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.
Smarts have always been more robust than they look with their easily-replaceable plastic panels and toy-car styling, and Mitsubishi makes good, tough engines. There are reports of Smarts reaching huge mileages without problems.
The gearbox has been a weak spot, with its electronic software problematic in some early cars, though this new five-speed version, supplied by Getrag, should be debugged.
Quality-wise, however, it's rather evident that the Smart budget has been cut significantly. While the original aim was to build a tiny car to true Mercedes-Benz standards, it does now feel like a car built down to a price - and a price somewhat below the £8,000 mark. The interior fabrics (including a nasty flecked dark grey) wouldn't look out of place in a sub-£6,000 Far Eastern import and the plastics are ill-fitted in places and fragile-feeling. The interior door handles and glovebox handle are particularly flimsy, and the switchgear feels very cheap too.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Smart fortwo
wrote on 11 08 2006