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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Anonymous 11 August, 2011 11:46
American legislation has always been hard on diesel emmissions and particulates.
The fact that the little 799cc Turbo diesel is the cleanest combustion engine this side of Mars does not make the situation any easier for Mercedes.
Penske part of the famous NASCAR racing team made the decision to take on the franchise of Smart dealerships throughout America and for a while trade was excellent but due to continued falling sales Mercedes themselves have taken over sales of this great little city car.
With its introduction all 451 Smart ForTwos sold in the states are the less efficient petrol or gas models with lots of other small cars namely the Honda Civic returning similar gas mileage.
The American market is huge and if the Smart is to survive longterm then maybe but only MAYBE the CDi may be introduced there.
The Americans still love their large SUVs and fairly thirsty vehicles with the price of gas not high enough really for the average driver to consider changing to something smaller and more fuel efficient.
Introducing the little CDi to a market where sales will still remain fairly low may be a risk not worth taking and with the decrease in performance over the gas version something that will deter certain customers IS IT WORTH IT ?.
If the Smart is to survive longterm in one of the largest car markets in the world then the American customer must be given the opportunity in purchasing a vehicle that will return fuel economy figures that no car currently available in the states can offer.
It took Mercedes ten years to introduce the CDi to the Uk market and with our very high fuel costs purchasing one makes so much sense especially when over half of all Uk vehicle sales are diesel.
The American market is so different with gas or petrol cars far outnumbering diesels so introducing the Smart Cdi may be a step too far but who knows it may be the only way to ensure the Smarts longterm future in such an important car market.
It's up to you Mercedes.