Getting Smart: The Smallest Car in Detroit
The Smart ForTwo is just 106 inches long, more than 3 feet shorter than a Mini Cooper. Park it perpendicular to a Ford Expedition, and its rear end extends just 14.3 inches beyond the Expedition’s side mirrors. In a world of supersized value meals, this one’s a small fry.
Under the auspices of DaimlerChrysler and car dealership mogul Roger Penske, Smart plans to sell the ForTwo in hardtop and convertible form in the U.S. starting in early 2008. To show the Smart off at this year’s Detroit auto show, the company simply parallel parked a ForTwo — again and again — between two closely spaced limousines. On the show floor, Smart’s display included a ForTwo for journalists to poke around in. Naturally, I took to the task.
This is the second-generation ForTwo, which is nominally larger than the original one that’s been sold in Europe since 1998. Smart markets the car as offering an unexpectedly large cabin for its shrink-wrapped size, and I’ll back that claim. I had the seat one click from the rearmost adjustment, and my 5-foot, 11-inch frame had adequate legroom. Headroom is plentiful because the ForTwo is as tall as most compact cars — a characteristic partly responsible for its ungainly outward appearance.
With an interior layout aiming to yield the most room to the two occupants, the biggest indication you’re in a minicar comes in all the elements surrounding the seats. The dashboard is starved for space, crammed with all the usual items. The CD stereo controls are about as big as they would be in a compact car, which seems monstrous in the ForTwo. Climate controls are sandwiched between the two central air vents, and the tachometer and analog clock perch near the windshield. I doubt the glove compartment could fit more than a large water bottle.
Behind the seats are two storage nets and a tote for the owner’s manual, and all three elements are wedged underneath the rear window. The doors are thin, and when you slam them the entire car vibrates. Exposed hardware — seat belt anchors, seat tracks and the parking brake extension — are plainly visible. Smart says the car on display is a preproduction model, so it’s possible some of these issues might be worked out.
Full details have yet to be released, but this much we know: Powered by a 71-hp, 1.0-liter three-cylinder, the ForTwo will start at less than $15,000. It should get around 40 mpg in combined city and highway driving on regular gasoline, but it can only go 90 mph. There is also a bevy of standard safety features, including four airbags, antilock brakes and an electronic stability system.
With only the spec sheet and some static seat time, we’re not ready to call the Smart a winner yet, but it has a chance — a small one.
