Yahoo Autos 2016 Smart ForTwo: First Drive
What It Is: 2016 Smart ForTwo, a small, inexpensive, rear-engine, two-door city car.
Price Range: Starts at $14,650 for the base model with five-speed manual transmission, can go to more than $18,000 fully-loaded.
Competitors: Fiat 500, Ford Fiesta, Chevy Spark, Mitsubishi Mirage, Toyota Prius C.
Alternatives: Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, a pedicab, the city bus, walking.
Pros: Festive design, much less flimsy than previous edition, easy as a two-dollar Happy Hour shot to park, the greatest turning radius in history.
Cons: Not fuel-efficient enough. Weird, inconsistent smartphone GPS software. Seventies-style highway noise and odor.
Would I Buy One With My Own Money? Why would I need to buy a Smart when they’re just sitting there on the street, mine for the taking with the swipe of a card?
Raise your hand if you know one person who owns a Smart. Now raise your hands if you know two people. I thought not.
On the other hand, you probably know several people who drive Smart cars all the time, at least if you live in one of the dozen or so North American Car2Go cities. There are 350 in the fleet in Austin, where I live, and 550 in Portland, Oregon, where I tested the new Smart ForTwo last week. In a world of $2.50 a gallon gas and balloon loans for luxury cars, there’s not going to be an explosion of personally-owned Smarts, no matter how much better — and it is way better — the new version might be than the old one.
