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(on 19 Mar 2010)
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LATEST SMART NEWS By Broadspeed Online Editor
NEW SMART FORTWO TDI
The new smart fortwo has been sold in Europe with a TDI motor for some time, but only now has it arrived in the UK. The Smart Fortwo diesel isn't highly powererd with just 45PS, but there's plenty if low down torque which makes it dead easy to drive. WRM is the fuel economy of 83 mpg and emissions of just 88 gkm C02. This is pretty well the most green car you could buy today - at least until the Electric Smart arrives in 2012. The Fortwo's minimal weight is because the bosy panels are plastic. However, tough aluminium and steel do make the structure super_strong. The engine under the floor layout, high seat position and a tough frame make this Smart pretty safe. The new Fortwo is wider than its predecessor with a style that looks slightly heavy. It's tiny so you can park it nose_or_rear to the kerbside which allows you to exploit a parking space which others couldn't. The convertible roof slides back in several ways, folding it away behind you and removing the roofbars, or leaving it wide open like a full size sliding canvas sun roof. Smarts always seem decent value when you look at the OTR listprice, but you can spend much more by ticking the options boxes. This 45PS TDI Passion Convertible has an RRP of £10880, though even a locking glove box, electric powersteering, a clock/ revcounter and the s/wheel paddle shift function. That pushes your price upto £12475, quite enough for an townie runaround. You could have a Ford Ka TDI with two more seats, larger boot and conventional dynamics for a lot less. You are paying a big premium for the small proportions of the Smart Fortwo, but fuel economy and practicality compensate for this. The main criticism of a Smart fortwo was its gearbox, the semiauto 2pedal system often delivering ponderous shifts. The s/wheel paddle shift helped improve it - but the TDi has good low-range torque and this eases gear changes, by smoothing the change between the ratios. Power is lacking but the Smart CDi is pretty quick around the city. The 0-60 mph time is almost 20 seconds which is one of the slowest cars on the market, but sizzling performance has not been this smart's raison d'etre; fuel efficiency, economy and low emissions (83 mpg/88 gkm) are impressive. The smart's bootspace is daft, almost like a glove and there's next to no storagespace in the cabin. This car is a strict 2-str. The 2year guarantee could be better, though maintenance is only due after 24m or 25000 miles, which means the running costs should be reasonable. The Smart with a CDI TDI is the model the Fortwo should have been. It may not be fast, but it's amazingly economical and the motortorque does a great job of improving gear changes. The oh-so green CDI is a great addition to the Smart range, and it may well outsell the petrol models in time.
ABOUT SMART
Smart was established by Nicholas Hayek, who was the Managing Director of the Swiss Swatch company. Swatch is an innovative watch maker which introduced inexpensive Swiss time keeping to the mass market. After making a name, he amassed a vast fortune from Swatch and felt the moment had arrived to take his successful formula into the car world, producing a mass-market city car. His concept was utterly right, especially taking into account worsening city centre traffic situations. However, despite having an excellent design capability at his disposal, Hayek was not a car maker. He needed a car maker to take his project to fruition and almost made it work with the Volkswagen Group. However, Volkswagen felt it was not the right new product for its business. Whilst the Smart's design was refined by Volkswagen, the project never even reached the road so to speak. So Hayek introduced the project to Mercedes-Benz. The MCC or Micro Compact Car company began in 1994, and launched its exciting and revolutionary city-coupe at the 1997 Frankfurt Motor Show. By that time, Hayek, realised that the development and manufacturing cost involved producing a three-cylinder engine were, to say the least, exorbitant. In fact, almost as much cost as developing any conventional full-sized family car; so Hayek withdrew from his partnership, after sustaining huge financial losses. Mercedes-Benz continued the MCC project and later formed a convenient acronym s-m-art, this stood for Swatch-Mercedes-art, or (in lower-case) smart. The Smart Car company name was changed to a GMBH (German limited liability) and in 2002 the Smart logo changed to the present arrow in a circle.
