Smart Fortwo Gains Style, Comfort, Real Transmission
There’s a new smart for two coming and that’s great news.
The old model is wildly popular in Paris where space seems to be at a higher premium than gold bouillon, but let’s be honest for a minute: it’s the German equivalent of a Japanese micro hotel. It’s tiny and space efficient, but there just wasn’t anything sexy about it.
That’s all going to change when the new generation arrives. Smart gave it a curvy new body and Daimler co-developed the car with Renault to share a platform with the new TwinGo.
At 22.8 feet, its turning circle is positively tiny (and of course smaller than it was before). In fact, Smart says its new minicar can make u-turn in less space than any other car.
2014 Paris Motor Show Coverage
It’s also going to be better to drive because the new car finally does away with the lamentable single-clutch automated manual transmission in favor of a five-speed dual-clutch.
A range of new three-cylinder engines will power the car globally, of which the strongest is a turbocharged unit making 90 hp. That’s not much, but keep in mind that it’s actually more than 28 percent more power than the current fortwo.
Power is still sent to the rear wheels, but don’t expect the new car to be particularly sporty because the company says it tuned the third generation car to be more comfortable.
A specific US release date hasn’t been announced yet, but with arrival pegged for the 2016 model year, there is still a little while to wait before have a chance to buy.
GALLERY: 2016 Smart Fortwo Live Photos
GALLERY: 2016 Smart Forfour Live Photos
Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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It's not going to be sporty? Of course not, the wheelbase makes it inherently unstable. The cornering ability of the present model is poorer than any full-size SUV. (It has the slowest slalom speed tested by Road & Track of any contemporary vehicle.) Remember, the first generation were held back on the market while every single one was retrofitted with Stability Control after journalists flipped several of them on the first day. WL, thecarchat.net
Every time there is any publication regarding smart we see the podium get rolled out and have to listen to a bunch of severely underinformed, opinionated gibberish. The smart is fun to drive, very easy to park, quite fuel-efficient. When I bought mine in 2008 there was no other ICE vehicle available for sale in the US with better gas mileage. Now you could buy a couple of vehicles that may better gas mileage (barely), but why buy a four seater when I only ever need 2 seats?