Smart Fortwo 2011 Review - International

Not so much
>> Ride quality still choppy
>> Micro-Hybrid Drive still deliberately misleading
>> Cool customised Brabus interiors cost heaps

Facelifts that you can barely pick are all the rage in Europe right now. The Germans, in particular, seem paranoid about making mistakes, so they've isolated all their risks to expensive, oily bits underneath the skin. The new smart is no exception.

There's a new, smoother and more-economical range of engines sitting beneath the rump of Daimler's city car, though you'll almost certainly have to drive one to figure it out because you won't pick it out of a pack of current smarts by just looking at it.

There's a freshened interior, too, and even more customisation options than it had before, courtesy of even closer links with the normally madcap Brabus tuning and trimming organisation, more famous for stuffing about 200 more horsepower into anything Benz builds.

Like the recently released MINI facelift, the smart facelift also adds its own dedicated iPhone application to link the entertainment unit of the little jigger (or "jiggler" to be more precise) into the smart-phone's range of abilities – and upgrades.

Not only can it be used to search the world's satellite radio stations, but it can broadcast podcasts on the fly and it converts the phone into a mobile trip computer. It covers all the basics, like handsfree calling and running through music play lists, navigation and a car-finding system for the forgetful in busy shopping centres.

The iPhone cradle keeps the phone safe, integrates it with the 16.5cm screen and everything in between, and charges the phone. While the car has its own on-board database, the application gives it an off-board one as well via Microsoft Bing, which allows smart drivers to navigate without being online.

For all that, though, a lot of smart drivers won't own iPhones, so they'll have to judge the city car on its engineering, convenience and comfort merits alone. They'll find the new smart improved in all areas, but still not perfect.

The basics of city driving demand easy parking, good ride comfort on broken city ground, the ability to run with the normal traffic, economy, emissions and safety. The smart has most of those well covered. Most, but not all.

If it's city driving you need, then you need start-stop systems to shut off the engine whenever you stop, which the smart has (and is the basis for the oh-so-cynical Micro-Hybrid Drive name) and it helps bring the emissions from the cdi diesel version down to an astonishing 86 grams/km.

At 40kW of power, it's easily the pick of the new smarts, because it combines the low-down strength the petrol cars lack with the best fuel economy and few, if any, more vibrations. Forty kilowattes doesn't sound like a lot of power, but the smart isn't a lot of car. And, besides, the hard yards of rotating the 15-inch wheels comes from the 130Nm of torque it develops, which is only bested in the range by the Brabus version.

It runs a top speed of 135km/h, but if you're touching that with any frequency, you probably haven't bought the car that best suits your lifestyle. Sure, the 62kW fourtwo petrol gets to 100km/h in 10.7 seconds compared to 16.8 for the cdi, but again, sprinting to 100km/h isn't really why you buy a smart, is it? Sprinting to 60km/h or asking for more performance mid-gear is more up the diesel's alley, and it does it well.

It also does economy well, using just 3.3L/100km and doing it in assured style without lacking for much, save the bigger power numbers at higher revs that the bigger (the cdi is 799cc, while the rest of the range has 999cc engines) petrol engines produce.

The cheaper options are the two fortwo mhd versions (mhd = micro hybrid drive, but don't be fooled into thinking there's a hybrid system in there, because there isn't), but they're not as comprehensively strong where you need them to be, like the diesel is.

Instead, they're choked down versions of the same engine as the standard fortwo, producing 45kW and 52kW where the full-house smart gets 62kW.

They use the same amount of fuel (4.2L/100km versus the stronger smart's 4.9) and they're both quicker than the diesel in a straight sprint, but they're not as good.

Smart has worked hard on the ECU and the exhaust system of the petrol motors and they've become demonstrably smoother than they were, and the improvements are noticeable at all engine speeds. It's not just that they're smoother, but they're smoother without having lost the aural warble that gives the smart so much of its three-cylinder character.

It's unfortunate that you can't say the same for the ride quality, because the smart was always a choppy little thing and it's not been significantly improved in the upgrade. The diesel is a fraction better, because its engine is a bit heavier (and so are its springs), but they're all pretty much intent on jiggling all the change out of your short pockets.

They stop well in emergency situations, which you wouldn't really credit just looking at their footprints, and you can now order the cars with gearshift paddles on the steering wheel, instead of just relying on the sequential unit's brain to fix it up or using the sequential gear lever that goes the wrong way.

There are better seats too, plus a host of interior trim upgrades that work but don't blow you away with their inventive fizziness. There's a full fabric covering over the instrument panel to stop glare, a three-spoke leather wheel (optional) with cruise control and, finally, a big storage area low down in the centre console for odd bits and pieces.

There's also a more practical way to open the tailgate, so it's now a one-handed operation.

The new smart range is cleaner than it was, runs leaner than it did, is just as useful for tiny parking spaces and is slightly better executed than it was. But it still rides just as poorly as it did, you'll still get laughed at by burly men in utes and you'll still pay way too much money for something that is only truly useful in heavy city traffic.

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