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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Most, but not all, the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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Smart moves: 2016 smart forfour

‘Way smarter

Posted: 21 September 2016

Pics borrowed off the Internet

The numbers
Base price: R199 400
Engine: 999 cc, DOHC, 12-valve, naturally aspirated three-cylinder
Power: 52 kW at 6000 rpm
Torque: 91 Nm at 2850 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 15.9 seconds
Maximum speed: 151 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 6.4 l/100 km
Tank: 28 litres
Luggage: 185 – 730 litres
Service plan: 3 years/ 60 000 km
Warranty: 2 years/unlimited km.

It’s time to put some sacred cows out to pasture: The first states that smart cars (written with a lower-case “s” just as MINI is always all-caps) all have two doors, engines in front and semi-automatic gearboxes. That is no longer true. To begin with, the smart forfour option, the first series of which was shelved after 2006, has come back.
 
Then this second generation, designed and built in co-operation with Renault, has its engine in the back and (obviously) drives the rear wheels – like a Porsche 911. Or those (in)famous VW Beetles and Renault 8s and 10s.

The primary difference is that, while those old cars relied on swing axles that resulted in camber- and track changes (with some pretty hairy handling characteristics) each time the springs squeezed and stretched, the smart is ‘way smarter than that. It uses a De Dion rear axle in conjunction with McPherson struts in front. And it has ESP. The result is that, had you driven one without knowing this, you would have believed that it had front-wheel drive like its predecessor.

Third, both variants, fortwo and forfour, can be had with either manual or automatic gearboxes.

Sacred cow number two states that manual and automatic cars within a single model variant use the same engines – although there may be the occasional difference in torque outputs to suit the different transmissions. That is not so with the new smarts. Manual cars and automatics use different engines; a 999 cc, naturally aspirated, three-cylinder for manual cars and an 899 cc, three-pot turbo-motor for six-speed, dual-clutch automatics.

A third common practice is that two-door and four-door cars share a basic body shell, with the only real difference being the number of portals. Good-bye Moo number three: forfours are 800 mm longer than fortwos and are built on wheelbases stretched by 621 millimetres. This changes details like brakes, internal spaces, boot sizes and turning circles. There isn’t enough space to deal with all the subtleties here, but ask your dealer.

What has not changed, however, is smart’s semi-modular construction based on its traditional Tridion safety cell (rather like a very strong steel crash helmet), to which the various panels are added. Oh; and it’s still a division of Mercedes-Benz.

Our test car was a forfour with free-breathing one-litre engine and five-speed manual transmission. This provides a practical little city car for empty-nesters or young families. It has enough boot space for basic needs and the seatbacks fold flat to get most of your stuff in comfortably. Further, an idea borrowed off certain big people-movers, is that the front passenger’s seat folds almost flat to accommodate loads up to 2.2 metres long.

It also turns in tiny spaces, 8.65 metres between kerbs or 8.95 between walls, to nip into and out of tight parking slots between common people’s gigantic SUVs. Performance, while not electrifying, is perfectly adequate for town use with maximum torque kicking in at 2850 rpm to keep accelerative power available whenever needed.

Although much is made of smarts’ strong point being inner-city and suburban commuting and shuttling, it isn’t at all bad out on the open road. It spins along happily at 4000 rpm at 120 km/h in fifth gear with something in reserve for overtaking. Its quoted top speed is 151 km/h. Long hills can be its undoing, but a quick shift down to fourth usually gets its mojo roiling again.

Tough questions posed by the technically minded include: so how do I check the oil, and what about washer bottle, coolant and brake fluid levels? Taking them in order, oil-checks can be tricky. It involves removing luggage, taking out the huge JBL sub-woofer (quick and easy) if you opted for the upgraded music system, then lifting the carpet to remove six plastic screws and lift the engine cover out. But, seriously, how often do you do that? Modern cars use hardly any oil between services and most owners leave such mundane matters to the garage.

Washer- and radiator top-up bottles and the brake booster with its reservoir are kept in the otherwise empty front compartment; where the engine used to be in a previous life. This is easier to get at but will probably be ignored by most owners until service time as well.

The next technical query is: spare tyre or puncture kit? Because the tyres are of different widths, front and rear, no spare is provided but there is a puncture kit with pump and sealant. That should keep you going, at up to 80 km/h, to the next garage. 

Because it’s a micro-car, rear seat legroom can be somewhat cramped, but four people of average height and build should fit comfortably. Fit and finish is generally good, with the upper dash and some door panels covered in fabric, rather than plastic or leather. The niggly might complain that left-foot access to the floor is tight or that the action of the hand brake is more Renault than Mercedes, but those are trade-offs; what more does one usually get for a smidgeon under R200 000?

There are other little city cars available – some cheaper and others costing more. All we can say is that smart’s forfour is refreshingly different from mainstream offerings, is a viable alternative to the usual Eastern and European fare and is possibly a smarter choice.

Test car from MBSA press fleet

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What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material. If I ever place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with that vehicle at least once already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

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