It's cute, with interchangeable body panels. It's fuel stingy. It's ideal for tight parking areas. And it's built by Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz unit.
The tall, narrow and short two-seater is called the smart fortwo (all small letters). The rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive minicar goes on sale in January, with two as-yet-unnamed dealers handling it in the Chicago area. Built in France, it comes as two hatchback coupe models and as a convertible.
The 2008 fortwo is the larger, second-generation smart. The first fortwo was born when Nicolas Hayek, inventor of Swatch watches, decided to build a small city car with easily interchangeable body panels to get a "new look." He formed a joint venture with Mercedes to build the car -- the fortwo. (Smart now is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG.)
The first fortwo was launched in October 1998 and has drawn 770,000 buyers in foreign countries -- many in Europe with its cramped cities, narrow roads, stiff fuel prices and dreadful parking conditions.
Smart USA says more than 30,000 Americans have placed a $99 deposit on a fortwo.
Mercedes reportedly hasn't made a dime with the car, something the Penske Automotive Group -- second largest auto retailer in America -- wouldn't tolerate.
List prices range from $11,590 to $16,590, but desirable options can quickly cause prices to escalate. For instance, many fortwo buyers might want the entry fortwo "pure" model with $600 air conditioning, $350 or $495 sound systems and $450 power steering. The sharp looking $225 metallic paint and $350 transparent panorama roof with a sun screen also look inviting.
The fortwo will be distributed by the Penske Automotive Group, headed by racer/mega auto dealer Roger Penske, who has a superb business record and sixth sense about future successful cars. (Penske drove the first Lexus in Japan before it arrived as an unknown in 1990 in America and set up Lexus dealerships here. The car soon clobbered even Mercedes models.)
The fortwo just might be the next major trendy urban car since BMW's small Mini Cooper, which is larger and more refined. The fortwo is the smallest, shortest car to enter America. It's 8.8 feet long, 5.1 feet tall and weighs 1,808 to 1,852 pounds. That's about the weight of a popular 1950s-1960s Porsche 356 or 1960s Porsche 911 race car.
"Just don't get hit!" was the reaction of those who saw me enter the car through its tall, wide doors. But it meets U.S. safety standards and has a high-strength steel "tridion safety cell," which resembles a race car's roll cage. Also, the body is reinforced at strategically important points with high-strength steel.
Safety items also include two head/thorax (neck) side air bags, electronic stability and traction control, cornering brake control and anti-lock brakes with electronic brake distribution and brake assist. There's also a hill start assist feature that prevents the car from rolling backward while on a slope.
Good shoulder room
Being 61.7 inches wide, even two 6-foot, 5-inch people have good shoulder room. Occupants sit upright facing a huge windshield in the colorful interior's comfortable seats, which provide good side support in curves. Doors have fairly deep storage pockets, but the glovebox is small and cheap-looking cupholders are on the floor in front of the shift lever.
The cargo area is fairly spacious. It's reached by a twin-section tailgate that doesn't require much room to open in tight parking spaces. But loading can be awkward because the load floor is high and the bottom half of the tailgate swings out and thus forces you to stand back a foot or so away from the cargo floor.
On the plus side, there's 7.8 cubic feet of storage space, or 12 feet if you load to the roof line. The cargo area swallows a good number of grocery bags, besides gym and golf bags -- and other items commonly transported daily.
You can change the fortwo's colors by having the removable colored, dent-resistant plastic body panels switched by a dealer for its labor cost. You also can personally change panels. Panel prices aren't firmly set but "may cost $800 to $1,200 each," said Dave Schembri, president of smart (small "s'' again) USA.
Changeable body panels come in standard black, yellow and white. Metallic blue, red and silver cost extra.
The smart fortwo generally is fun to drive, at least in town, where its small size and maneuverability are definite assets.
But there are drawbacks: While lively in town, where many smart cars are expected to be driven, the 0-60 mph time takes a marginal 12.8 seconds, and the 65-75 mph passing speed is mediocre. Top speed is 90 mph. Those actually aren't bad numbers, considering that the fortwo has only a small Mitsubishi 1-liter three-cylinder engine. It works hard during merges and highway passing and is noisy during hard acceleration.
The engine is mounted sideways behind occupants in front of the rear axle. That location puts most weight over the driven wheels for better traction on dry or snowy roads.
Other drawbacks: The clutchless five-speed manual transmission shifts in a jerky manner in both automatic and manual modes. You shift manually using just the gear lever or steering wheel paddles, but there is too much of a lag between shifts. It's easy to slightly miss the Park, Reverse, Neutral and Drive positions when using the transmission in fully automatic mode.
Watch those bumps
The ride is fine for a short-wheelbase (73.5 inch) minicar on smooth roads, but it gets bumpy and/or bouncy on rough or uneven pavement -- although never punishing.
The optional power steering is rather heavy and almost overly fast; sneeze and you might find yourself partly in an adjoining lane. Power assist might not be needed because most weight is in the rear and steering is said to be as quick without such assist.
Brakes with an uneven action don't lend themselves to smooth stops, although stopping distances are OK. But the brake pedal juts from the floor, as it did with classic Porsche and MG sports cars.
You can't see the front end from the driver's seat, and the low front easily can be damaged by raised parking barriers found at 7-Elevens or in shopping centers. And the inside rearview mirror seems shaped more for style than function.
There's no spare tire -- only a tire repair kit, although Schembri says the fortwo will have a roadside assistance program.
Fuel economy is an EPA-estimated 40 mpg in the city and 45 on highways under that agency's 2007 provisions. But it drops to 33 city and 40 highway using the EPA's tougher, more realistic 2008 tests. (Actual fuel consumption hasn't changed -- only the EPA calculation has.) Premium fuel is called for because the engine is sophisticated despite its size.
Two dealers in the area
Besides the two Chicago area smart dealers, about 49 specially designed dealerships in larger U.S. cities also will begin selling the smart fortwo in January. About 70 dealers will be opened by the end of next year, with about 60 percent at Mercedes dealerships (with a wall separating the two brands). The balance will be stand-alone dealers. Eight or nine Penske-affiliated dealerships will sell the car.
The entry $11,590 fortwo pure coupe model is a picture of minimalism with a two-spoke steering wheel, manual windows and only a provision for radio installation, although the above-mentioned options are available.
The $13,590 "passion" coupe I drove had a three-spoke wheel and standard air conditioning, power windows and a central locking system, but also optional power steering and a $350 premium sound system. Its optional tachometer (which should be standard with the car's high-rev engine) and clock cost an extra $120. Both stick up from the top center of the dashboard and look like obvious add-ons.
Then there's the $16,590 passion cabriolet (convertible) with features of the passion coupe and a power top with a heated glass rear window and upgraded sound system.
The smart fortwo might have gotten the ultimate compliment when China's Shuanghuan Automobile Ltd.'s came out with a clone of the car called the Noble, with plans to sell it in Europe -- a move that has Mercedes threatening legal action.
It's unlikely you'll ever see the Noble in America. But urban areas here might be swarming with smart fortwos in a year or so. The Mini Cooper has been a hit in the Chicago area, so why not the fortwo?
2008 SMART FORTWO
PRICE: $11,590-$16,590.
LIKES: Roomy. High fuel economy. Parking ease.
DISLIKES: Tiny. Jerky transmission shifts. Nonlinear brake action. Desirable extras up prices. |