From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere. – Dr. Seuss
Of course I had a smart car – for seven years – and yes, it was a real car. A 1 liter, 3 cylinder, 70 horsepower, 1,800 lb. real car with plastic body panels and a retractable roof that my son Josh and I drove 3,700 miles to Vail and back one week and, along the way, saw the world’s largest prairie dog -but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning…
If you’re someone who notices cars (and possibly photographs them incessantly, and maybe even posts them to blogs) then interesting cars are like bright lights on a dark summer night – and you are the moth that is drawn to them. You read about some new car and suddenly you see it everywhere. It was that way with the smart fortwo (always lowercase!). This is known as the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. I remember seeing my first smart cars in the US in 2005 in California. The smart was not yet officially sold in the United States, but ZAP, a company known for its electric vehicles, began importing them through the gray market and selling them for $25,000 to $35,000.
I give smart a lot of credit for thinking outside the box. The car was designed to be a small, stylish city car that could be easily maneuvered and parked in congested European cities. The first generation cars, internally designated the 450, were short enough in length to park head-first toward the curb. The car was constructed as a unitized safety cell with plastic panels for the body. They were designed to be easily manufactured as well. The first generation cars were produced from 1998 to 2007.
The second generation cars, designated 451, were introduced in 2008. They were slightly larger than their predecessors and designed to allow smart to introduce the cars into more markets. When Mercedes announced in 2007 that they would begin officially selling the cars in 2008 I signed up. I went on-line, paid a $99 deposit and configured the car exactly as I wanted it. Mine was the passion model – a step above the base trim, and would be a cabrio with the electrically operated canvas roof that could retract to sunroof position or be fully lowered. As well, when the top was fully lowered removable roof sidebars could be stored in the trunk. I ordered mine in silver with a the Tridion Safety Cell painted in black. The cabrio was $3,000 more than the fixed roof so all in the price was about $19,000.
The first U.S. smarts were delivered in early 2008. Due to a long waiting list mine did not arrive until July. I knew exactly when it was arriving as I could electronically track my car’s progress from the time it left the Smartville factory in Hambach, France until it was unloaded at the Port of Baltimore.
Like all smarts mine had a five speed automated manual transmission. That meant no clutch pedal and the car could be driven like an automatic. Those familiar with the car know that this was its biggest fault. The automatic shifts were slow, slow, slow and very noticeable in comparison to a conventional automatic.
The alternative was to manually shift the car using either the shift lever on the floor or the steering wheel paddles included at the passion level. It took a while to make the transition, but I ultimately became a paddle person. Now the average shift time for a traditional manual transmission is 500 milliseconds to 1 second. Ferrari’s paddle shifters make the switch in about 100 milliseconds. In the Smart the shift time using the paddle shifts is a very deliberate “1 Mississippi”. It works best if you let up slightly on the gas the way you would with a true manual. Once you understand that, the shifting if fine.
I know a lot of dyed-in-the-wool manual transmission folks don’t care for paddles. I’ve accepted them, but by the time I get another car with paddle shifters it will probably have enough torque that shifting in normal circumstances will be a waste of time. C’est la vie.
I took delivery and the following weekend made my first smart road trip to a music festival in Ohio – a round trip distance of about 900 miles. When you first drive a smart on the highway you have the perception that 65 mph or so is about all it will comfortably do. As a result, you can easily achieve over 40 mpg. Eventually you realize the car is equally at home well north of 75 mph, but the cost is several miles per gallon. Given my driving habits my mileage settled into a range of mid to upper thirties on the highway and low thirties in town.
The car was fun to drive – especially around town where it’s short wheelbase made it seem more like a go cart. To fully experience the drop-top I developed a rule. If the temperature was over 50 degrees Farenheit and you could put the roof down, then you must put the roof down.
Inside there was plenty of room for the two passengers. An upright sitting position and a high roof provided enough room that I never found anyone who felt cramped in the car, including my son Josh who had recently shot up to 6’ 3”.
Some days the smart seemed very big…
And some days it seemed very small.
Naturally there were some aftermarket additions made. The car was susceptible to cross winds and the front end did not feel planted. The stock wheels were 4.5 x 15 inches in the front and 5.5 x 15 inches in the rear. I purchased a set of genius wheels (smart car, genius wheels – get it?) made specifically for the smart and its French heritage three bolt pattern hubs. 5.5 inches all around and plus size tires vastly improved the stability and there were no clearance or handling issues.
Bushing were upgraded on the front end eliminating the ‘clunk’ associated with average road hazards. A K&N air filter and a very loud free flow exhaust were installed. The very loud free flow exhaust was removed and replaced with a slightly less loud free flow exhaust. Lizard skin sound deadening was added to further quiet things.
Which brings us to the trip to Vail. My son Josh was now seventeen and heading to college in a couple of weeks. Like many kids these days he had been indifferent about getting his license. In Maryland one of the requirements is 60 hours of supervised driving outside of required drivers’ education classes. Eighteen months after getting his learner’s permit he was still 35 hours short so one morning in August he and I got in the car and started driving to Colorado. We would split up the driving but make sure he got his 35 hours in.
We took three days each way. Day one was Maryland to Ohio to stay with Josh’s grandparents – a distance of about 450 miles. Day two was Ohio to Olathe, Kansas (suburban Kansas City) – 700 miles. Day three was Olathe to Vail – another 700 miles.
If you’ve ever driven from Eastern Kansas to the Rocky Mountains you know there is a lot of not much on the trip. Leaving Olathe early in the morning and merging on to Westbound Interstate 70 the GPS informed us our next turn was in 522 miles.
A long time later we finally hit Denver and the last couple of hours through the mountains, top down of course, were a hoot. We rested one day in Vail and turned around for the trip home.
Once more we found ourselves on the long flat stretch between Colorado and Kansas. There were many, many signs for roadside attractions but the one that caught our eye was for the World’s largest prairie dog in Oakely, Kansas. The fenced off area next to the highway was stocked full of prairie dog chuck holes and tiny prairie dogs were everywhere. There were also ducks, exotic birds and even snakes. Finally, at the back we saw the promised behemoth. At that moment my life was complete.
A day and a half later, in Ohio, Josh was driving at nightfall with about an hour of travel left. Without warning he pulled the car over to the side of the ride and got out. He informed me that he had now completed his 60 hours and would not be driving any more on this trip – and he didn’t!
I drove the smart from 2008 until I sold it this past November. The car was as practical as any two-seater can be. There were many more road trips and even a rally. I drove it a little over 70,000 miles. Most of the time the top was down. The car proved reliable, but had just enough Mercedes DNA that parts and service were a little more than might have been expected. I listed the car on ebay with the hopes that it would find an owner who appreciated it as much as I did. I had the good fortune to sell it to Benoit in Florida who had owned several smarts and in fact made custom leather interiors for them. On a brisk Fall morning the transporter turned onto my street and the little beast was ferried away to its new home.
Next week – Something practical for the wife…
Last week – The Strange Case of Dr. Subie Wagon and Mr. WRX
1 l., 3 cyl., 1800 lbs… a Metro! Except the Metro seats four and has room for stuff and can get double the mileage at a fraction of the cost. Too bad they aren’t still building them in near perpetuity, like VW did with the classic Bug.
Plus it has a real manual transmission!
Suzuki came close to building it in perpetuity in the rest of the world; the 1996 redesign that added weight and replaced the 5-door hatch with a sedan was North America-only, everywhere else they kept making the 1988 style until the mid-00s.
Lucky us. :/
Congratulations on having written the first overall positive review I’ve ever read on the car. I’ve never been sure why, but autodom is certainly determined to slag this car worse than anything GM ever made during the 80’s, usually by forgetting the car’s intended use: as a commuter car.
I’ve seriously considered one as a replacement for my Toaster when the time comes, as it would be used as around town transportation. Period. However, the ability to find used Nissan Leaf’s has pretty much derailed that idea, figuring that the best thing possible when you’re used to 80mpg on the commute (my Yamaha Zuma 125) is not having to buy gasoline at all.
Admittedly, it’s pricey for what you get. But it always seemed that EVERY review of this car was determined to show it had absolutely no redeeming value, no reason to exist, and to call in question the intelligence of anyone who would ever consider buying the car.
Aka, this car must be panned. Completely. And sent back to Europe where it (questionably) belongs.
Granted, Michael’s relatively positive review is apologetic as all get out about the transmission, listing work arounds and ways to minimize the shortcomings. And yes, there are bigger, cheaper Asian alternatives (it’s a given that anything vehicle coming from Asia will be a better value than something coming from Europe, assuming that’s your total parameter for purchasing); but my seeing this as a positive review really says something about the deliberate sandbagging of the car in the near decade its been over here.
Edit: This was a reply to a reply to my original comment – that seems to have disappeared in between the time that I started writing and initial posting.
Regarding Asian / European.
The A-segment Toyota, Citroën and Peugeot hatchbacks (on the market since 2005) are essentially the same car and are all built in the same factory in CZ Europe.
Yet the Toyota always did better in surveys than the other two (Japanese: good ! French: bad !).
Since then I take surveys about reliability etc. with a VERY big grain of salt.
The bigger B-segment Toyota Yaris is built in France, BTW.
There is also a Toyota Vios based Toyota Yaris completely different in body design compared to the French and Japanese made versions which BTW is also called the Vitz.
I think you can always make a small cheap car and many of these can be entertaining. While the smart wasn’t cheap ($3,000 of the price was the convertible) it certainly wasn’t expensive either.
I think cars of ‘European’ heritage that some of us find entertaining are never going to appeal to mainstream car buyers.
What’s the “level of mainstreamness” of cars like the Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus and Buick Regal ?
My older sister and her husband own two Smarts – a diesel and an electric. They keep a Honda Civic for longer trips, but the Smarts are their everyday drivers and they’re quite happy with them.
It sounds like the key to enjoying this car was to use the paddles. In it’s urban car function with top up, how was visibility? It looks like there would be large blind spots.
The rear window was a little small, but overall I never thought of visibility as bad. Of course, I’ve owned several coupes.
There are no blind spots, you just have to know how to adjust mirrors properly. This is true for any car – not a smart car thing.
Those black rims look good !
Nothing wrong with the idea behind the (original) Smart ForTwo and the later Toyota iQ. Extremely compact -thus highly maneuverable and ideal for city trafic- and fuel efficient.
But dang, these things were expensive ! By now a whole armada of much cheaper and slightly longer mini / micro hatchbacks (A-segment cars) is offered on the market. With rear seats, sometimes with 4 doors, and with something that looks like a real cargo space. Still ideal for city trafic and still fuel efficient, with their small (around 1.0 liter) gasoline sipping engines.
Below one of the many offerings, a Skoda Citigo (what’s in a name ?), very much related to the VW Up! and Seat Mii. Just like the current Smart is very much related to the Renault Twingo.
Neat picture and comparison: Smart ForTwo vs Toyota iQ, Toyota iQ vs (first gen) Toyota Aygo.
Tuning house Brabus can never be far away if Mercedes is involved. Here’s a 102 hp Smart Brabus convertible Le Bleue.
I don’t know about the new third generation cars, but in North America the second generation Brabus did not have the higher output engine.
That’s correct. That Brabus was a trim and chassis package only.
Shame the NA market never got the diesel… Always thought these were cute, and briefly considered one, but as Syke said, they’re pretty much a sole-purpose vehicle, and I needed a bit more utility.
FWIW: We got the diesel first generation in Canada.
I have heard a lot of dealers were not happy when the Diesel version was replaced by the gas version in Canada. The Diesels got close to 60 MPG. When the US began to get Smart cars, only gas versions were offered to both countries. The Diesels sold well in Canada, the gas cars not so much. This is what a person who worked for Mercedes up north told me.
I was excited when it first came out…..but no third pedal, turned my smile upside down.
Nice write up. I was never impressed with these. No I have no aversion to small cars and in fact like the Fiat 500 alot (I would have bought one but the dealership would not come down in price so I bought a Colorado instead)
But it always seems (to me at least) this car really had no market here in the USA. Two seater cars(with the exception of sports cars) rarely do(think Honda Insight)
There were far better cars out there for around the same price or a bit more that achieved great gas mileage and had more room.
Another nicely written story on a set of wheels. I really like your witty writing style and excellent photos.
I cannot make up my mind where the smart looks smartest: next to a BMW Isetta or next to a GMC Yukon. Maybe it looks smartest on paper. I suppose it is made for a very tight niche and outside of that niche it looks, uhm, out of place.
How tight is that niche? It could make sense for my wife. She only drives in town. Outside of town she is in the passenger seat and has her eyes glued to the Kindle. However on weekends the smart fortwo would be too small because she likes to chauffeur some folks to church. That means a 4-seater will outsmart the smart fortwo and the smart for forfour seems to defeat its own purpose.
I consider it a cute-mobile. But the Fiat 500 looks cuter yet.
I wonder if Pontiac ever thought of doing something like this with the Fiero platform. Remember in the beginning it was put forward as an economical commuter car. A short and tall body instead of long and low but retaining the space frame and plastic body. With perhaps the Chevy Sprint engine replacing the iron duke. The five speed and 3sp auto solves the transmission compromises of smart. The lighter engine and shorter front overhang should save enough weight to lighten the steering which was the Fiero’s biggest dynamic fault.
I could not imagine driving a car that small. I would never buy one. I especially hate that It has no hood so if you hit something it could come through the windshield. I don’t do well with little cars. I seem to hit curbs with them. I think it’s the wheels are not forward enough. It seem like a poor deal vs a Kia spectra or a corolla and to me it’s ugly and resembles that plastic kiddie toy. Plus its made in France and in my experience it’s not a good idea to buy French things with moving parts. I don’t see many on the road. It seems like a car that once everyone who wants one gets it no one else buys it And few repeat customers. I think parking could be an issue to. Its so small you could easily loose it. It seems like it’s unrefined, gets poor gasmileage vs a lot of bigger little cars and is expensive to fix. It seems like a scary car to even ride in since it’s so little and you sit way forward. I’m glad some one likes them though. They make great contrast Cars when photographed next to a big old Lincoln. I enjoyed the article and I’m glad you enjoyed yours. To me it’s just not a good fit. I only like big cars. I hit curbs when I drive tiny cars. I have a fear of things coming through the front of a car or van with no hood, and I don’t like loosening cars in parking lots. I like how you can find a Lincoln easily in a row. I also get cclaustrophobic so It scares me.
Exactly. About the only thing this car has going for it is its size, and here in America where you (typically) have plenty of room to parallel park old Caddies and Lincolns.
The lack of truly good gas mileage considering it’s so small and the very unrefined tranny, plus it’s tiny size makes it utterly unacceptable for my purposes. The lack of tranny refinement alone is enough to put a car out of the running for me.
Wow, that sounds so, American…..;-)
I prefer cars the size of the town car or crown Vic. I had a 93 t bird and I felt it was too small on the outside. I feel claustrophobic in small cars. I did enjoy the article though. I feel this is a nitch car. It has its following of devotees like beetles or old Saturn’s did. Seems to me it needs a good manual transmission and the gas mileage is poor for what it is. It really should get 60-70 mpg to meet expectations and should be better on gas than a spectra or little Toyota. Still it is a car that has a fun factor in that it’s so absurdly small and foreign. Its fun photograph them next to your car if you drive a big Lincoln or Cadillac. I’m glad they make their devoted followers happy and a low people to be different. Most owners are nice non conformist type cool people. I enjoy talking with them. I love the huge cars and mostly have driven big Lincoln’s and other politically incorrect full sized old American cars the smart car people are just on the opposition end of the spectrum. Cool people driving anti-Lincoln’s.
Safe? You bet they’re safe.
One of the reasons you haven’t seen more of my car stories on these fine pages is I’ve been working as a news reporter the past year. Here’s one of my stories about a Smart car rollover (with video!) that the driver walked away from the rollover! Check out how the cabin is protected. Pretty impressive, actually.
http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2016/02/23/rsw-smart-car-proves-its-worth-in-late-night-parkway-rollover/
I got what the smart was about, tight urban driving. But in Canada (and the States as well), we have lots of space in town and lots of highways, so the smart didn’t make much sense for this market. Better off with a Civic or Fiesta, close enough on the fuel economy with an extra set of doors. Still, an interesting car that has received too much hate. Surprisingly, we have a smart in town; pop. 4,000 in the middle of the Canadian Prairies and we have a smart in town.
I was never too concerned about the safety aspect. The Tridion shell is essentially a Nascar roll cage. The wheels were designed to absorb impact and then go under the chassis. Same with the engine which would absorb and then submarine under the passenger compartment. In the end, any car can kill you if you try hard enough but the odds of serious injury overall in our daily lives are relatively minor. Sometimes folks who are talking about safety are also driving classic cars which are relatively deadly from a crash protection standpoint compared with any modern car regardless of size.
The other thing I didn’t mention was that with the high seating position you didn’t feel like you were driving a small car.
I always thought these made sense if they got 60-70 mpg. Seeing that they never achieved those kinds of numbers, unless I was in a big city and needed transportation to get around I would never consider purchasing one of these.
was the transmission the main reason that the mileage was so poor?
Perhaps. All I know is that with the two that I have driven, they both shifted strangely and felt uncertain about what gear they should be in. Horrible.
I think I could really enjoy one of these after reading this story. A convertible especially. Haven’t had one since my MGB back in the early seventies. Like Syke this is the first time I’ve heard something positive about them that wasn’t a mercedes advertisement. As a guy who drove air cooled beetles with 40-50 hp all over the place this sounds like a hot rod.
Reality is that the Nissan cube is holding up and will probably keep the job. If I just have to have open air the 4Runner has a moon roof. The beauty of being retired is that generally speaking most anything meets the hard core requirements of daily living.
I always wanted one of these, esp. In cabrio form, and was one of those who put down a $100 deposit, but later backed out.
Yesterday i found one locally. Tempted, but it has 165,000 miles on it. What i dont get is how anyone put that many miles on a Smart. Used as an RV tug?
I put 30,000 miles a year on my car (Honda Accord). According to the For Sale sign the car in the picture is a 2008, so if were my car, it would have considerably more miles than that. It was probably used as a commuter car.
Now that you mention RVs, I see a lot of the smart cars that are on 495(major highway on the MD/DC/VA area) attached to the back of an RV where thay are probably used as a “go places” car after the RV makes camp.
I’ve always thought owning a first-gen Zap conversion might be interesting, solely because of the fact that these cars were not meant to be in the US in the first place. However, I cannot trust the company that brought us this (http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2009/08/curbside-crap-2006-zap-xebra/) and this (http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2008/03/2008-zap-xebra-review/).
I’m glad you enjoyed yours, Michael, but I cannot stand these. I could see the point of such a vehicle in a city like Rome or Paris, but in a city/country where distances are long and parking is ample their benefits shrink. But hey, some people like a smaller, more manageable vehicle and a microcar will never appeal to a medium/large-sedan lover like me. However, what I think is the real nail in the coffin for the fortwo for me is its mediocre gas mileage (for its size). Honestly, I’d rather just have a Fiesta and have a more useable if less park-able car.
The Fiesta is actually very parkable. I was able to park my 2012 Fiesta in places most cars could not park.
+1
The Portland area has been flooded with these things, with per-minute rental under the Car2Go brand. It’s been going on just long enough that the initial batch of cars are coming up at auction after the lease is finished. So a bunch 2012 Smart “pure” with 25K miles are showing up at the $5k to $6k price level at retail. I was very tempted for my commute, so I borrowed one for the weekend. I now drive a 2016 Chevrolet Spark EV…
My first Smart was an early LHD in black with lime green interior. Nice enough around town, but the ride was far too choppy for the bumpy country roads of Yorkshire, due to its short wheelbase. A Mercedes 190E replaced it. A while later, I returned to the Smart brand and bought a roadster coupe. Again, nice enough, but the novelty wore off after a year. I always wanted it to be 20 percent bigger everywhere. Looked great though.
Interesting vehicles, and the open top sounds like it made the most of its minor dimensions. I’ve always wondered why it didn’t get better mileage though…
as you can imagine, with parking in manhattan at about $500 per month, smart cars are fairly popular here. there ability to park on the street where other cars don’t fit is a big plus. unfortunately, you are not allowed to park them perpendicular to the curb as is allowed in some european cities.