2009 Smart Fortwo Passion Review

2009 Smart Fortwo Passion Review Cars.com auto review Hi, I'm Joe Wiesenfelder of cars.com. I’ve been driving a 2009 Smart Fortwo passion version. It is a smallest car in the country and not just by a little. It’s more the three feet shorter from bumper to bumper than the mini cooper. It is the only micro car right now in the market and that makes people nervous here in the land of the SUV. I guess that’s understandable. Its small, other vehicles are big. I usually don’t think that way though. So originally, I wonder if I was the right person to test a car like this because I don’t tend to think about the size of the car in it. For perspective, I drive Mazda Miata very comfortably, I’ve ridden motorcycles. I even have a 38 year old Fiat which is a death wish in a can. With that perspective, this car scares the crap out of me. Now as you can see, it’s a two seater and it’s roomier than you might think. A lot of head room because there are only two seats. There's room to work with. I want to make clear. What concerns me isn't one thing. It just the size of the car, it’s a combination of things. And very important in that is the fundamental flaw and that is the transmission. It’s a single clutch automated manual which means it’s kind of like an automatic. But it shifts for you not well and even though it’s improved a little bit for 2009. It’s still its unpredictable. It’s erratic. I'm also disappointed in the brakes. They have a binary all or nothing kind of feel to them. Either you're not braking hard enough or braking a little too hard. It’s difficult to come to a complete stop slowly and smoothly. The small size also has an effect on the ride and the handling. It has the wheel base of the radio flyer wagon and wheels that are about 15 inches. That’s pretty small, so here on the city it makes for a pretty rough ride in a lot of cases. And the handling is not super grounded feeling. It’s actually a pretty tall vehicle for one that this small. It’s prone to a lot of crosswinds, so if you're a highway speeds. You find yourself correcting a lot. Now according to government ratings, this is the only passenger car with a roll overrating of three stars as oppose to four. That means it’s more likely to roll over in an accident than any passenger car and some car base SUV’s. It’s more in the class of an SUV, a truck base SUV in terms of its roll over propensity. Where I think there's a real problem for this smart here that isn't necessarily in other small cars or motorcycles et cetera, is when people are bearing down on you. There not giving any respect because your little car. They ride your bumper. They’ll cut you off without hesitation. They jump in front of you if you're trying to accelerate into traffic. The problem is in that situation, you want really good reliable acceleration and really good brakes, and nimble control. That unfortunately is what the Fortwo doesn’t give you. For more car related news go to Cars.com for our blog Kickingtires.net