Vehicle: 2006 Smart ForTwo Coupe Passion
Price as tested: CDN$19650

Performance: The Canadian-bound Smart ForTwo is powered by only one engine. The tiny rear-mounted 799cc 3-cylinder turbocharged diesel with common-rail technolog. Well, with less than 800 cc and 3 bangers. No one would expect lots of zips from this little Smart car. Not to mention 40hp and 73 lb/ft of torque won’t get anyone excited, even maximium torque shows up at 1800 rpm. However, its biggest forte is fuel economy. With the advanced Mercedes-developed CDI technology and only 730kg, its fuel economy is certainly impressive. We averaged 5L/100km during all city driving the whole day. That’s even with the lazy and reluctant to shift 6-speed manumatic which Smart called Softip. This tranny is so lazy and unwilling to up or downshifts whenever the driver demands. If Mercedes engineers reprograms the tranny better, it would improve Smart’s fuel economy and acceleration by a huge margin. As one would expect from a city car, the Smart’s lack of insulation means noisy at all speeds.

Handling: With Smart’s short wheelbase, high center of gravity and tiny size; don’t expect it to have exceptional ride comfort. In fact, its completely opposite because its front 145 /65 R15 and rear 175/55 R15 eats all the bumps regardless of whether its small or large. It has a very bouncy and rough rides due to the reasons I said at the beginning. On the other hand, its 15″ tires won’t do much for handling. It feels very tippy when going into a corner. There are lots of body rolls and ESP is very instrusive, for a reason. The steering continues the theme of inferior dynamics with poor road feel and completely lack of precision.

Brakes: Smart’s brake feels surprisingly good considered its tire nature. The pedal feel is acceptable, so does braking distance even with 15″ tires.

Interior: Once inside the Smart, everything is what you really needed in a city roundabout. There is nothing fancy inside. However, the cloth seats feel unsupportive in long-trip. There is also nothing to write home about its use of materials. Everything else is cheaply finished with hard, brittle plastic materials.

Conclusion: If you treat Smart as a “lifestyle” city roundabout, its compentent enough for that purpose. On a contrary, if you compare to subcompacts which are at the same price range as Smart. There is really no reason to choose a Smart over, a say, a Yaris or Fit.

OVERALL VERDICT FOR 2006 SMART FORTWO COUPE PASSION
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Performance: 2/5
Handling and ride/fun-to-drive: 1/5
Interior/ergonomics/user-friendliness: 2/5
Fit-and-finish/bulid quality: 2/5
Cargo/accessibility/layout: 2/5
Value-for-money: 2/5

Overall rating: 2/5