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Review: Smart fortwo cdi diesel

By SmartPlanet on 09 October 2008, 5:06pm

Driving experience
As other reviewers have noted, this isn't exactly a performance Smart. It does 0-62mph in a sluggish 19.8 seconds, but that hardly matters when what you're buying here is fuel economy. Besides, for city driving, I found the car has plenty of torque for accelerating fast out of junctions.

The big annoyance is the five-speed semi-automatic gearbox. It only automatically shifts up a gear if you have the revs insanely high, which is pretty much the antithesis of eco driving and defeats the car's inherently low carbon footprint. So you end up punting the automatic stick through the gears. That's fine except for two gripes -- gear changes are slow and, when you're turning the wheel, you can't see what gear number you're in.

In all other respects, this diesel Smart is fun to drive. Cornering is fine, it has an amazingly tight turning circle, plus parking is easy as pie.

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