Category: City Cars 
Price Range: £8,518 to £16,026
A design classic; so easy to park in crowded cities; safer than other two-seat microcars; low carbon dioxide emissions and thus potential exemption from congestion charges
Expensive for what it is; auto gearbox still jerky and no manual gearbox option; cheap-feeling interior
This tiny two-seater is capable of motorway trips, but its all-round abilities are still limited - and you can buy a decent, barely bigger four-seater for less.
The Smart Fortwo - or 'the Smart car' as most people know it - is undoubtedly a design classic. When it first appeared in 1998, it caused a huge stir in the motoring world: few believed that people really would buy such a tiny, slow and odd-looking two-seater, especially at the prices asked.
However since then, over 770,000 have been sold, there are hugely popular Smart owners' clubs and annual rallies - and even the Americans have been petitioning for imports of this fuel-efficient little oddball.
As a company, though, Smart has been less successful. Originally conceived as a collaboration between watchmaker Swatch and Mercedes-Benz, it has never been profitable. Attempts to widen the brand have failed, with the Forfour supermini and Roadster both axed and the Formore mini-SUV failing to reach production. Rumours were rife last year that DaimlerChrysler was to axe Smart altogether, but the sceptics have been defied, at least temporarily, by the launch of this Mk2 Fortwo.
Though the basic proposition remains the same as for the original, a few detail-improvements have been made. The Fortwo has grown a little - to all of 2,695mm long - giving more cabin space and room for luggage; ride quality and refinement has been improved, and the much-criticised semi-automatic transmission is also better. There are revised engines, too: in the UK, we get the 999cc three-cylinder petrol engine sourced from Mitsubishi, in 61bhp, 71bhp and 84bhp formats, though not the ultra-economical 799cc diesel offered elsewhere in Europe. An electric version is on the way within the next few years, too, and a sported-up Brabus version is also coming.
However, the Fortwo (offered again in full hard-top Coupe form or with an electrically-retracting fabric roof and removable roof bars as a cabriolet) is still far from being a practical all-rounder. This won't trouble its fans - who love it for simply being a cool city car - but the fact is that the car market has moved on since 1998, and there's now a much larger choice of tiny runarounds, most cheaper to buy.
The new Fortwo is going to cost from nearly £7,000 when UK deliveries start in September (final pricing hasn't yet been announced, but it's said to stay roughly similar to that of the current car) with the most popular Passion-specification models at well over £8,000.
Quite apart from the superminis now on offer at that price, if super-compact dimensions are a priority there's the excellent Citroen C1/Peugeot 107/Toyota Aygo trio (from 3,410mm long, seating four in comfort and with a five-door option, from £6,730); the roomy five-door Fiat Panda's just 3,538mm long and costs from £6,790; and if even that's a bit too big, then hang on for the super-cute new Fiat 500, launched at the end of 2007, or its Ford-branded sister model, which will replace the Ka. And if fashion and status are the most important criteria, then of course there's the Mini, the must-have small car (3,700mm) of the early 21st century.
Yes, there are more sensible choices, offering better value for money and far more versatility. But does sheer pragmatism really come into it? Love the Smart for what it is.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Smart fortwo
wrote on 11 08 2006