New Smart Fortwo No Longer a Head Banger

PORTLAND, OR – When I first drove a Smart Fortwo minicar, it took me back to my teen years.

That’s when I was learning to work a manual transmission, and it took time to get it down. At first I clumsily and harshly shifted gears, causing the car to lurch forward from first on up.

The Smart felt just like that. But it wasn’t me regressing to my early stick-shift learning curve. Indeed, the Smart I was driving had an automatic transmission. Yet it was so clunky, it threw the car forward as it changed gears. Occupants would nearly run the risk of sustaining whiplash injuries.

That was seven years ago. This month, a new 2-seater Smart Fortwo hits the market. The first thing I noticed about it is the superiority of its automatic transmission compared with the head-banger outgoing model.

The ’16 Fortwo’s new transmission isn’t the smoothest on the market. World-class competitors for that title would include the Smart’s big sister Mercedes-Benz. Daimler owns both brands. But the Smart’s new dual-clutch 6-speed automatic transmission is a vast improvement over the thing that shifted gears in the predecessor.

Daimler knew it needed to do an extreme transmission makeover. The old one “was not what we hoped for,” Daimler spokesman Willem Spelten says here at a media preview.

Another beef about the old Fortwo was its susceptibility to wind buffeting. On  blustery days, the car felt like it was changing lanes on its own, kind of a scary alter ego to advanced systems that keep a driver from lane drifting.

The new Fortwo stands up to wind better. That partly comes from it being 4 ins. (102 mm) wider, which not only gives it a more planted look, but also offers more driving stability.

Also aiding that cause is a crosswind-assist feature that’s standard on the new model. If sensors detect the vehicle drifting off course at speeds exceeding 50 mph (81 km/h), specific braking intervention, via the electronic-stability-control system, kicks in.

The crosswind assist is technology borrowed from Mercedes. Smart and Mercedes engineers work together – to an extent. Many high-tech features in a $100,000 Mercedes S-Class aren’t found in a Smart starting at $14,650.

For instance, the Mercedes comes with a collision-avoidance system that automatically stops the vehicle if the driver fails to react to an impending crash. The Smart now comes with an optional forward-collision warning system, but it isn’t as advanced as Mercedes’.

The Smart’s radar-based system uses visual and audible warnings to alert the driver of a collision in the works. But you’re on your own when it comes to braking to avoid plowing into someone. Unlike the Mercedes, the Smart won’t do the stopping for you. 

To admirers, the Fortwo is cute. Others think it looks like the front-half remains of a botched magic trick in which the magician sawed a car in two and couldn’t get it back together again.

The half-a-car critics, who don't keep their Smart-aleck comments to themselves, also say things like, “I wouldn’t want to be driving that thing and get hit by a truck.” Well, I wouldn’t want to occupy any vehicle that collides with a truck – including being in another truck.

Yet, the Smart holds its own in crash tests. The occupant “cage” is a rigid shell built of high-strength, hot-formed steel. It’s impressively protective. In head-on crash tests, Daimler safety engineers put the Fortwo up against the Mercedes S-Class. They say the Smart passed with honors. 

No Power Tripping

Powering the agile car is a rear-mounted 3-cyl. turbocharged engine that’s just under 1L and hits 89 hp at 6,200 rpm.

Top speed is 96 mph (153 km/h). That might seem slow on the German Autobahn where wickedly high speeds are allowed. But it’s more than enough for the U.S. Interstate system. That said, hot laps at the Portland International Speedway to show off vehicle power were not part of the Fortwo media event here.

The engine in the previous model was outsourced from Japanese automaker Mitsubishi. The engine in the new Smart comes from French automaker Renault.

Derived from the Renault Twingo, the Fortwo is made in France.

Fuel economy is 34/36 mph (6.9-6.5 L/100 km) city/highway. That’s respectable and expected for such a small car. Not so great is that the Smart’s drink of choice is 91-octane premium fuel.

Although the new model is wider, the 8.8-ft. (2.7-m) length stays the same as before. It remains the shortest car on the market, and Daimler sees that as a selling point for people with little cars on their short shopping lists.

Presumably those folks are light packers. The Smart’s cargo space is not steamer- trunk suitable. The back storage area can accommodate up to 12 cu.-feet (340L) of stuff piled high enough. That’s about two medium-size suitcase and a couple of (in airline-speak) carry-ons.

Oh, and if you want to go round and round, this is the car. It can make a ridiculously tight U-turn at 22.8 ft. (7 m). Daimler hails that as an industry benchmark. It’s a neat parlor trick.          

The new Smart looks and acts more grown up, yet, size-wise, it’s still a kid. It’s no family car and doesn’t pretend to be that. But it nestles into tight parking spaces, does a lovely pirouette, offers a fun drive and, now, goes through gears without jostling occupants.

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'16 Smart Fortwo Specifications