Ok so as many of you will know, Ive been pretty scathing of the new fortwo. I had seen one in the garage and looked around it etc... and I was not impressed.
The 'bonnet' looked awful, and as we all know smarts have never had a 'bonnet', they never needed one because the engine has always been in the back. That remains the same with the new smart with the new Renault designed 1.0 litre engine being installed at the rear in line with all other Smarts. However Smart decided to meet some new pedestrian safety rating and so added it.
I still dont like it, it makes the car look ugly because it looks like it was added as an after thought, which of course it was, I believe the addition of the god awful 'bonnet' was a last minute addition to meet the afore mentioned safety standard within the last 3 months of designing. Great for any poor pedestrian who could unfortunately get run over by a new smart, but bad for anyone who likes Smarts and their predecesors.
But I was willing to give the poor little car a second chance and see if it really could be a proper replacement for what has been an outstanding car design over the years. I cleared my mind of all negative thoughts and thought I would evaluate it as if I had just walked in and saw the car for the first time.
So today whilst waiting for the 451 MHD to have its belt and pulley changed as part of a recall, I decided to ask to try the new fortwo, the guy had both manual gearbox and auto gearbox versions available and I asked to try both of them.
I opted for the manual gearbox first because, hey! Ive never driven a smart with a manual gearbox and it was like a novelty to have the option, even though I drive other manual cars on a regular basis, It was like I was a kid again at christmas receiving the starwars millenium falcon back in 1982, so much the novelty of driving a smart with a proper manual gearbox was.
So we went outside and there is was, a white with black tridion Passion 61bhp. I ignored the terrible front end to the car as I had to because thats how the car was designed. I got in, I had already familiarised myself with the controls by looking at the one in the showroom, but to be honest its not that much different to smarts gone by. So anyone looking at one would feel very much at home.
My first thoughts were its comfortable and you feel engaged with the steering wheel which was well designed and had everything I could ever want on it. The stereo in this car was one without a CD player and only had a small screen, but it did feature a USB port for multimedia connectivity.
It took me a little while to adjust the seat and the mirrors before setting off and I was impressed with the wing mirrors, you can see much more than you could in both the 450 and the 451 and it even had blind spot sections on both mirrors.
The next thing I brought my attention to was starting the car and putting it into gear. It felt odd to have that 3rd pedal feeling under my foot but I soon got used to it and put it into gear and off I went. It was as easy as that! First to second change was not a problem it felt quite smooth if a little clunky at first. The clutch bite point was quite high in my opinion. Having driven hundreds of new cars over my 22 years of driving it felt a little as if the clutch was on its way out with such a high biting point. It was then once I got out on the open road that the feeling of driving the car hit home and I became a little uneasy with how it changed gear. The gearstick felt weak and the gear gate felt too close together.
There was lots of power in 2nd and 3rd gears but when I changed into 4th there was an immediate loss of power. Bearing in mind I was on a normal straight road that continued for a good kilometer and I was getting the car up to speed. 4th gear didnt give the expected power that both 2nd and 3rd gave. This was unnerving and I pushed the pedal to the floor expecting to get some response from the engine, but I was still left wanting right up to 80kph when it finally seemed to gain some grunt and pull a little more, but by that time it was time to change up to 5th gear and level off at 90kph. This was the most unnerving experience Ive ever had in a new car. It left me wondering what would happen if I wanted to overtake a slow moving lorry on a single lane road and had to drop the gear down into 4th to gain power to overtake! I severely doubted that it would be possible to do that and overtake in a reasonable amount of time.
Whereas older smarts gave you that growl of power when you changed down or kicked down this new Smart didnt give any of that and if anything it gave the impression of severely lacking in power! Bearing in mind that I have a 61bhp 450 Pulse and 451 Passion, and I had just been driving the 451 not 10 minutes before taking this test drive. It felt more like I was driving the old 450 diesel rather than a brand new petrol Smart!
The ride was ok, it wasnt brilliant but on a par with older smarts. The handling was good and it felt as if you could trust it to take a corner fairly fast without having to slow down. The seats held me in place well and I was comfortable. Visibility was good and blind spots were small as you would expect of a small car.
Now I get onto functionality whilst driving and whilst stationary, the stereo volume knob was obscured by the steering wheel which made it difficult to see. That is possibly because of my normal driving position but I am 5'11 and not of extrodinary proportions. I would class myself as an average man.
I wasnt impressed with the rev counter and clock to the left hand side, the two of them seemed cramped together and the clock too small. This may be habitual but as I use the rev counter as an aid in driving in all of my cars and van I felt as if I was taking my eye off the road to glance at it. Where as in previous Smarts the rev counter was situated in the centre of the car glancing at it didnt give the impression that you were taking your eye off the road yet over to the left it felt like I was having to look at it far too long and in the wrong direction.
The lack of a temperature guage was annoying I always like to know everything is running right but as we all know Smart ommited it from the 451 with disasterous results so the lack of it just seems to have continued the trend of telling the driver absolutely nothing about how the engine is running.
Its now I get to my biggest niggle with the new smart and that is the speedo! In older Smarts you had a long needle that gave you an indication of what speed you were doing without having to look at numbers. In the new smart the needle is obscured by plastic and all you see is a small part of it going round a small apeture in the top of the display just below the speed numbers. This made judging speed difficult, especially as I am quite tall and couldnt see the numbers at the top because the steering wheel was in the way! This was terrible and I had to keep ducking to see the speed I was doing. For anyone who is interested in buying one of these cars I would strongly advise getting the cruise control option especially if you are above 5'9". The speed numbers in Kilometers were printed in an odd font which also didnt help in judging speed. God help anyone English driving on the continent because there isnt enough room to add both miles and kilometers onto the dial! You will be forced to guess what speed you are doing! Be sure to make it apparent to any gendarmes who may stop you that Smart ommited the kph dial so you have to guess what speed you were doing. The addition of kph to Uk vehicles has been standard for many many years since before I started driving and Smart seem to have taken a step backwards with this new dial. I am not sure at the time of writing this if the UK Smart Fortwo has a different speedo design.
The 'bonnet' looked awful, and as we all know smarts have never had a 'bonnet', they never needed one because the engine has always been in the back. That remains the same with the new smart with the new Renault designed 1.0 litre engine being installed at the rear in line with all other Smarts. However Smart decided to meet some new pedestrian safety rating and so added it.
I still dont like it, it makes the car look ugly because it looks like it was added as an after thought, which of course it was, I believe the addition of the god awful 'bonnet' was a last minute addition to meet the afore mentioned safety standard within the last 3 months of designing. Great for any poor pedestrian who could unfortunately get run over by a new smart, but bad for anyone who likes Smarts and their predecesors.
But I was willing to give the poor little car a second chance and see if it really could be a proper replacement for what has been an outstanding car design over the years. I cleared my mind of all negative thoughts and thought I would evaluate it as if I had just walked in and saw the car for the first time.
So today whilst waiting for the 451 MHD to have its belt and pulley changed as part of a recall, I decided to ask to try the new fortwo, the guy had both manual gearbox and auto gearbox versions available and I asked to try both of them.
I opted for the manual gearbox first because, hey! Ive never driven a smart with a manual gearbox and it was like a novelty to have the option, even though I drive other manual cars on a regular basis, It was like I was a kid again at christmas receiving the starwars millenium falcon back in 1982, so much the novelty of driving a smart with a proper manual gearbox was.
So we went outside and there is was, a white with black tridion Passion 61bhp. I ignored the terrible front end to the car as I had to because thats how the car was designed. I got in, I had already familiarised myself with the controls by looking at the one in the showroom, but to be honest its not that much different to smarts gone by. So anyone looking at one would feel very much at home.
My first thoughts were its comfortable and you feel engaged with the steering wheel which was well designed and had everything I could ever want on it. The stereo in this car was one without a CD player and only had a small screen, but it did feature a USB port for multimedia connectivity.
It took me a little while to adjust the seat and the mirrors before setting off and I was impressed with the wing mirrors, you can see much more than you could in both the 450 and the 451 and it even had blind spot sections on both mirrors.
The next thing I brought my attention to was starting the car and putting it into gear. It felt odd to have that 3rd pedal feeling under my foot but I soon got used to it and put it into gear and off I went. It was as easy as that! First to second change was not a problem it felt quite smooth if a little clunky at first. The clutch bite point was quite high in my opinion. Having driven hundreds of new cars over my 22 years of driving it felt a little as if the clutch was on its way out with such a high biting point. It was then once I got out on the open road that the feeling of driving the car hit home and I became a little uneasy with how it changed gear. The gearstick felt weak and the gear gate felt too close together.
There was lots of power in 2nd and 3rd gears but when I changed into 4th there was an immediate loss of power. Bearing in mind I was on a normal straight road that continued for a good kilometer and I was getting the car up to speed. 4th gear didnt give the expected power that both 2nd and 3rd gave. This was unnerving and I pushed the pedal to the floor expecting to get some response from the engine, but I was still left wanting right up to 80kph when it finally seemed to gain some grunt and pull a little more, but by that time it was time to change up to 5th gear and level off at 90kph. This was the most unnerving experience Ive ever had in a new car. It left me wondering what would happen if I wanted to overtake a slow moving lorry on a single lane road and had to drop the gear down into 4th to gain power to overtake! I severely doubted that it would be possible to do that and overtake in a reasonable amount of time.
Whereas older smarts gave you that growl of power when you changed down or kicked down this new Smart didnt give any of that and if anything it gave the impression of severely lacking in power! Bearing in mind that I have a 61bhp 450 Pulse and 451 Passion, and I had just been driving the 451 not 10 minutes before taking this test drive. It felt more like I was driving the old 450 diesel rather than a brand new petrol Smart!
The ride was ok, it wasnt brilliant but on a par with older smarts. The handling was good and it felt as if you could trust it to take a corner fairly fast without having to slow down. The seats held me in place well and I was comfortable. Visibility was good and blind spots were small as you would expect of a small car.
Now I get onto functionality whilst driving and whilst stationary, the stereo volume knob was obscured by the steering wheel which made it difficult to see. That is possibly because of my normal driving position but I am 5'11 and not of extrodinary proportions. I would class myself as an average man.
I wasnt impressed with the rev counter and clock to the left hand side, the two of them seemed cramped together and the clock too small. This may be habitual but as I use the rev counter as an aid in driving in all of my cars and van I felt as if I was taking my eye off the road to glance at it. Where as in previous Smarts the rev counter was situated in the centre of the car glancing at it didnt give the impression that you were taking your eye off the road yet over to the left it felt like I was having to look at it far too long and in the wrong direction.
The lack of a temperature guage was annoying I always like to know everything is running right but as we all know Smart ommited it from the 451 with disasterous results so the lack of it just seems to have continued the trend of telling the driver absolutely nothing about how the engine is running.
Its now I get to my biggest niggle with the new smart and that is the speedo! In older Smarts you had a long needle that gave you an indication of what speed you were doing without having to look at numbers. In the new smart the needle is obscured by plastic and all you see is a small part of it going round a small apeture in the top of the display just below the speed numbers. This made judging speed difficult, especially as I am quite tall and couldnt see the numbers at the top because the steering wheel was in the way! This was terrible and I had to keep ducking to see the speed I was doing. For anyone who is interested in buying one of these cars I would strongly advise getting the cruise control option especially if you are above 5'9". The speed numbers in Kilometers were printed in an odd font which also didnt help in judging speed. God help anyone English driving on the continent because there isnt enough room to add both miles and kilometers onto the dial! You will be forced to guess what speed you are doing! Be sure to make it apparent to any gendarmes who may stop you that Smart ommited the kph dial so you have to guess what speed you were doing. The addition of kph to Uk vehicles has been standard for many many years since before I started driving and Smart seem to have taken a step backwards with this new dial. I am not sure at the time of writing this if the UK Smart Fortwo has a different speedo design.
Comment