Smart Roadster (2002-) Review

Overview

• Next: Reliability and Quality

Get your order in quickly and you can grab one of the last Smart-made Roadsters: this model is going out of production in summer 2006 and, while British firm Kimber has brought the rights to its manufacture (and all the tooling from Smart's factory) with a view to making a revised version from mid-2007, these original Smarts are likely to become collectable cult cars.

Smart's two-seater city cars are innovative, economical and very fashionable. Sports cars are fun and a Smart sports car fuses the best bits from both worlds: great things do come in little packages.

The Roadster comes in two forms: straight Roadster, with electrically-folding canvas roof and removable roof bars, or Roadster-Coupe, with a removable glass rear hatch. Many familiar Smart features are carried through to the Roadsters, such as the smiling front air intake, the exposed Tridion chassis structure that defines the sills and the roll-over bar, and the removable plastic panels which can be swapped for different ones if you want a colour change. But the architecture is clearly very different from a regular 'upright' Smart, with a normal-looking bonnet, a low build and all four wheels the same size.

Mechanicals are surprisingly similar, including the three-cylinder turbocharged engine mounted across the rear wheels. It's more powerful now, though, with the top models, which the UK gets, delivering 80bhp from a capacity increased to 698cc, or 101bhp in the Brabus-tuned top-end versions.

Steering, suspension, brakes, interior fittings and the sequential-shift two-pedal transmission are also very similar to those of existing Smarts, but while the city cars are not the most rewarding drives around, the Roadsters are most entertaining, despite their slow-acting gearboxes.