First Drive: 2011 Smart Fortwo Passion

[quirky1 1]

First Drive: 2011 Smart Fortwo Passion

"A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men" - W. Wonka

May 03, 2011

by Michael Febbo

"An elevator can only go up and down, but a Wonkavator goes sideways and slantways and longways and backways and frontways and squareways and any other ways that you can think of." Our Smart Fortwo Passion is just like a Wonkavator, without the up and down part. Because of its smaller-than-small-car size, it seems as though it can go any which way you want, even in the most crowded parking lot. That really is the hook for the Smart.

You might think the Smart is super efficient, but super is a bit of an overstatement. It is hard to complain about a vehicle that can manage 33 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway -- diesel-like numbers. Those numbers are a little harder to swallow considering the Fortwo is the smallest, least powerful, and lightest mass-market vehicle for sale in the U.S. today.

Small and light does have its advantages. The little Wonkavator feels like a cross between a go-kart and a barstool. Steering is direct and precise, partially due to a lack of power assistance. The level of communication is downright enlightening, nearly on the level of a GT3 or a Lotus. That may be where the Smart offers the biggest bargain. There isn't another car that touches the steering on this car for under $35,000. The connectedness doesn't stop there. Seat-of-the-pants feel tells you constantly what the car is doing, and it happens at such modest speeds that the car is like a clinic in reading mechanical feedback. Driving one of these for a couple of days will remind you what's missing in the average car. Between that, the easily interchangeable body panels, low power, and the Tridion safety cell, this should be on the short list of great cars for young drivers. Parents might also appreciate the fact that it is nearly impossible to commit any sort of unapproved dating activities without extreme flexibility. (Just sayin.')

You'll be surprised how many complete strangers will ask where you put the batteries, or how you wind it up. The jokes get funnier and funnier every single time, at every single stoplight, parking lot, gas station, grocery store, and restaurant. If you can be convinced there is no hamster and no wheel, then you will be happy to learn power is supplied by a motorcycle-worthy rear-mounted 70-horsepower 1-liter I-3. Although the numbers sound low - probably because they are - the 1800-pound Fortwo feels fairly quick. The even bigger surprise is just how good the thing sounds inside the car. When all three pistons are wailing away, the Smart produces a sound very similar to a BMW inline 6-cylinder. Blasphemous? Maybe. True? Indeed.

The BMW theme carries over to the new and rather ironically named Smartshift five-speed transmission. The gearbox is similar in form and function to the BMW SMG of old. The previous-generation technology piece is essentially a robotized manual transmission that operates the clutch and shifter. In theory, it's at least a fully automatic unit. In practice, what you have is a manual transmission that feels as though someone else, who has no direct communication with you, is taking care of shifting duties. In automatic mode, the transmission tells the engine to cut power, at which point the engine dies and a 40-pound lead brick of despair falls into your stomach and mixes with the tingle of panic you feel in your arm hair. Snappy acceleration turns into instant deceleration, and you are thrown forward for a closer inspection of the redesigned dash. It's nice. You are living that recurring nightmare of being completely without power, trying to merge onto a packed California freeway. Your eyeballs are mere inches from the rearview mirror, giving you a front-row view of the angry stampede of traffic barreling up from behind, wanting to punt the little commuter out of the way. Then, at the very last minute, the transmission selects another gear and you snap back, now looking up through the clear panoramic roof.

Even after putting a few hundred miles on the car, I had the panic attack every time I would feel the Smart shift. Luckily, I had a flashback to the BMW e46 M3 SMG, also a fantastic car easily ruined by selecting the tragic automated manual transmission. The SMG and the Smartshift both benefit immensely from the owner relearning to drive with a different technology. While it seems counterintuitive to have to learn to drive an automatic, if you want to drive a Smart, you better dust off your learnin' cap.


First, automatic mode will always be an exercise in frustration. The transmission requires you to lift out of the throttle just like a manual during shifts. This is completely intuitive for manual drivers, but it feels strange to do it without kicking in a clutch pedal. The problem with automatic mode is predicting when the car is going to want to shift. If it starts to shift and you haven't lifted, it's too late and the dead-roll commences. If you lift too early, you limp along until the car decides you no longer care about accelerating. The situation is somewhat easy to fix. Manual Mode saves the day. Our tester came equipped with steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters or the option of using the tunnel-mounted shifter lever. After a little practice, shifting became smooth with relatively uninterrupted power. Lift, click for the next gear, and go. The Smart still won't bang off shifts faster than you can blink, which is unfortunate to say the least, but it works.

The brakes are another learning exercise. A few testers here in the office commented about the strange or odd movement of the brake pedal. As an air-cooled 911 owner I had to explain to them that what they were feeling was a brake pedal mounted in the proper location, on the floor. Yes, the actuation may feel strange at first, but once you get accustomed to it, you begin to appreciate the fact that both your foot and the pedal pivot in the same place. With that said, the pedal does have an artificial heft to it. In the initial half-inch of travel it feels like you are overcoming the resistance of the return spring, but no braking force is being applied. Once you push through that distance, the artificial force goes away and there is a dead spot before you actually start pumping fluid, at which point the braking happens fast. The learning curve is quicker than the transmission, but I really feel for salesmen who have to ride with potential customers trying to figure it out on test drives. Braking performance, however, is good. With surprisingly large 11-inch front rotors and 55% of its weight over the rear axle, the car stops like a Jack Russell on indoor-outdoor carpeting. It hunches down on all fours, its nose almost hits the ground, and boom, it's stopped.

The big questions around the office while the Smart was in our garage was first, how does it compare to its competition, and second, what is its competition, anyway? Well, to answer the first question, it compares spectacularly to its competition. As for the second question, we couldn't think of a direct competitor. This is not a car for everyone. For the Fortwo to make rational sense, you would need to live in a big city where parking is at an absolute minimum and maneuverability considered a lifesaver. Since this thing can nearly do a three-point turn in a standard parking space, we can't imagine a place it won't go. At the end of the day, we don't see that many people buying one for rational reasons.

But it is easy to want one for completely irrational reasons. If you like meeting new people, this thing is the ultimate conversation-starter, although admittedly a select few of those conversations will involve ridicule. It is by definition an affordable exotic - you won't see yourself coming and going too often in one of these. Lastly, it is fun to drive. Even with the few functional downfalls, which include a rather lackluster transmission, if you like small quirky unique cars, there aren't many choices left. The Fortwo makes cars like the Mini and the Fiat seem downright traditional. At $18,320 for out test subject, a loaded Passion seems a little pricy, but it does have almost $3000 in options. Navigation, storage boxes, and ambient lighting are nice, but a $15,000 stripped Passion or even a $13,000 Pure suddenly starts to make more sense.

With a more modern dual-clutch transmission we could see acceleration improving greatly, but we would still like to see a few more horses. Direct-injection would likely deliver that power while improving fuel efficiency. We have high expectations for the electric version, with the Smart's light weight and simplistic design just screaming for alternative drivetrain options. We could talk about little improvements all day, but would it really matter to Smart's customers? Likely not. People want the weirdness, the maneuverability, the smiling-inducing fun. People want the Wonkavator.

[1983JZR3W 32]

That is actually one of the better reviews I have read. For once, a reviewer drove the car and formed his own opinions. I am so used to reading reviews written by someone that has never even spent any time with the smart.