YOU'D have to be a Smart aficionado to spot the difference between the old model and the new one. To the untrained eye they look exactly the same, which is good for second-hand values of the Mk 1.
So what do you get for your money?
It’s a fair bit bigger, for a start.
The Smart’s overall length has grown by 195mm, and the width by 42mm.
Of course, the term ‘bigger’ needs to be seen in context – the forTWO is still no tub of lard.
While there is more room inside, it remains very compact. At less than 9ft long, I parked it next to a Micra and the Nissan was half as long again.
So it is still the perfect tool for the cut and thrust of urban traffic – and you’ll never have to pay for a parking space again.
The cabrio’s fabric roof opens in two stages. If you are in a hurry you can just peel back the sunroof for some fresh-air motoring.
A second stab of the button collapses the back window section so you can remove the roof spars for the full-on open-air experience.
You’ll need it, too, because the Pulse specification does not include air conditioning.
It’s a doddle to operate and the roof spars stow away neatly in their own custom space inside the boot lid.
Clearly, someone has put a lot of thought into the design.
Smart has stuck with a fabric hood when everyone else has moved to a folding steel type. Presumably a metal top would increase the weight and slash the luggage space. Not that it matters as with the hood in place, refinement is excellent.
If the Mk1 had an Achilles’ heel it was its inability to tackle much more than urban trips. The new one was designed with longer journeys in mind.
Key to this is the new petrol engine line-up. Designed in conjunction with Mitsubishi, the petrol engines are larger (albeit still all under 1.0-litre), lightweight thanks to all-aluminium construction, more economical and more powerful.
I liked the way the semi-automatic gearbox blips the throttle on the downchange, but the change itself still takes too long.
The 71bhp engine’s exhaust note sounds disappointingly flatulent, especially when the roof is lowered, but the engine itself is a game unit and it doesn’t run out of puff as the red line approaches, when it sounds a bit sportier, too. Automatic start-stop, christened micro hybrid drive (mhd) by Smart boffins,shuts down the engine as soon as the driver brakes and the vehicle’s speed falls below 8 km/h – for example when approaching traffic lights.
Release the brakes and the engine sparks up in a fraction of a second.
In city traffic fuel savings of almost 20 per cent are possible.
To drive home this point the test car arrived with cringe-inducing graphics hailing the forTWO as the UK’s ‘carbon champion’ and urging people to phone or text for more information, although I didn’t see too many people reaching for a pen and paper as I drove past. Thankfully, standard cars are not so afflicted.
Then again, those plastic body panels make it ridiculously easy to pimp your ride.
If I wanted to get rid of the ‘carbon champion’ graphics I could have called up my local dealer and asked for a new set of panels, ready-to-fit, for a shade over £1,500.
Smart has boosted the standard equipment tally, no doubt mindful of the new challenge posed by the Toyota iQ city car.
The instrument cluster is a new design featuring enhanced indicating instruments, the ventilation system has been overhauled for better throughput and there are new door-net pockets.
Unlike the iQ, Smart gave up on any pretence of making the forTwo a four-seater. Instead, there is plenty of room for the driver and one passenger, plus a boot big enough to accommodate a couple of medium-sized suitcases.
I suspect the vestigial rear seats in the iQ will only ever be used for emergencies anyway, and the Post-it sized boot in the Toyota is almost useless without the back two chairs folded down.
The Smart remains an intriguing motor, a car for people who, in reality, don’t really like cars at all. I can see the forTwo worming its way into the affections of green-types and singletons who don’t want the hassle, or the cost, of a large car.
In an era of financial austerity and fears over global warming the Smart makes more sense than ever. Smart by name, smart by nature perhaps?
Specification
Price: £10,181.38
Engine: 999cc/ 3-cylinder
Max power: 71bhp @ 5,800rpm
Max torque: 92Nm @ 4,500rpm
Max speed: 90mph
0-62mph: 13.3 seconds
Fuel cons (urban cycle): 55.4 mpg
CO2 emissions: 105g/km
Road tax: £35
Standard equipment includes: 3-spoke leather sports steering wheel with steering wheel gearshift (incl leather gear knob), 6-spoke alloy wheels, semi-auto 5-speed transmission with kickdown function, hill start assist, central locking with radio remote control and immobiliser, windscreen wipers with speed-sensitive interval wiping and automatic wipe/wash function, drive lock automatic door locking when the vehicle is in motion, electric tailgate release, electric fabric soft top (fully automatic) with glass rear window and headlining, electric windows, exterior temperature indicator with frost warning.
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