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.
In its natural habitat, the Fortwo is easy enough. With a turning circle of 8.75m, its abbreviated length and 1,559mm width, it can squeeze into places - and parking spaces - other cars cannot reach. Narrow alleyways are no problem and, as it's so small and unthreatening, you can often get away with taking a Smart places where other cars wouldn't be tolerated (think of those pizza-delivery Smarts up pedestrian precincts)...
The flipside of this is that large SUVs, white vans and BMWs find a Smart an easy target to bully - you've got to stand your ground and not allow yourself to be intimidated, which sometimes takes a leap of faith.
Yet the Fortwo is surprisingly capable on the open road; the revised chassis and suspension have made it feel more stable than before (a sensation backed up by the standard ESP stability control) and it does feel remarkably solid and substantial given its size and mere 750kg weight.
The optional electric power steering's not pleasant, though, with artificial weighting-up and a strangely disconnected, delayed-reaction feel at speed. The brakes have a similarly all-or-nothing feel, and can be jerky.
And, as before, one wishes for a simple, no-frills manual gearbox. The clutchless semi-auto, now with five better-spaced ratios instead of six, has been improved, but it still has a tendency to lurch on upshifts, be slow to change and fail to find the most appropriate gear when the driver gets demanding. It's fine for pootling around town, but when you need to pick up pace, you'll need to hustle it on with the sequential-shift 'manual' facility, itself not the most intuitive system to use.
Not even the most ardent Smart-lovers could call the Fortwo sporty.
The 61bhp model promises 0-60mph in 16.7 seconds; the 71bhp model takes 13.3 seconds and the 84bhp version takes a claimed 10.9 seconds, though we do find this a little hard to believe. Top speed for all is 90mph and, while even the most powerful model does run out of puff at the upper end of its range, it can hold legal motorway speeds without too much effort. Just don't expect much by way of rapid overtaking manoeuvres.
By the way, if you're miffed that the diesel won't come to the UK in RHD form, don't be: its best effort 0-60mph is 19.8 seconds.
Latest Readers' Drives About the Smart fortwo
wrote on 11 08 2006