-Benz, these micro-mobiles have been on sale around the world since 1998 but are just now sprouting up in U.S. cities.
With polarizing, love-it-or-hate it styling and rumors of out-of-this-world fuel economy and questionable safety, this horizontally challenged go-kart is hard to miss and creating a lot of buzz. But the question is, does Smart makes sense?
Size
Smart's tiny exterior is one of its tickets to winning over urbanites in crowded, parking-spot-challenged cities. At just 106.1-inches long and 61.4-inches wide, virtually no spot is too small. Depending on the city, it's even legal to park ForTwo nose-first into a parallel parking spot.
On the downside, carrying anything other than one passenger and four bags of groceries presents a challenge. Because the cargo floor is significantly higher than the passenger area, cornering at any speed means parcels sloshing around and lodging under the seats. The result is smooshed buns and bruised fruit. There's also no cargo cover, which invites characters of the smash-and-grab variety to help themselves to your stuff.
Performance
ForTwo's tiny 1.0-liter 3-cylinder engine is unsurprisingly sluggish. Need a boost for highway passing? The Flintstone mobile would provide more power. But again, this is expected. More alarming, however, is the automated manual's tendency to bog and surge at nearly every shift. Smoothness is not this drivetrain's forte. There is a long lag between shifts and then a jarring pitch backward when coming out of them. One editor noted that "poor transmission behavior is this car's worst feature." Another editor summed it up as "the worst transmission EVER."
Smart is so tiny that pulling the wrong side of the car up to the pump isn't a problem.
This was a deal breaker for many Consumer Guide test-car editors and their passengers. A couple of editors mastered the quirky automated manual by selecting the manual mode and finessing the steering wheel paddle shifters. Smoothness resulted, but it took some time and skill to get there.
Ride and Handling
On the positive side, most testers agreed that close-quarters maneuvering in the agile Smart was outstanding. Also, because the driving position is tall and upright, the driver doesn't feel dwarfed by surrounding traffic.
The bad news is the ride can be considerably rough. One tester complained of ForTwo's overly stiff suspension and said "potholes and pavement heaves pound through. So do sticks, dimes, bugs, leaves, and soggy scraps of tissue paper. Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh, but so is the Smart's ride over anything but smaller pavement blemishes."
Other elements that enhanced the overall uncomfortable ride include the lack of a tilt steering wheel or height-adjustable driver's seat. These features aren't offered on ForTwo but come standard on many budget cars like the Chevrolet Aveo and Toyota Yaris.
Safety
Can anything this small actually be safe? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sort of. NHTSA gave the ForTwo coupe four and three stars in the driver and passenger frontal crash test. ForTwo got five stars in the side impact test and three stars in the rollover evaluation.
According to Smart, ForTwo gets its toughness from a "tridion safety cell," which is composed of three layers of reinforced steel. Also, Smart is equipped with standard safety equipment like an antiskid system, traction control, ABS, and front and side airbags--but no curtain side airbags.
While all the numbers and equipment indicate that Smart is safer than it looks, how it feels is another story. Sidle up to a semi-truck during some highway miles in Smart, and you might not feel so secure in your safety cell. Because of its tall roof, any wind force while traveling at higher speeds induces some pretty unnerving lane wander. Its height also makes ForTwo feel slightly tippy in fast maneuvers.
Dollar Value
The ForTwo Pure coupe starts at $12,235, including destination. Standard equipment, aside from the aforementioned safety features, includes a tire-pressure monitor, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, power door locks, and remote keyless entry. Passion models start at $14,235 including destination, and adds air conditioning with automatic climate control, heated power mirrors, power windows, a CD player with MP3 compatibility, a non-opening glass roof panel, and alloy wheels.
While at first glance this seems like an affordable economy car, it's really no bargain considering its lack of practicality. It's limited in cargo and passenger space, yet costs about the same as a base-model Hyundai Accent, which measures a tidy 159.3 inches in length and can carry four people. An Accent GS 2-door hatchback with a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine and 4-speed automatic transmission costs $12,425 after destination fees. For that similar chunk of change you get standards like dual front airbags, front side airbags, curtain side airbags, a tire-pressure monitor, a tilt steering wheel, cloth upholstery, a height-adjustable driver seat, a split folding rear seat, and a cargo cover.
Do you make the same styling statement? No. Will you be the celebrity on your block for a week? No, but you'll have a car with a backseat and a smidge more cargo room for the same price. But what about gas mileage? That's where the Smart car makes up for it, with excellent fuel economy, right? Think again.
Fuel Economy
Common sense dictates that small cars with tiny engines should deliver big in the fuel economy department. The EPA rates the ForTwo at 33 mpg city/40 mpg highway. Compared to a Chevrolet Tahoe, those numbers are impressive. Compared to a larger, but still subcompact Hyundai Accent, they become just OK.
Consumer Guide averaged 38.8 mpg in a test 2008 Smart ForTwo.
During a mix of several-hundred highway and city miles, Consumer Guide averaged 38.8 mpg in our test Smart ForTwo. In a test Hyundai Accent (with a 5-speed manual transmission, however) Consumer Guide averaged 34.2 mpg in a mix of city and highway driving. How much are you willing to give up for 4.6 miles per gallon? Also add the higher cost of premium gas to this fuel economy equation because this Smart will sip nothing less.
Bottom Line
Smart makes sense as a quirky, personality-filled city car for those seeking low-cost, high-profile transportation and the ever-elusive parking spot. But the bottom line is that the Smart may work for you in some areas, but in most situations a similarly priced subcompact should deliver just about everything ForTwo can without demanding extreme sacrifices in comfort and utility. Though attention-seekers won't find themselves getting stared at, beeped at, or accosted by strangers when driving a Hyundai Accent.
As one Smart tester summed, "the Smart's appeal as a city car is obvious, though its suitability as such is somewhat less so. Unless Smart manages to correct some of the ForTwo's glaring faults--most notably a recalcitrant transmission and ox-cart ride--the car will likely remain little more than a boutique curiosity whose appeal will quickly wear thin."
ForTwo is available in coupe and convertible bodystyles in Pure and up-level Passion trims. Power gets to the rear wheels via a 70-horsepower 3-cylinder engine and 5-speed automated manual transmission. Built by a division of Mercedes-Benz, these micro-mobiles have been on sale around the world since 1998 but are just now sprouting up in U.S. cities.
With polarizing, love-it-or-hate it styling and rumors of out-of-this-world fuel economy and questionable safety, this horizontally challenged go-kart is hard to miss and creating a lot of buzz. But the question is, does Smart makes sense?
Size
Smart's tiny exterior is one of its tickets to winning over urbanites in crowded, parking-spot-challenged cities. At just 106.1-inches long and 61.4-inches wide, virtually no spot is too small. Depending on the city, it's even legal to park ForTwo nose-first into a parallel parking spot.
On the downside, carrying anything other than one passenger and four bags of groceries presents a challenge. Because the cargo floor is significantly higher than the passenger area, cornering at any speed means parcels sloshing around and lodging under the seats. The result is smooshed buns and bruised fruit. There's also no cargo cover, which invites characters of the smash-and-grab variety to help themselves to your stuff.
Performance
ForTwo's tiny 1.0-liter 3-cylinder engine is unsurprisingly sluggish. Need a boost for highway passing? The Flintstone mobile would provide more power. But again, this is expected. More alarming, however, is the automated manual's tendency to bog and surge at nearly every shift. Smoothness is not this drivetrain's forte. There is a long lag between shifts and then a jarring pitch backward when coming out of them. One editor noted that "poor transmission behavior is this car's worst feature." Another editor summed it up as "the worst transmission EVER."
Smart is so tiny that pulling the wrong side of the car up to the pump isn't a problem.
This was a deal breaker for many Consumer Guide test-car editors and their passengers. A couple of editors mastered the quirky automated manual by selecting the manual mode and finessing the steering wheel paddle shifters. Smoothness resulted, but it took some time and skill to get there.
Ride and Handling
On the positive side, most testers agreed that close-quarters maneuvering in the agile Smart was outstanding. Also, because the driving position is tall and upright, the driver doesn't feel dwarfed by surrounding traffic.
The bad news is the ride can be considerably rough. One tester complained of ForTwo's overly stiff suspension and said "potholes and pavement heaves pound through. So do sticks, dimes, bugs, leaves, and soggy scraps of tissue paper. Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh, but so is the Smart's ride over anything but smaller pavement blemishes."
Other elements that enhanced the overall uncomfortable ride include the lack of a tilt steering wheel or height-adjustable driver's seat. These features aren't offered on ForTwo but come standard on many budget cars like the Chevrolet Aveo and Toyota Yaris.
Safety
Can anything this small actually be safe? According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sort of. NHTSA gave the ForTwo coupe four and three stars in the driver and passenger frontal crash test. ForTwo got five stars in the side impact test and three stars in the rollover evaluation.
According to Smart, ForTwo gets its toughness from a "tridion safety cell," which is composed of three layers of reinforced steel. Also, Smart is equipped with standard safety equipment like an antiskid system, traction control, ABS, and front and side airbags--but no curtain side airbags.
While all the numbers and equipment indicate that Smart is safer than it looks, how it feels is another story. Sidle up to a semi-truck during some highway miles in Smart, and you might not feel so secure in your safety cell. Because of its tall roof, any wind force while traveling at higher speeds induces some pretty unnerving lane wander. Its height also makes ForTwo feel slightly tippy in fast maneuvers.
Dollar Value
The ForTwo Pure coupe starts at $12,235, including destination. Standard equipment, aside from the aforementioned safety features, includes a tire-pressure monitor, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, power door locks, and remote keyless entry. Passion models start at $14,235 including destination, and adds air conditioning with automatic climate control, heated power mirrors, power windows, a CD player with MP3 compatibility, a non-opening glass roof panel, and alloy wheels.
While at first glance this seems like an affordable economy car, it's really no bargain considering its lack of practicality. It's limited in cargo and passenger space, yet costs about the same as a base-model Hyundai Accent, which measures a tidy 159.3 inches in length and can carry four people. An Accent GS 2-door hatchback with a 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine and 4-speed automatic transmission costs $12,425 after destination fees. For that similar chunk of change you get standards like dual front airbags, front side airbags, curtain side airbags, a tire-pressure monitor, a tilt steering wheel, cloth upholstery, a height-adjustable driver seat, a split folding rear seat, and a cargo cover.
Do you make the same styling statement? No. Will you be the celebrity on your block for a week? No, but you'll have a car with a backseat and a smidge more cargo room for the same price. But what about gas mileage? That's where the Smart car makes up for it, with excellent fuel economy, right? Think again.
Fuel Economy
Common sense dictates that small cars with tiny engines should deliver big in the fuel economy department. The EPA rates the ForTwo at 33 mpg city/40 mpg highway. Compared to a Chevrolet Tahoe, those numbers are impressive. Compared to a larger, but still subcompact Hyundai Accent, they become just OK.
Consumer Guide averaged 38.8 mpg in a test 2008 Smart ForTwo.
During a mix of several-hundred highway and city miles, Consumer Guide averaged 38.8 mpg in our test Smart ForTwo. In a test Hyundai Accent (with a 5-speed manual transmission, however) Consumer Guide averaged 34.2 mpg in a mix of city and highway driving. How much are you willing to give up for 4.6 miles per gallon? Also add the higher cost of premium gas to this fuel economy equation because this Smart will sip nothing less.
Bottom Line
Smart makes sense as a quirky, personality-filled city car for those seeking low-cost, high-profile transportation and the ever-elusive parking spot. But the bottom line is that the Smart may work for you in some areas, but in most situations a similarly priced subcompact should deliver just about everything ForTwo can without demanding extreme sacrifices in comfort and utility. Though attention-seekers won't find themselves getting stared at, beeped at, or accosted by strangers when driving a Hyundai Accent.
As one Smart tester summed, "the Smart's appeal as a city car is obvious, though its suitability as such is somewhat less so. Unless Smart manages to correct some of the ForTwo's glaring faults--most notably a recalcitrant transmission and ox-cart ride--the car will likely remain little more than a boutique curiosity whose appeal will quickly wear thin."