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  • 453 Review

    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.




  • #2
    The centre console seemed lacking in storage options, gone is the bottle and cup holder of previous models, there are two drink holders formed into the plastic but when I wanted to put my drinking bottle down, I couldnt find anywhere where it fitted except the oddly designed door pocket, even the strangely positioned holder at the rear of the console behind the handbrake wouldnt accept it. The door pocket sits down at the front of the door near the drivers feet. It went in but was at an odd angle and I wouldnt recommend it for a long journey. It was difficult to reach whilst driving. It seemed that the only drinks holder that would accept a normal can of coke was the rear one (the one in a strange position behind the handbrake in a two seater car!!!). The front has the two cup holders but it looked as if only a small cup of coffee would fit in there. To the other side of the gearstick there are slots for coins but you can only put 2 coins in there, so you must ensure you have the right coins or you will have to put change in the cup holders or on the passenger seat! I think the biggest issue I had with the centre console was the position of the storage tray, this is positioned on the passenger side of the car and pushes in to slide out. Its too far away and too far down for the driver to access easily or even see whats in it!

    The handbrake, thankfully is an improved design on previous models of the fortwo, it is situated further forward and higher up than older models making it easier to grasp and use.

    The air and heating controls are pretty good and layed out well, if not a tad complicated at first glance. The only thing I found odd was the plastic slider that adjusts the temperature, this has some sort of odd plastic magnifying glass on it which to my eye didnt magnify anything except some weirdly shaped squiggles because of the angle at which I was forced to look at it at. It is also alarmingly flimsy and if knocked in the wrong way could easily break off leaving you high and dry, quite literally, without being able to adjust the temperature!

    The glovebox, is just that! Its a box no bigger than a pair of gloves! Its set forward in the passenger footwell in a lower than your knees position and difficult to reach from the drivers seat, if you have a passenger, as I did, he couldnt open it because his knees were in the way! So not only is it about as much use as a chocolate fireguard! Neither driver nor passenger can access it easily. Not that you can get much in there unless you like driving miss daisy and wear gloves to drive. Which of course in a two seater car you wouldnt be!

    The set forward stereo pod wont allow for a decent stereo to be fitted in any way shape or form so you can say goodbye to that kickass stereo you once had fitted as an aftermarket job! It seems unlikely that manufacturers would build a special fit on stereo so if you order a smart spend extra and get the best stereo you can afford or else you will be stuck with it for the life of the car! The pod although looks nice and is modern in appearance is also going to be a sucker for all that dust in the car to accumulate around and be difficult to clean out, so if you are a clean freak best look elsewhere!

    The size of the interior feels much more cramped in comparison to even the 450! It may be a perception on my behalf but as I have mentioned they have stuck many things in poor positions and the mould around dash doesnt make for ease of access for the driver. The boot appears to be a step backwards for the smart as it is more or less the same size as the boot in the 450. The extended space in the 451's boot seems to have dissapeared just so they could add that god awful 'bonnet'! The boot floor also seems higher than in older models, possibly because of a bigger engine design,but whatever the cause of this, there is certainly less space in the rear than even my 450 because of the way the seats come back. But when you remember that the 450 had rear windows and this version does not its easy to see when the distance between the edge of the door and the rear of the car is compared, added to that the curved roof at the rear all adds up to reduced space. The roof padding at the rear also makes for a smaller apeture as it protrudes much lower than in previous cars.

    There are a few good additions smart has made to the rear hatch and thats the button to open the boot, which is now on the glass with a neat little plastic handle to lift up the glass. Much like that that was added to the 450's brabus models. This then extends to the lower rear hatch which now has a large plastic handle that you lift up to unlock it and pull down. However as good as this may be, if you are left handed then you will be left wanting because its situated to the right hand side of the centre of the rear hatch, making it awkward to lift and drop the hatch.

    The rear wiper is ridiculously small and I wouldnt want to have to try and see something through the rear window when its dirty because you will get a 15cm arc from the rear wiper as its tiny little blade attempts to clear a tiny piece of the rear screen! This is caused by the rear hatch handle, the one that I have already mentioned with the button. So to be on the safe side they made the wiper really tiny, just in case it touches it, its rather cute to look at but it will leave you swearing in the wet!

    For those of you who may opt for the glass roof there is at least a neat blind that you can pull forwards which cuts off all light entering the cabin! That is at least an improvement over the 450 version, which had a solid sliding blind that when it got old bouces up and down and makes rattles.

    I didnt get a chance to check out if the cruise control worked ok or not because of such a short drive but as I mentioned before, if you are tall then you will need to get it anyway so you can try it out for yourself.

    The exterior of the car as Ive mentioned before is great with exception to 2 very important details! The god awful 'bonnet'! and the rear wheel arches! What possessed them to give the car semi metal rear wheel arches I have no idea, seeing as previous models have had the rear panels wrap around the wheel arch and which looked really good. Now the car looks as if its had someone slam a piece of plastic on the back which doesnt gel with the rest of the car.

    The rear lights are ok the back of the car looks really good, so does even the front when looked at directly head on. Although personally Im still not sure if the separate indicator lights were wholly necessary, they would have been best served as part of the headlights as they always were and instead the holes used for the DRL lights. Keeping the light surrounding light tubes as sidelights. But you can all have your own views upon that.

    Getting back to the driving, the manual gearbox I felt might break off in my hand and the engine seemed guttless in 4th so I decided to take the automatic out and give that a try. Knowing that smarts have always been automatics or semi automatics and I dont mean mechanically! I thought at least they will have gotten that correct, afterall its the first time the smart has ever had a third pedal so there are bound to be a few teething problems.

    So I get to the automatic and its actually in the only colour Ive seen the car in that the paintwork doesnt emphasise the god awful 'bonnet'! A dark gun metal grey matt colour with black tridion. Again a 61bhp but this time the equipment level was a Prime. The car actually looked quite good in that colour. Shock horror! I have to say I was impressed with at least the colour choice. Because light doesnt reflect very much off the matt colour, the shape of the front is less pronounced, making it look much better.

    So I get in and position the seat as with the manual and put the key in the ignition and notice that it has the sat nav radio which was much better than the simple radio one in the manual car, but the buttons were still obscured by the steering wheel. I start it up and go to put it in gear and have a shock.... The gear selector is alien! OMG I think! Its like a normal automatic, what were they thinking! The age old smart gear selector replaced by this backwards and forwards thingy that doesnt look smart at all! Anyway I get past that and put it in to Drive and set off.

    It drove well and did everything I was expecting with the exception of the awful way it changed gear. Thoughts of the first smarts came back, its slow at changing and you dont know when or even if its changing gear until you then feel it and its like very slow disengage... very slow engage action and you are into the next gear. Very disconcerting, but Ive driven many full automatics in my time and I didnt like half of those either. The power was there and it pulled away better in my opinion than the manual, that was until I was going round a long curve to get onto the bypass and it was then that it started wanting to pick one gear and then another gear shifting up and down madly, as I accelerated to match the road speed it changed down again (all of this rather slowly) and I got some power out of it to match the 110kph speed limit with it finally changing up to final gear about 100kph.

    Comment


    • #3

      It was at least better than 4th in the manual car and had some power but the constant gear changes were annoying and offputting as it slowly changed from one gear to the next as I was accelerating. It is difficult for me to put my finger on just why it was like this but they have put a full auto box in a 1.0l engined car and the engine really isnt up to keeping speed so as it slows it changes and that then means that as you accelerate, it changes up again. It really was annoying. Nothing like the original smarts, they had their faults and the gear changes werent fast enough for some people but to be honest Ive never had a problem with how they drove and I still like them even now. Yet this new car was something totally alien. If it wasnt in one gear it was changing to another and it took so long for it to change that I was worried I wasnt going to make it up to the right speed in time to join flowing traffic. At least the power was all there unlike the manual but I wasnt impressed considering Smart have had 17yrs to perfect what was a stumbling gearbox and they seemed to have finally got it somewhere near good in the 451. Yet now they have opted for a fully auto gearbox they have done away with the old design and introduced this fully auto design, that, as many other manufacturers have found, doesnt work in small engined cars. Its why you can hardly find a automatic box on a small car with an engine size below 1.4, but even then those that did, found that it didnt sell very well, and it becomes very apparent as to why once driving the new Smart.

      There was one factor that I havent yet mentioned and its a very big part of what has made Smarts in the past a drivers car, and that is FUN! The new car in both guises didnt have me thinking this is great let me get out there and get some speed up or dodge in and out of traffic and do things that other cars cant do. The 450 was immense fun and still is, in the way it drives and in the way you can swing it round roundabouts, boost the turbo and off you go. The 451 lost some of that especially because they dropped the turbo on half of the models and was made wider and longer. Yet at least it was still a form of fun. The new Smart was boring as hell to drive, nothing about how it drove gave me the inclination that maybe I could live with the god awful 'bonnet' or the poor layout of the interior or the tiny boot because the older smarts were hardly perfect in design, but at least it would be great fun to drive and I could zip in and out of traffic and naff off other bigger car drivers, by nipping into tiny spaces, or zoom off into the distance on the exit of a roundabout. Instead I felt as if I was driving the ugly kid on the road with a funny nose and a bad case of bodged together clothing with a bowl haircut cut by his mum!

      In conclusion, if you like quirky, like to stand out and dont give a stuff about what people think about you driving quite possibly the worst designed car on the road, thats more frustratiing than trying to finish tetris on level 10 to drive and gives you no enjoyment in ownership then go ahead and order one.

      But if you like to have creature comforts that work and dont want to be laughed at when you get out of your tiny impractical car which you paid the same amount for as someone who bought a ford focus, which lets face it, isnt the worlds dream car, but at least you can get the kids in the back and a whole load of shopping and get you from A to B smoothly and quickly. Then I wouldnt waste my time.

      This is my view and although some of you may very well have different opinions, those are yours, I can only say what I have observed and how I felt about the car itself in the flesh

      Comment


      • #4
        Your observations Cougar aren't at odds with what I've read in the various road tests I've read in Autocar with the exception perhaps that they have more praise for the ride. The gearchange quality of the manual comes as no surprise - when people were bleating that there should have been a manual 450 they refused to believe me how difficult it is (economically at least) to engineer a decent gearchange with a rear engined configuration. Smart have vindicated my statements it seems. The problem you had with the DCT is a problem is of ill chosen 'hysteresis'. I'd expect software up dates to deal with that in due course.
        So, you get a better boot handle and a useless rear wiper. Progress what progress?!!

        Comment


        • #5
          Its a shame, I like smarts, the new car had so much promise. People seem to forget that while smart may have lost on the original smarts because they were a new brand, they created something that was good in the Gen 1, they were well priced as a small car that fitted well against the then Fiat ciecentos prices and not the price of a medium sized family car, since then they have forgotten the original concept, upped the price and gone and completely lost the plot with the design.

          Its nice to look at inside dont get me wrong, but they favoured design over functionality, in fact they lost complete sight of functionality and ended up in a jumbled mess. I strongly believe that when Renault pulled out of development they were left with half a car, no one was quite sure what to do, they hired some graphic designers and fudgefinished it. The salesman himself had to admit on the side that it wasnt a good car and he hasnt sold any in the past 4 months. Which explains why I havent seen any. My views were echoed by everyone who had test driven the cars.

          After I posted the review I thought I would do some research and did a google search on the 2015 car and everyone of them rated it at 4 stars.... where they got those from I dont know but Im sure quite a few dollars, pounds and euros flowed through their bank accounts because what was said in their reviews is not borne out in the real life experience of the cars. Where someone got the 350litres of boot space I dont know but maybe they took out the passenger seat and counted that space because its smaller if not the same size as my 450. Its certainly more difficult to get things in the boot than the 450 because of the lowered roof line. I even went and measured the boot space in our 451 and then measured the space in the back of the new car and the new car is a good 10cm smaller mainly because of the way the seats impinge on the boot space if you are tall and the lower roof.

          Someone is fudging the details on the car and others are copying it because something is amiss. The saleman is hoping that the turbo version of the car might salvage things for him with regards to smart, but hes not holding out much hope.

          RE the boot handle and a useless wiper.... they managed it with the brabus and kept the original wiper so why they couldnt do that Im not sure.

          Whilst I was at Mercedes I decided to look at all the other vehicles they have there and I wasnt impressed by any of them, the worst of all of them was the New Vito, its possibly the worst designed medium sized commerical vehicle Ive ever had the misfortune to sit in. It has 3 seats in the front, one of which you cant even get a child to sit in because the gearchanger is in the way of half of the seat. The back of the van is usually protected with at least plastic yet the rear lip is plain metal and have huge metal loops there would get in the way of you loading anything into it. I also did the usual things that a van driver would do and thats to have a drink, a clip board, pens and a phone. There is absolutely no where to put anything! and I mean there is absolutely nothing to put pens in, anywhere to put the clipboard, there isnt even a cup holder. The rear suspension has been designed so that all the dirt from the road goes straight into it which give it a few years will have rusted into oblivion and what Ive mentioned is only the tip of the iceberg. How they will ever sell any of them I have no idea but I guess there is an idiot for every seat.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Thrumbleux View Post
            The problem you had with the DCT is a problem is of ill chosen 'hysteresis'. I'd expect software up dates to deal with that in due course!
            Was just gonna say the exact same, and is easily curable in software

            Fully auto
            By that I presume you think it's now a conventional automatic 'box?..... it's not, it's a semi auto just like before , just with two clutches, one being used for odd changes , the other for even.. Look up DCT gearbox for more info :-)

            Overall you were impressed ? lol

            Comment


            • #7
              I think the words that rather sums up this is "compromise" and "20 somethings".

              Think about it. For years, car review sites harked on about the jerky gearbox in a 450/451. So guess what? They changed it. The public wanted a "proper" gearchange? You've got it! The cramped interior space? Make it wider! Solves the apparent problem of being blown about as well.

              The bonnet is something I've grown to accept (not like). That was probably added to make it look a tad more conventional (as so to make it more palatable to a wider audience) and, as mentioned, help achieve a better safety rating.

              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!
              Erm, 452's don't have MPH and KPH on the same dial either in the UK, nor does the 451. They have a digital readout in the speedo cluster. Pretty sure when I looked at pair of 453's in the Liverpool showroom, it had a KPH function.

              The gear selector is alien! OMG I think! Its like a normal automatic, what were they thinking!
              It seems to have come out of the 451 ED with a manual override function added. Again, it is more palatable for the wider audience, not just those who bought into the 450/451/452/454 S-A series.

              I wonder, would the same critique be levelled at the Series II ForFour (W453)? I had some criticisms of the C453 the first time when I saw it a while ago and reading the above, taking into account my thoughts, I arrive at "not all of them". The 454 had a bonnet, a handbrake similar to the current 453 series, manual by default, didn't come with a temperature gauge by default and had separate indicators (as did the 452). There are some elements different of course (the rear mounted engine) but perhaps think of it like this. Yes, the C453 isn't as original as the W450 but perhaps the W453 is more quirky than the 454?

              Perhaps the overall point I am labouring towards is that Smart are trying to broaden their horizons to the public so rather than a general member of the public say "Oh, that toy 2 seater car?", they hope they something more positive. When a change of focus happens, it is inevitable that the changes made will deter some who would have liked the new car had Smart not broadened their appeal.

              Without having driven either the W453 or the C453, I can't agree or disagree with your comments for the drive but for looks and certain practicality issues, such as the tiny glovebox and the cramped driving position, I would tend to agree with you (I am 5' 9"). Then again, rolling into the mix is the market Smart appear to be targeting. Neither the ForTwo or the ForFour strike me as a long term ownership car (neither does the 450 or the 451 if I am honest, yet 6 years later here I am with the same 450) so does the 20 something market care about the tiny glovebox? Do they care about choice of gearbox? Are they likely to drive it a lot? Are they likely to jack it in after 3 years of leasing it?

              There appears to be only one yes in that question list. This may go a little way to explaining the lack of a diesel option (I am of the belief that there are more pressing technical issues surrounding this but if the market existed for it, MB/Renualt would, I am sure, have given it a bit more attention).

              The interior doesn't strike me as hard wearing as that found in a 451 or a 454. Sure, it is colourful and quite a "buzzy" place to be now but give it time. Then again, that same argument could be levelled at the 450 interior (and the car as a whole) but that supports my short-term ownership argument, which personally hacks me off.

              All the critique you've posted makes sense but this is in comparison with the 450/451 models (I count at least 7 distinct direct or indirect comparisons). For Smart to continue on as a brand, it needs to attract new blood into the marque and the key to this is the ForFour, not the ForTwo purely because it is a more palatable move from a standard car, as such the sister Twingo or an Aygo. For the current crop of Smart owners, this was always going to divide opinion among us but face it, we are no longer the target. What we want (a nice amalgamation of the reliability of a turbo 451 and the quirky design of a 450 to take a guess) in a ForTwo isn't going to happen for a multitude of reasons.

              With all that said, I am looking for another 454 S-A.

              Comment


              • #8
                I agree that to existing Smart owners the front bonnet is real ugly and head on reminds me of the Toyota IQ, which at least got the engine in the front.

                Also agree some dark colours help by reducing the look of this bonnet, and one of the best combinations is as you say is the gun metal grey, though the black tridion does have a problem on I saw one this week on the street where the paint was coming off the edges petrol cap filler and could see white primer on it, as if the paint as coming away with use of the flap. I would prefer the bright silver for the tridion and a grille to match. Downside of all this is its not only extra cost for metalic body paint but also for the silver tridion.

                Colour choice is poor, with horrible colours like Brown. But I believe new bright colours are coming in for the convertible (the one I am waiting for), Solid Red is a definite, but not the Forfour renault metalic red, and hopefully yellow may make a return.

                I also agree the smaller engine 71BHP is too slow and only worth having if you are a town driver. I have also driven the 91 BHP (another £600 to get this) and that is the one I would go for as I drive far distances in my 451 Cdi, (the reason I got it to get 80 MPH).

                You also spotted the reduction in boot size, and fitting a spare wheel in (a must have item for me, which I had in my 450 and also now have in my 451) will take up more space, and I wonder if I could get it behind the passenger seat, but before the luggage cover as I have in the 451, This will be extra cost for me as the wheels are now four holed instead of three, so cannot just transfer it to the new car.

                Cost is a big issue, as one you start adding up all the paint costs and extra, and with the bigger engine, and the convertibe costs, your moving into £12k plus, and you wonder is it worth it.

                Biggest problem to me, having size 10 shoes.....
                I found the gear change on the manual alright and adequate considering its a Renault, but could have done with more room to the LHS of the clutch pedal to form a foot rest which the LHD model has. I could see myself gutting the plastic gearstick cover, getting rid of the silly hidden drawer to get room to form a foot rest. (crazy to have to modify a new car, due to **** design).

                Auto option is out for me, as that extra money would be used to pay for the extra needed for the convertible version. If you kept adding all these extras to the car, it would be cheaper to buy a secondhand Merc SLK



                Comment


                • #9
                  Good review.

                  I agree that to existing Smart owners the front bonnet is real ugly and head on reminds me of the Toyota IQ, which at least got the engine in the front.

                  We will get used to it, just like the jump from the 450 to the 451, though that took me years after the start of 451 production, before I bought my 451 and accepted it as a Smart.

                  Also agree some dark colours help by reducing the look of this bonnet, and one of the best combinations is as you say is the gun metal grey, though the black tridion does have a problem on the one I saw this week on the street where the paint was coming off the edges of the petrol cap filler and could see white primer on it, as if the paint was coming away with use of the flap. I would prefer the bright silver for the tridion and a grille to match. Downside of all this is its not only extra cost for metalic body paint but also for the silver tridion.

                  Body colour choice is not that great, with horrible colours like Brown. But I believe new bright colours are coming in for the convertible (the one I am waiting for), Solid Red is a definite, but not the Forfour renault metalic red. Some would like to see yellow back.

                  I also agree the smaller engine 71BHP is too slow and only worth having if you are a town driver. I have also driven the 91 BHP (another £600 to get this) and that is the one I would go for as I drive far distances in my 451 Cdi, (the reason I got it is to get 80 MPG).

                  You also spotted the reduction in boot size, and fitting a spare wheel in (a must have item for me, which I had in my 450 and also now have in my 451) will take up more space, and I wonder if I could get it behind the passenger seat, but before the luggage cover as I have in the 451, This will be extra cost for me as the wheels are now four holed instead of three, so cannot just transfer it to the new car.

                  Cost is a big issue, as once you start adding up all the paint costs and extra, and with the bigger engine, and the convertibe costs, your moving into £12k plus, and you wonder is it worth it.

                  Biggest problem to me, having size 10 shoes.....
                  I found the gear change on the manual alright and adequate considering its a Renault, but could have done with more room to the LHS of the clutch pedal to form a foot rest which the LHD model has. I could see myself gutting the plastic gearstick cover, getting rid of the silly hidden drawer to get room to form a foot rest. (crazy to have to modify a new car, due to **** design).

                  Auto option is out for me, as that extra money would be used to pay for the extra needed for the convertible version. If you kept adding all these extras to the car, it would be cheaper to buy a secondhand Merc SLK.

                  So why buy the new Fortwo, I ask, after some of the negative reaction above.

                  Well I need a small car for my back garage as anything bigger would not fit in due to the narrow back street, I only ever buy two seaters, I have always liked Smart cars, as I have bought the roadster and all the Fortwo models. I love the short turning circle of the new car, and it is still different and funky to all the euro boxes out there that are as boring as hell.

                  So I will get one, even if I have to do modifications to get it to suit me
                  Last edited by ColSmart; 23-06-15, 05:31 AM.

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                  • #10
                    I replied to this yesterday @11:30pm and my reply went to pre-moderation ?....

                    I also agree the smaller engine 71BHP is too slow and only worth having if you are a town driver.
                    It would appear the OP is not in the UK, because he initially tried the 61 engine, this isn't available in the UK.


                    I've already got over the bonnet ?.... I never saw ANYTHING wrong with it in the first place, I just saw the new car and thought , so this is it.... and got in


                    and I've been there since the early cars (2002)

                    It's the new smart , get over it and get in .... or go and buy something else

                    I too have had to make adjustments, I've had to go and buy new rims @ £180 for my winter tyres
                    Last edited by 10:45PM; 23-06-15, 06:46 AM.

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                    • #11
                      Yes you are right 10:45pm, Im in France. lol But then I thought by saying kms rather than miles it would have been obvious lol Where you at 10:45pm? Winter tyres? Im must admit that Ive only ever heard of them being used in Germany or Scandinavia. Since I grew up in the uk and I lived there until I was 32 or so I have never seen anyone with winter tyre sets but I guess some might have them. Do they make a big difference? Or is it so the alloys dont rust?

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by cougar7609 View Post
                        Yes you are right 10:45pm, Im in France. lol But then I thought by saying kms rather than miles it would have been obvious lol Where you at 10:45pm? Winter tyres? Im must admit that Ive only ever heard of them being used in Germany or Scandinavia. Since I grew up in the uk and I lived there until I was 32 or so I have never seen anyone with winter tyre sets but I guess some might have them. Do they make a big difference? Or is it so the alloys dont rust?

                        Partly to look after the alloys, partly because even when it's only slight snow/sleet or just cold you can still drive normally and feel firmly attached to the road whilst everyone around you is struggling to get over 5mph lol - a lot of uk drivers slow to stationary when its goes cold lol.. I got them a couple of years ago when I had some spare cash.

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