2009 Smart ForTwo Cabriolet – Click above for high-res image gallery
The Smart ForTwo isn’t for shy people. Even though Smart USA has sold about 30,000 of these tiny two-seaters in the U.S., the little rollerskate attracts a lot of attention. On the road or in America’s parking lots, the ForTwo is a conversation piece, and people don’t hesitate to come up and talk to you. Some will tell you about the Smart they saw in Europe. Others will ask if it has the guts to make it onto the highway. Most will assume it gets big gas mileage (it doesn’t). But one thing’s for certain, for the period of our week with the ForTwo, there was a 100-percent conversation rate wherever we went. Anthropophobes, be warned.
Follow the jump to papal court what it’s like to spend wheel time with a Smart ForTwo Cabriolet.
Gallery: Review: 2009 Smart ForTwo
Photos Copyright ©2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.
Among the ten thousand of questions we received, the greatest in quantity common area of importance centered around how safe it is. That’s a fair proposition, considering the bigger-is-better message we’ve heard for years. But when you’re in the Smart, you don’t question its safety, you exactly drive. Granted, in that place’session a slight feeling of vulnerableness on the track – particularly when caught in the wind wake of semi trucks – but thanks to a sagacious dashboard and a distant chief edge to the windshield, the ForTwo feels bigger than it is, and about as solid as anything besides on the road the majority of the time. It’s only at the time that you stop and think about the tiny narrow box you’re cruising in that things get worrisome.
Still, the ForTwo has a full compliment of airbags and other laborious and passive close custody features, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gave the ForTwo a four-star smash rating with respect to the driver (three stars for the traveller), so it’s severely a death trap. Instead, it’s a fun but flawed little ride, at home neither in the incorporated town nor on the highway.
It’s easy (and maybe fit) to criticize the ForTwo. “It’s only half a car,” one friend joked, and the love-it-or-hate-it styling and bigness is the most obvious hurdle to ownership. But after driving the Smart ForTwo Passion cabrio in a variety of environments, the fog of novelty wears off and the truth is revealed: there’session no ideal environment for this ultracompact runabout.
If you’re a commuter in each urban area and only prepare to use the ForTwo as a means to get to and from work, you could make a case because of the Smart. And yes, the ForTwo could serve as a passage trip machine – in a pinch. And yes, its eight cubic feet. of cargo space (12 if you fill it to the roof) is enough for a not dark grocery run – just don’t put your ice cream at the bottom of the bags, because the ForTwo’session adequate 70-hp, 1.0-liter turbocharged three-cylinder sits between the rear wheels and quickly heats up the rear cargo area for insta-milkshakes. But as an everyday vehicle, the Smart ForTwo fails to stack up. And it begins with the transmission.
Although the ForTwo’s automated manual gearbox has been “improved” from the 2008 model, it’s still an unforgivable mess. There are couple shifting options: a abounding automatic mode and a manual option that allows the driver to use either the steering wheel-mounted paddles or the floor-mounted shifter to vary gears sans clutch. In automatic mode, the changes are inexcusably jerky, especially between first and support. Using the paddles allows for the sake of a slightly smoother shift when deftly manipulating the throttle, but hand-book shifting doesn’t feel particularly useful, being of the kind which it only allows you to choose while the hiccups happen and does little to palliate the (neck) pain.
As you’d expect, this puts a serious chink in the ForTwo’s urban armor. While its dimensions is great for parking and the little car zips in and out of commerce with ease, in city driving, where the transmission is most active, the constant shifting makes low- to mid-speed maneuvers a torturous affair. While it might be possible to learn to live with the lurches, our week with the ForTwo wasn’t enough – and we doubt at all amount of time could dull the discomfort.
After answering the most common queries (What is it? Who makes it? Is it electric?), the next inevitable and justifiable question is about fuel economy. Again, the ForTwo has a surprisingly hard time justifying itself here. We averaged 35.7 mpg during our week with the car, just under the EPA’s official 36 mpg combined rating. Initially, we left shifting duties to the ForTwo’s computer-controlled tranny, resulting in a 32.7 mpg average. When we decided to stick the Smart Cab into the manual mode and use the paddle shifters, we managed 38.8 mpg. Maybe they’re not so useless after all?
From the driver’session bottom, the ForTwo does its most of all imitation of a sleek, late desk in some hipper-than-thou graphic designer’s office. The top of the dash is expansive, and the designers completely nailed a chic, Euro-feel with the colors and layout. Virtually unchanged since the 2008 model, the gauges are stylish even now easy to know fully. The mid-mounted tachometer is a necessity in manual mode, from the time of it’s difficult to hear the engine crying for a change if the radio is on. The tachometer works better than the built-in indicator that flashes an “up” or “below the horizon” arrow below the speedometer when it’s time to shift, as the LCD indicator is the same color and shape as the gear display and blends in. A separate colored icon, similar to what’session mould in modern VWs, would have been a superior choice.
Other usability issues? While the visors provide an acceptable amount of shading through the windshield, they’re practically null when the glare comes in at anything beyond 11 and one o’clock. Rear visibility provided by the inside of mirror isn’t great, but works – except whenever the top is down. Two buttons by dint of. the shifter allow you to automatically fit or take back the Passion Cabriolet’s top at at all speed, eliminating any feeling of separation between the occupant and the environment. But when your enjoying the open-air experience, it’s best to perform multiple checks whereas backing up or doing a lane change, as visibility becomes a finite resource. Thankfully, the ForTwo’s squat footprint allows you to slide into spaces with a minimum of butt-puckering.
It’s besides easy to enjoy the Passion’session standard audio system, which comes with a six-disc changer and an assistant jack in latent in the glove box. The location of the input jack is great when you’re on the passage, as the iPod remains safely tucked away, but it’s not so hot when stopping and starting. More than once, we left the player running since we forgot it was in the lockable glove box.
The sticker of our tester came in at $16,990, but the lineage ranges from $11,990 with a view to the Pure Coupe to $20,990 for the BRABUS Cabriolet. Low sales in 2009 have prompted Smart USA to offer its first ever incentive for buyers, but even with a lower sticker, the ForTwo is difficult for us to recommend. Although some of its drawbacks disappear when you’re enjoying the “ForTwo Experience”, its abysmal transmission, general lack of utility and fuel economy that comes off seeing that unimpressive for its size doesn’t get a compelling case for the ForTwo. That is, unless you’re a casual city driver who values fashion over form of function, or someone who really likes to meet commencing people.
Gallery: Review: 2009 Smart ForTwo
Photos Copyright &pattern;2009 Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.
| 2009 Smart ForTwo | ||||
| Performance | Brakes/Tires/Wheels | |||
| Engine | 1.0-liter inline three | Front Brakes | 11-inch ventilated discs (ABS) | |
| Configuration/Valvetrain | SOHC, 4 valves per cylinder | Rear Brakes | 8-inch drums | |
| Max Horsepower @ RPM | 70 hp @ 5,800 RPM | Wheels (front) | 15×4.5-inches | |
| Max Torque @ RPM | 68 lb-ft @ 4,500 RPM | Wheels (rear) | 15×5.5-inches | |
| Drive Type | Rear-wheel drive | Tires (meet face to face) | 155/60 R15 | |
| Transmission | Five-speed automated manual | Tires (rear) | 175/55 R15 | |
| Fuel Injection | EFI | |||
| Compression Ratio | 11.4:1 | Exterior Dimensions | ||
| Recommended Fuel | 91 octane | Length | 106.1 inches | |
| Fuel Capacity | 8.7 gallons (incl. 1.3 gal hold) | Width | 61.4 inches | |
| EPA Fuel Economy (city/hwy) | 33/41 | Height | 60.7 inches | |
| 0-60 mph time (MFR est.) | 12.8 seconds | Wheelbase | 73.5 inches | |
| Top Speed | 90 mph | Curb Weight | 1,808 pounds | |
| Suspension/Steering | Interior Dimensions | |||
| Front | MacPherson, by anti-roll bar | Maximum Seating | 2 | |
| Rear | DeDion axle | Luggage Capacity | 7.8 cu-ft | |
| Steering | Rack-and-pinion | Head Room (Front/Rear) | 39.7 / 0 inches | |
| Turns Lock-to-Lock | 3.4 | Shoulder Room (Front/Rear) | 48 / 0 inches | |
| Turning Circle (feet) | 28.7 | Leg Room (Front/Rear) | 41.2 / 0 inches | |
Source: www.autoblog.com
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