Smart FORFOUR RANGE
If You Thought
Smart Cars Were Tiny, Then Try This One. Andy Enright Takes A Look At The Somewhat Less Compact Forfour
Its a Smart, Jim, but not as we know it. Forgive the mangling of Trekkie quotes but the Smart Forfour looks as if its just beamed down from another planet. A planet where perception is skewed and things arent quite as you expect them to be. Just as wed got used to Smarts being very small and rather expensive, here comes a relatively big, relatively cheap one.
Pay less, get more. Its different but I suspect we could get to like it.
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Whereas previous
Smart models were produced fully in-house at MCCs Smartville plant in France, the Forfour, priced from £7,295, sees the company broaden its horizons significantly. The Forfour project is a partnership with
Mitsubishi and is built in Holland. Mitsubishi will market a far more conventional looking version as their new Colt but the Forfour has Smart personality stamped all over it. The reason why MCC needed the Forfour so badly is revealed in their profit and loss accounts.
Although the tiny Smart Coupes, Convertibles and Roadsters were selling in respectable numbers, they were still deemed expensive niche products, and with the sunk costs that had been ploughed into the Smartville plant, it was soon apparent that whichever way you juggled the numbers, the company needed a volume-selling car in order to remain a viable concern. MCCs owners, DaimlerChrysler, cast about for a partner who could make this happen at minimal cost and came up with Mitsubishi. Sharing 60 per cent of its structure with the Colt, the Forfour nevertheless looks like a Smart. The foursquare stance, the bulging wheelarches, beady front lamps and neatly stacked tail light clusters are all familiar design cues but closer inspection reveals a far more conventional car than the Smarts were used to.
Much of the personality that makes up a Smart car as we know it has been in effect grafted onto the far more prosaic Colt. Put the two side by side and youd spot the same basic proportions but otherwise MCC have done well with the styling. The exposed frame is painted silver and there are the usual plastic exterior panels. The interior features four seats and plenty of headroom with a sliding rear bench fitted as standard so that you can choose between optimising passenger legroom or luggage space.
The bench slides up to 150mm fore and aft and tilts backwards, folds in half or tumbles out of the way. Smart even offer what they dub a lounge concept, an option where the front seats fold and allow you to stretch out in the back. A three person bench is also offered but by far the best setup is as a four seater with adequate shoulder space.
"Youll soon appreciate the Forfour is not all it at first seems"
The dashboard isnt what youd expect, offering a far more conventional basic layout with a centre console, but MCC have livened it up with some jolly colours and auxiliary instrument binnacles so that existing Smart owners will find it acceptable. Six airbags, anti lock brakes and electronic stability control are offered and MCC designed the car confident of a strong four-star Euro-NCAP crash test showing. The two cars share a Japanese-manufactured 74bhp three-cylinder 1.1-litre engine, a four-cylinder 95bhp 1.
3-litre unit and a 107bhp 1.5-litre powerplant. Completing the line up is a German built 1.5-litre dci turbodiesel in two states of tune 68 or 95bhp (the first diesel engine weve seen in any smart).
Smart customers get a 64bhp entry-level engine for entry-level purestyle and coolstyle models. The mainstream range starts with the 75bhp passion model at £10,370, with a 1.3-litre version costing from £11,370 and diesels priced from the same amount. At the top of the range sits the 177bhp BRABUS model priced at £17,195.
As far as the mainstream variants are concerned, the 1.1, 1.3 and 1.5-litre petrol engines are both well worth having and both feel pretty brisk although the 1.
5-litre unit sounds a whole lot sweeter when extended over a long motorway journey. The 1.1-litre cars manic warble is fun in small doses. Buyers will be glad to hear that a standard five-speed manual transmission features instead of Smarts unloved sequential gearbox, although a six-speed semi automatic is offered as an option.
The five-speed manual unit comes from Mitsubishi and the six-speed semi automatic is a Smart affair. Its a good deal more advanced than Smart semi automatics of old, reducing that lurch and nod effect when it swaps cogs. The reason for this is that the software has been thoroughly improved and twin cones are used within the gearbox to prime the next ratio for a quick selection. As well as being Smarts biggest and most practical car, the Forfour is also their most enjoyable to drive.
True, the steering still has that rather strange reluctance to self centre when accelerating out of a bend, but theres not that heat-in-mouth feeling of understeer the tiny Fortwo coupes suffer from and overall levels of grip are very good. Sports suspension is offered as an option and although it doesnt do ride quality too many favours, the ten per cent stiffer springs, 15mm lower ride height and big alloy wheels give a reassuringly planted feel on the road thats been singularly missing from previous Smart offerings. Yes, it even feels vaguely sporty. All round vision is somewhat impaired by massively chunky windscreen pillars and youll still feel perched rather high in the drivers
seat.
The brakes are effective although the pedal action is surprisingly sharp. Look closely and youll find that what looks like a typical Smart TRIDION safety cell is in fact a series of conventional painted panels with plastic cladding fleshing out the look. The panel fit on early models wasnt that great (particularly around the doors) but Smart say this has since been tightened up. There will be those who see the plastic cladding as a superficial styling extravagance.
Others will feel that this car represents a great balance between funky urban style and all-round practicality. Were in the latter camp, preferring this car over its Mitsubishi cousin any day of the week. Yes, youll pay a slight premium, not only over cars like the Colt but some other comparable Superminis. However, most will think this worthwhile in view of the extra driveway presence offered by the Forfour.
In conclusion, it all depends on exactly how much youre prepared to pay to appear stylish. Wed suspect that in this case, the pricing pitch is probably just about right.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Smart Forfour range
PRICES: £7,295- £17,195 on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 3-13 [est]
PERFORMANCE: [1.3] 0-60mph 10.5s / Max Speed 112mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [1.3] (urban) 38.1mpg / (extra urban) 58.8mpg / (combined) 48.7mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front airbags, ABS
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Heightmm 3752/1684/1450mm
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