2011 Smart Fortwo Pure Coupe
MSRP: $12,490
Perhaps you’ve seen it around town. It doesn’t look much bigger than a golf cart, but it still looks sorta like a car. You wonder what kind of mileage it gets, or if it’s safe to drive. It’s the Smart Fortwo.
The Smart Fortwo is so small that it has its own classification: a runabout. It is a two seater designed for city driving and great gas mileage. It trades cabin space and trunk space for gas mileage. The Pure Coupe is the lesser of two trim levels. The other is the Passion Coupe.
The Pure Coupe is a hatchback and comes with a 1.0 liter, rear-mounted engine that provides 70 horsepower. It has 15-inch steel wheels and a rear-wheel, automated manual transmission. It is rated at 33 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the highway, but it uses premium fuel. It sacrifices acceleration for mileage, taking 14.1 seconds to go from zero to sixty.
The Pure has a leather-wrapped steering wheel, 2 speakers, and keyless entry, but little else. If you want a radio or a CD/MP3 player, you will have to pay extra.
Mercedes-Benz builds the Pure, and they provide plenty of safety features, though. It has anti-lock brakes, stability control, traction control, side front airbags, knee-bolster airbags, hill-assist, and side curtain airbags. As is to be expected in a small car, though, the Smart got ratings of only 3 and 4 stars in crash tests. On the bright side, it only took 124 feet to stop from 60 mph.
Conclusions and driver feedback:
First of all, the Smart Fortwo is roomier than you would expect. That doesn’t mean it is like riding in the Taj Mahal, but there is ample room for people over 6 feet tall to ride. If you are driving solo, you can fold down the passenger seat for a little more cargo space.
Obviously, though, you don’t buy a Smart Fortwo for its massive cargo space. The Smart Fortwo handles well, and turns as sharply and quickly as you would expect from a small car.
Here, though, is where the negatives come in. The car has a tendency to run a little jerky, and that almost negates any advantage the small size provides when parking. Also, there are those abysmal crash ratings. A 3-star rating may sound OK, but it’s really just a polite way to say you might was well be on a motorcycle.
Also, for a car so small, the mileage isn’t nearly what you would expect, and is surpassed by regular compact models with hybrid engines. The acceleration is slightly more than that of a golf cart.
Ultimately, the Smart Fortwo begs this question: is it worth sacrificing space, safety, and comfort to save a couple thousand dollars and get the same gas mileage you could get out of a compact hybrid?
The verdict: there are a lot of “smart” options available, but the Smart Fortwo isn’t one of them.
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