Category: City Cars 
Price Range: £8,273 to £15,307
Potential 80+mpg, free road tax, decent ride.
Ponderous gearchange, agricultural engine, poor steering feedback, expensive.
Less accomplished then its petrol siblings, but few can argue with the diesel's ultra-low CO2 emissions.
This is the car that, until now, Smart has denied us. That might sound a tad dramatic, but back at the original launch of the second-generation Fortwo executives claimed the numbers just didn't stack up for a UK-bound diesel-powered Smart.
Now of course the world is a very different place and one year later, suddenly the prospect of an 80+mpg Smart is music to the marketing executives' ears. Green sells and there are few greener and socially responsible cars than the Smart Fortwo CDi. It's set to arrive alongside the new stop/start version and pave the way for the all-electric vehicle due to go on sale in 2010.
The diesel is a curious beast. It uses the powerplant from the old Mk1 Smart that first went on sale in Europe in 1998, instead of the more modern 999cc Mitsubishi lump. So, under the bonnet, there's a 799cc three-cylinder turbo engine that generates just 44bhp.
This makes for a pedestrian 19.8 second sprint to 62mph, but performance aside, are there any more comprises you'll have to make to own one of the greenest, most fuel-efficient cars on the market?
Latest Readers' Drives About the Smart fortwo
wrote on 11 08 2006