2009 was the year of the Smart Car. Will 2010 be the year of the Ford Focus? Let us take a journey into the heart of the matter and find out!

Like most reviewers, I like to drive alone to be with my thoughts, but Ford’s new chief designer, Bushel McManus, asked to tag along. As I try anything twice J, I agreed.

As we waited for a “red” Focus to arrive (they sent me a “blue raspberry” by mistake), Bushel gave me some insight into this all new Focus:

“The technology on the Focus will redefine the economy car.”

“Seats five with 12 cup holders.”

“It drives like a 2015 Focus.”

First impression: Excited. It feels good to be in this car. The layout is intuitive and relaxing. They have literally made the CD player idiot proof. Though what is an MP3 jack? McManus is sitting in the backseat and has asked for some quiet time. Oh these creative types!

The almost silent inline-4 cylinder engine purrs quietly to highway speed and the brakes seem to work. There is an air freshener feature that covers the cabin in any scent that comes to mind. McManus starts to eat some boiled eggs and I select “Hollandaise Sauce.”

Eggs Benedict sounds delicious right now. I can drive this shit all day.

(Rob has not driven this car)

Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion, the second generation of this trendsetter, with a combined fuel consumption of just 3.3 litres diesel (equivalent to 87 g/km CO2!) per 100 kilometres, is aiming to become the “3-litre fuel economy car” of the modern era and the most economical five-seater in the world. Its 45 litre fuel tank enables a theoretical driving range of 1,363 kilometres! This makes the commute to work, driving holiday or long weekend affordable again. A person driving from Hanover – the site of the press presentation for the new Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion – to Venice can cover the 1,148 kilometre journey for just 40 Euros in fuel costs. That is because 100 kilometres cost just 3.50 Euros in the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion. Another measure of cost effectiveness: according to the German Federal Bureau of Statistics, the average German car driver covers a total of 11,000 kilometres per year. For VW Polo BlueMotion owners this means that they only require eight fill-ups per year at a fuel cost of 385 Euros.

“BlueMotion” is the best known German automotive environmental label. It debuted in 2006 with the first generation of the Volkswagen Polo BlueMotion, and its combined fuel con sumption figure of just 3.9 litres per 100 kilometres was the best in the world for a five-seat car. At the same time, this Volkswagen Polo represented the beginning of a product offensive being conducted today under the “BlueMotion-Technologies” umbrella brand, which is as unique as it is successful.

Fires in three models of the Tata Nano, launched last year as the world’s cheapest new car, has prompted its Indian manufacturer to plan precautionary checks.

Tata Motors said it may check the 7,500-odd Nanos that have been delivered, after a faulty combination switch reportedly resulted in fires in at least three cases in India.

However it said it was not considering a recall of the car for the time being. Unlike in the US and European car markets, recall of cars is not mandatory in India, even in cases of technical faults.

Tata Motors has not begun exporting the Nano yet.

“There seems to be some minor problem in the combination switch area. Of the two cars that we have had access to, this caused smoke and localised melting of plastic parts,” said Tata Motors spokesman Debashish Ray. The cars were stationary when the fires were reported.

August 12, 2009: Honda vehicles were awarded top honour in three different categories at the 2009 US Motorist Choice Awards, announced in California on Tuesday, 11 August.

The Honda Jazz (known as the Fit in the US) was awarded best Economy Car, the Honda Odyssey was named best Minivan, and the Honda CR-V took out the best Mid-Size Crossover SUV segment.

The Motorist Choice Awards rank vehicles according to …

For complete details, click here.

There’s no question that people are trying to save money where they can. Some are bringing their lunch to work, others are carpooling and even more are trying to work from home. But if you must go into work and you happen to live in India, you can still do it while driving a hot new car that just rolled off the assembly line.  Well…this car might be more closely related to a Power Wheels than anything we are used to seeing on the road, but if it gets you from point A to point B, who’s gonna argue with the $2,000 price tag.

The Tata Nano was officially announced in January at a Tata press conference. Tata has been building hype about this car for over a year, touting it as “the people’s car”. Tata’s goal is to bring personal transportation to the masses, and they might achieve that goal with the incredibly cheap price tag.  So what do you get for you’re two grand? How about no power windows, power steering, power seats, air conditioning, air bag, radio, passenger side mirror, only one wiper blade and plastic body panels all around. Of course there will be trade-offs when making such an inexpensive vehicle… hopefully they didn’t skimp on the seat belt material.  With a 33 horsepower 2-cylinder motor, it’s capable of doing 65MPH. The fuel economy’s got to be pretty good, do you think these would sell in the US? The Smart Twofor is here and selling reasonably well, is there room for another competitor in the market? We’d love to hear your thoughts, pics after the jump!

Source: Fox News & the NY Times

It’s got a face that only a mother could love, but boy does it get good range on a full tank of gas. The secret to this Civic’s green house success is in it’s aerodynamics. You may remember from a few years ago, Infinity advertised their G35 as having a .28 co-efficient of drag, the lowest of any sports car in it’s class. The current Toyota Prius has a coefficient of drag measuring .25, which undoubtedly helps it achieve 48 miles per gallon on the freeway. So other than it’s wedge nose and space-age wheel covers, what does this funky beast have in the way of drag? A measly .17 CD.

When it rolled off the factory lines in 1992, this Civic was rated at 43 MPG on the highway.  With a few new body panels, a little bondo and probably some glue, it can now do up to 95 MPG on the freeway at 65 MPH. Sure, it takes a few conditions to get that kind of fuel economy, like fully inflated tires and a nice flat road, but the owner Mike is routinely able to get 800+ miles on a tank filled with just 11 gallons of regular-unleaded gas.  Pretty incredible what some aerodynamic changes can do, huh?

You can follow his build at AeroCivic.com.

What a bummer!

Ford puts out this amazing car that gets 65 mpg, looks good doing it, and then says…. oh, by the way…. not for you, Americans.

You can read all about it HERE and then go weep silently in a corner, like I plan to.

I’d like to start this post by mentioning, much as I did with the Quick View on the Mini, that apart from in the title, I will be capitalizing the name of the Smart car in the way the English language requests we treat proper nouns, and not continually refer to it as the “smart,” as the folks at Smart headquarters in Germany would like. Apparently they read a lot of e.e. cummings while on the john over there, and didn’t realize that naming their new car the “smart” would just be “silly.”

(And since Smart is owned by Mercedes-Benz much the way Mini is owned by BMW, now nobody can accuse me of brand favoritism. Ha!)

But other than its name, the Smart car seems at first glance an admirable automobile. Designed as the ideal car for Europe’s narrow city streets, tiny parking spaces and expensive fuel, the Smart is designed to take up as little room as possible while making plenty of room for its occupants. Kind of like the Mini. (You’ll probably notice a lot of similarities between those two as time goes on.)

The Smart was first proposed, strangely enough by Swiss watchmaker Swatch, apparently seeking a new market to cover with funky-colored Hello Kitty pictures. While the Hello Kitty Kar campaign may have never taken off, the other focus of the car – to make a vehicle as long as a parking spot is wide, allowing them to perpendicular park in a parallel spot and really fuck with Driver’s Ed teachers everywhere – turned out to be a good idea. Swatch sent out some feelers to find someone accustomed to building devices larger than a quarter, and eventually found a willing partner in Daimler-Benz (parent company of Mercedes-Benz. Don’t ask why one name is different.).

The first Smarts launched onto European roads in 1997, eventually experiencing heavy financial losses and disputes that caused Swatch to pull out of the partnership. Daimler-Benz, undaunted, pulled Smart along by introducing several new models. To complement the initial model, called the “Fortwo,” Smart unveiled a four-door hatchback called the “Forfour,” a sleeker, lower “Roadster” model, and a few other odds and ends along the way.

Of course, most of this was happening back in the glorious days of the late 90s and early 2000s, when we Americans couldn’t have given two farts about a fuel-sipping microcar. Gas was cheap! An oilman was president! The world loved us! Global warming a problem so far in the future, we’d find a way to deal with it  between the Terminator uprising and the Borg invasion. Life was good.

Then, suddenly, it all hit the fan.

So when the second-generation Smart was being readied a couple years ago, a few notable folks in America happened to let slip that they, in fact, might be interested in bringing this little car to our shores. Suddenly, it’s 2008, and voila! Smarts are available for legal sale in the land of Comin’ Again To Save The Motherfuckin’ Day.

So, now that we understand how these little cars came to be, let’s take a look at them. The current, second-generation Smart comes in three flavors here in America: “pure” (el cheapo), “passion” (political statement), and “passion cabriolet” (Hollywood political statement). All three are powered by the same engine, a 1.0-liter three-cylinder cranking out an epic 70 horsepower and an equally stunning 68 lb-ft of torque. Car and Driver tested a 1815-pound Passion coupe, and managed to coax a 14.4 second 0-60 time out of it. Transmissions are equally limited, the only choice being whether you choose to slot the five-speed semiautomatic transmission into “manual” and “automatic.” 

So, if all the engines line up the same, what sets the different models apart? Well, let’s start with a radio. Yes, that’s right, the base “pure” model doesn’t come with a radio. It’s equipped for one, coming with an antenna, twin speakers, and an iPod jack, but the radio itself is conspicuously missing. Here’s what the “pure” does come with: 15″ wheels and tires, a tire pressure monitoring system, leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearshift, coin holder (ooh!), ABS and ESP, four airbags, and keyless entry. Air conditioning, metallic paint, a radio, power steering (holy shit!), and something called a “silver metallic tridion safety cell,” which sounds incredibly awesome but, given that it only costs $175, probably isn’t.

Next up the line is the Passion coupe, which throws in most of the above, except power steering and the silver metallic tridion safety cell. (I just had to put that in again. I mean, come on! Doesn’t that sound like something they’d have on the starship Enterprise? You know, the ship is being engulfed by a space amoeba and is about to be torn apart until Spock rerouts power through the silver metallic tridion safety cell, giving them enough time for Scotty to fix the warp core and they blast the hell out of there? Good times.)

But the options for the Passion don’t stop there. (I’d like to point out that both “additional instruments” and “solid roof” are listed as optional on the car.) Premium stereo costs $350, while the “comfort package” gives you good ol’ power steering, heated leather seats, and auto-off headlamps.

The line tops out at the Passion cabriolet, a fancy German word for convertible, which comes with the super-stereo standard in order to counteract the wind roar that shows up when you lower the “infinitely adjustable” power soft top. (Silver metallic tridion safety cell remains optional, but highly recommended, especially if you choose to forgo aftermarket phasers for your Smart.)

Of course, one place the Smart wins a lot of its friends is on price – and that price is damned low. Crazy low, it seems, for a car that was built by Mercedes-Benz. The Pure starts at $11,590. Yes, under twelve grand can buy you a German-engineered two-door with an engine, four wheels, an entire driveable car. (Space travel not recommended unless you purchase the silver metallic tridion-

Okay, enough of that tridion joke. You’ve beaten it to death.

Are you kidding? It’s still got miles to go! Besides, how could you beat it to death, it’s a silver metal-

Cut it out. Now. I am so not joking about this. 

All right. Can I make one more joke about it?

No.

What about if it’s not a Star Trek joke, just a joke about-

No.

What about if I told you that this entire dialogue was actually the joke, and you’ve been playing along the whole time?

(thinking)

Shit.

A-hem. Anyway, the better equipped Passion coupe starts at $13,590, while the Passion cabrio begins moving off dealer lots for $16,590.

The other way the Smart makes friends is its cuteness. Cuteness is, admittedly, in the eye of the beholder, but it’s probably safe to say the Smart manages to look sweet in the same way a ladybug does. (However, if you ever see a red Smart with black polka-dots, they probably have some serious loneliness issues. Get them a pet.) 

However, the Smart does have two unfortunate strikes against it. First of all, its small size – while attractive in principle – does make it a bit intimidating to drive on American roads, with American-sized cars and trucks and American-sized lanes. For those handful of places in the U.S. where the streets resemble those of Europe’s cities, the Smart’s size will indeed be a boon – for everybody else, it’ll probably just be a reminder that your car will always be a bit of a stranger in a strange land.

The second, less forgiveable flaw, is the fuel economy of the car. The Smart is rated at a mere 33 miles per gallon in the city and 41 on the highway; with only 70 horsepower, you’ll probably be seeing figures a lot closer to the latter if you intend to keep up with traffic. C/D only got 32 mpg. You can get similar mileage from a lot of other cars in its price range – and you won’t feel like Spam in a can doing it.

So, in review: the Smart is tiny, weak, and doesn’t get the mileage it seems it should – but it’s the cheapest car you can buy these days, and it’s not bad to look at. For some, it will be the perfect car; for the rest of us, however, there are smarter choices available.

Even if they don’t come with silver metallic tridion safety cells. YES!

With all the talk about high gas prices lately, it’s amazing to hear or read many stories about how everyone’s trying to hold onto the very last drop. The sudden increases over the past few months have even convinced a few to either shelve or unload their gas guzzlers for more fuel-friendly modes of transport. However, a story released in Science Today shows that just trading up to a car with a higher MPG doesn’t always translate into huge savings. Another thing I noticed that wasn’t in the article is driving fewer miles doesn’t always improve fuel economy.

To prove my theory, I closely measured the fuel consumption in my 2000 Mazda Protege for the past two weeks. One week of travel consisted of a mix of city and highway driving, while the second week was mostly on the urban thoroughfares. Even though I didn’t log as many miles this past week as I did the week before, the numbers do tell quite a tale. For instance, I drove around 260 miles and consumed 8.4 gallons on week one, giving me an MPG of 31.2 and a GPM (gallons per 100 miles) of 3.21. Assuming that I paid $4 for a gallon of gas, I averaged a cost of $12.84 per 100 miles. On week two, I drove 190 miles and consumed only 6.5 gallons of gas. However, my MPG was only 29.1 and my GPM 3.43. The 100 mile cost for that week was $13.72, or an increase of 6.8 percent from the previous week.

Still, I gotta admit that even though the increase was a bit of a surprise, at least I’m doing a much better job of maintaining fuel efficiency than I would otherwise. Had my numbers followed the official recommendation, my GPM would’ve been a 4.0 (not GPA for those of you smarty-pants out there), meaning that my true cost per 100 miles would be $16.00, or a whopping 17.5 percent increase. Whoa!

This sort of information is enough to make me to look more like a nerd or a hypermiler, which I can assure you that I am not. I have a history of driving smaller cars and making the most out of every drop of gas. At least I’ve managed to remain consistent over the years in terms of maintaining optimum fuel consumption. My advice for weathering the gas crisis is pretty simple; just ease off the gas pedal a little and don’t overdo it. That way you won’t be left stranded on the side of the road with an empty gas can in your hand.

Which, by the way, has never happened to me. At least not yet, since I intend to keep my Cal Ripken-like streak of not running out of gas intact (20 some-odd years and counting).

The race for the next fuel, whether it be bio fuel, water vapor, steam, or vegan farts, has really picked up over the last few months due to a heavy increase in gas prices. Dr. Emmett Brown, known for his past work in speaker modifications, has created what many feel is the next way our society will get around, and help the environment. When asked for comment Dr. Brown said “Great Scott!, gas is 5 bucks a gallon?”
His plutonium based car might be radioactive, but it gives off no exhaust, and truly is a cleaner, more effective car. Many companies are looking into his design, expect to see it sometime in the near future.

Tuesday, 19 February 2008, I finally found myself face to face with the smart™. I have held a long fascination with this iconic conveyance because it is the antithesis of everything both automotive and American.

The fundamental idea is a return to essential motoring. In the spirit of the Austin/Morris 850, Citroën 2CV, Cony 360, DAF 600, Fiat Topolino, Goggomobil, Renault 4CV, Volkswagen Type 1 and similarly simple cars, the smart™ is an attempt to provide the essential elements of an automobile utilizing fully modern technology.

Another, but distinctively different, interpretation of this principle is the Renault-Dacia Logan. Unlike the smart™, Logan was licensed to other automakers even before Renault’s Romanian subsidiary put it into production. As of 2008 the Logan is available in five body styles, a sedan, estate or station wagon, a van or sedan delivery version of the estate, hatchback and utility or pickup. I digress.

During 1991 Swatch, the Swiss watchmaker credited with saving that industry, created a joint venture with Volkswagen called Micro Compact Car AG for the purpose of developing a fully modern, hybrid-electric city car. The original design intended to utilize Swatch style and cleverness to reach a youth market and “space for two people and two cases of beer”. Market research provided that younger drivers wanted a proper four-passenger vehicle, and the capacitor-based electricity-storage system proposed by Swatch would force the cars to sell in excess of €50,000.

In 1994 Daimler, then planning the Mercedes A-class, was interested in the proposed platform with the possibility of creating a new class below the A. Daimler purchased VW’s portion of MCC and after seeing the existing plans, transferred the project to the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center of North America in Irvine, California. This location was selected with the intent of being far away from the influence of Swatch. Around this time the project acquired the trade name Smart, an awkward acronym for Swatch-Mercedes Art.

The “Smart City Coupé” prototype premiered at the inauspicious Atlanta Auto Show in 1996. The prototype shown was essentially similar to the production vehicle which would appear in two years, although without doors. The focal point of this vehicle was something called the Tridion which acted as chassis, roll cage and provided the majority of the body structure. It was a unique, wholly new interpretation of automotive design. The 1996 Smart City Coupé was the most significant advance in automotive chassis design since the wide adoption of monocoque, or unit-body construction following World War II.

By the time the smart, now in all lower case, hit European streets in the Spring 1998, Swatch had divested all interests and Micro Compact Car AG was dissolved. The smart was produced by a division of DaimlerChrysler AG. The people who know about these things anticipated sales of 200,000 units per year on four continents.

The decision to design the vehicle in California and the world premier in Atlanta lead many observers to believe the car would be available in the United States in short order. This did not happen. Amid persistent rumors the “Chrysler Division” was being sold, the unanticipated announcement came in May 2006 that national automobile retailer Penske Automotive Group would act as an independent importer for the redesigned (451) vehicle to be introduced in early 2008.

BMW designed their MINI specifically to be the smallest vehicle allowable on American roads. Their American division had questions about this, and lobbying pursued an alteration in NHTSA standards for the purpose of measuring performance rather than physical size of specific components. These efforts were successful, and the 2001 MINI became the smallest automobile available in North America since the Toyota Starlet left the market during 1984. These altered standards opened a door for the smart to come to the United States.

This Australian spot from 2005 features the fortwo, roadster, a low slung body on the fortwo platform, and forfour, a considerably redecorated Mitsubishi Colt. The latter vehicles are no longer in production. The U.S. rollout of the smart has not yet utilized any traditional national advertising.

After ten model years, smart has yet to produce its millionth vehicle. It is strange. It is too small, even for Europe. It is not as efficient as its competition, especially with the diesel-powered competition, and the Tridion is only hype. These are the rumors which have dogged the vehicle now called the fortwo (as in “for two passengers”) through it’s entire production. The transaxle operation is very strange as well. Nonetheless, smart is beloved by the relatively few consumers who have elected to purchase one. While priced like a larger Japanese or Korean minisubcompact, the cleverness of its design, safety and excellent driving characteristics win the hearts and Euros of motorists away from the likes of the Hyundai Getz, Honda Jazz and Toyota Aygo. On the theory that Americans will not purchase new small cars and would rather purchase a larger car second hand, only one of smart’s competitors is available in the U.S.

During 2007 Penske sponsored “The Street smart Road Show”, a traveling event during which consumers could see, drive and learn about the existing (450) version of the fortwo. A system of reservations and a national network of dealers were established during the Road Show period. The $99 reservation system is the most successful automotive advance ordering campaign ever in the United States. On the proposed end date of the pre-order period, 30 November 2007, over 30 thousand cars were ordered.

The first-year production for America anticipated 25 thousand vehicles. The ordering system remains in place and as of February 2008, the first full month of sales, 1800 vehicles have been delivered but 40 thousand orders are in the system. Most individual dealers are not expected to have test vehicles or inventory until the 2010 model year (October 2009), even after the announcement of increased production of U.S.-bound vehicles. These numbers are not particularly impressive, but considering the American model of automobile sales is based on vehicles being purchased out of dealer inventory, and most smart orders are placed on vehicles unseen by the purchaser and built to order, the smart is an amazing success in its first weeks.

Hyundai remains the import automaker selling the most vehicles in their first model year in the U.S. In 1985 Hyundai sold 85,000 Excels, just under 7100 units per month. smart is unlikely to produce 85K for the U.S. this year.

Most “smart centers”, the moniker for the dealerships, are located in or very near urban centers. Most are within clusters of dealers of other makes, and run by companies for which the addition of the new brand is a minor commitment. Almost all of these dealers have exactly one vehicle for display in the showroom with the remainder of the showroom being dedicated to the display of smart-themed merchandise.

Although it is located in a shopping center in a distant suburb, my regional smart center, in the bedroom community of Round Rock, Texas is not otherwise an exception. I was festering in the house one recent day and set out for what we used to call “the great white north”, to see after all these years, the U.S.-specification smart fortwo.

To be clear, the vehicle available is a total redesign, internally coded 451 as opposed to the original 450, and a rededication to the one-model policy upon which Ford and Volkswagen built their empires. The new design is specifically intended for the States, even though this one model is available in every market in which smart operates with minor regional modification.

It is somewhat unusual to walk into an auto dealer housed in the same building as a Dollar General store, multiplex theater and fingernail parlor. The interior design is not unlike that of an Apple Store, all white with hints of light wood. Facing as you enter is the “smart boutique”, a display of shirts, bags, key fobs and other smart-logo-encrusted paraphernalia. Since my visit, I discovered one may inquire with the receptionist and she can get which ever products you desire from the stocks. To the right is a cluster of low upholstered chairs with a coffee table, and the object of the exercise.

Both in its natural environment of city traffic and on the showroom floor, the smart™ fortwo™ 451 really does look like half of a car. By contemporary standards, it is half of a car, vitally it is the half most frequently used. The top selling passenger car both sold and built in the United States is the Toyota Camry (or 冠) with a wheelbase of 109.3 inches (2776 mm), overall length of 189.2 inches (4805 mm), and a curb weight of 3483 lb (1580 kg). The wheelbase for the smart is 73.5 inches (1870 mm or 67%) with an overall length of 106.1 inches (2690 mm or 56%) and curb weight of 1,600 lb (730 kg or 42%). This actually works out to an average of 55% of a car or something.

The vehicle itself is only remarkable by its size and relative lack of awkward design elements. A simple “Puffin” is on the front. The first thing I noticed about the 451 was the dramatic difference between the apparently clear-coated finish of the Tridion and the plastic panels. The wheels and tires are fashionably low-profile, and the window sticker has to be placed on the windshield for lack of immobile side windows. This smart is in Passion trim and “bumblebee” configuration, that is, yellow panels on a black Tridion. The interior is medium gray, as are all North American smarts this year. The smart is particularly tall, just a few inches less so than my Ford Ranger.

I spoke with a fellow who appeared as though he had just stepped off the service floor. He confessed a fondness for tiny cars, and that he misses the Honda 600 he drove in the seventies. He stood at least six feet, five inches and easily three hundred pounds; mostly rock. Although an employee of the franchiser, he stated that he was still waiting for his own fortwo Passion coming with white panels and a silver tridion. A special point was made that he fits into the car easily.

I do not doubt it. The last person to try out this smart was appreciably taller than myself. All the interior controls fell readily to hand and, excepting the inboard-mounted seat adjustment levers, in their intuitive place. Well, aside from my personal preference for a dashboard-mounted light switch. I had to move the seat forward at least eight inches or about 16% of the entire wheelbase in order to reach everything.

The seats are surprisingly supportive. You are confronted with a half-circle speedometer, and apparently no other gauges. When the vehicle is running, an electrophoretic or liquid-crystal display (depending upon who you believe) activates with all the vital information a motorhead like your humble narrator craves. It is smaller than I was lead to believe. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the Suzuki Cultus/Chevrolet Sprint/Geo Metro/Pontiac Firefly, but the feeling of the space inside is quite similar. To the right is the range selector, with the ignition switch behind and the hand brake. It is uncannily car-like. The doors close with a nice, satisfying thunk.

The overall fit and finish of the interior isn’t very impressive if you think of the car as a Mercedes. When you compare the fortwo to other vehicles in its price class, Yaris, Accent, Rio, Aveo, it becomes somewhat impressive. Everything is simple and intellegently laid out; as though the designers at Ikea put it together.

When you get out, you are at the back of the car before you know it. Instead of a traditional hatchback, you find that the rear window is hinged at the top of the car, while the rest of the back is a tailgate. This configuration is familiar to anyone with a pickup truck and a cap over the bed. Each door may open independently. This is another feature apparently intended to be used in tight urban spaces. You peel up the carpet in the back and are presented with a hatch. Under the hatch, like a VW Type 3, is the engine. This is a 999 cc, three-cylinder unit built by Mitsubishi under license from Hyundai. It is attached to the “automated manual” transmission, which surely is properly called a transaxle, but no one does.

This gets to the heart of the cleverness of this vehicle. Daimler specifies synthetic oil and all manner of high-tech bits on the car for the purpose of a 15 thousand mile service interval. That is, for the smart’s intended use, an annual servicing. During the service, the entire engine-transmission assembly is removed from the car, systematically inspected, all fluids and filters replaced, then reinstalled into the car. During the annual service all wear items are inspected and replaced if required. The annual service is supposedly expensive, so much so that numbers are hard to come by. In the smart-focused forums you occasionally discover people complaining about the $400 oil change. I presume this refers to the annual service.

You may ask: What on earth is an automated manual transmission? The space constraints of the smart are such that it has room for neither a clutch assembly nor an automatic transmission or CVT. The solution was the automated manual. The clutch action is controlled electronically and the driver has no pedal. The transmission shifts either in its own, or when prompted by the driver by upshifting (lever forward) or down shifting (lever back) at any speed. In “manual mode” the engine will upshift on its own at about 5400 rpm. This unusual mechanism draws more than a little ire from the automotive press.

Experienced fortwo drivers know to release the throttle before shifting, as one would with a traditional manual transmission. Even in automatic mode, an imminent shift is eased with less throttle, although this takes considerable practice. This unusual setup allows Daimler to use a single system for every car on every continent.

The engine cover and the plastic exoskeleton are unexpectedly flimsy. I presume the engine cover can be flimsy as it will see very little use. The exterior panels, however, are something of a surprise. One pulls a couple of latches to move the front panel away to check the brake fluid and windshield washer reservoirs. It comes away quite easily, too easily, and is attached to the rest of the body by a couple of uninspiring nylon straps. This panel doesn’t weigh a pound and is made of a material not unlike Tupperware. It is flexible not unlike Tupperware as well. I want to say something about how clever and light the body panels are, but this extreme lightness does not inspire confidence.

With the seats adjusted to suit me the infamously tiny rear cargo area becomes positively spacious. It is certainly not comparable to a Volvo 245, but much larger than I anticipated. Twenty inches high, around forty inches wide and thirty deep. Taller drivers will find this space more limited, but it is certainly sufficient for four paper bags of groceries.

I did not take the car for a test drive. My local smart center does not yet have a tester available. Their only unsold vehicle is on the showroom floor. The cars are landing in Baltimore sold. Twelve fit on a standard forty-two foot double-deck car carrier, and are delivered twelve at a time. This is expected to continue for some time, as the entire anticipated run of 2008 models are already sold. In fact, my smart center does not anticipate having an inventory of unsold cars until the beginning of the 2010 model year. If then.

Presuming I am seeing over and over a certain blue on silver smart, I have seen exactly three 451s with Texas plates since the commencement of sales in January. Of course, I don’t get out of the house much anymore.

Would I buy one? My apprehensions are Daimler’s dedication to the make on this continent, the fact that these cars are unproven in the distinct environment of the United States and the unpardonable two-year warranty. When Hyundai started getting their act together they communicated their new confidence in their vehicles with a shocking 10-year warranty. smart pushes their connection to Mercedes, which isn’t as encouraging among my fellow motorheads, while providing a confidence eliminating 24 month or 24000 mile back-up plan. Their Canadian counterparts are backed up for 48 months or 80000 kilometers (49710 miles). Until the cars are either widely renowned for Hondaesque quality, or backed up by the manufacturer properly, I won’t find myself driving one. Otherwise, it is everything I am looking for in a car. Well, I’d like a proper clutch but I don’t imagine one could do anything about that.

And cruise control. Add cruise control, Penske, please. I cannot believe you didn’t make provision for this. Commuters interested in fuel economy and avoiding speed traps and traffic cameras want cruise control. Especially if you will not authorize the one aftermaket cruise system, and this should really be in consideration, the fortwo and its most likely market, commuters obsessively interested in fuel economy, will pay handsomely for cruise control.