Tech Sessions: Test driving a smart car

by Jonathan Sessions

June 12,2009

Jonathan Sessions

Last week, I noticed in the lot of Joe Machens Ford one of those Smart cars I keep seeing downtown. The bright yellow car parked on the corner was hard to miss. Being an eco-friendly city driver and intrigued by new technology, I decided to check it out.

Eating sunflower seeds at the corner of the building was salesman Willis Robb. I asked Robb about the little electric deal on the corner of the lot, and he surprised me: It’s gasoline-powered. Instantly fascinated, I had to take a closer look.

The car, manufactured by a subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, runs on unleaded gasoline – nothing else. Under the hood is a 1-liter, 3-cylinder engine (that means John Deere has a lawn mower with a larger engine). But even with the small engine, the car has a surprising 70 horsepower (the 2009 Corolla has 132) and an EPA rating of 33 miles per gallon in the city (41 on the highway).

The smart Fortwo holds as many passengers as its name in surprising comfort. Each door is almost the entire length of the car, so getting in and out is easy. There’s a lot of leg room, and the seat fits my six-foot frame with room to spare. In fact, there’s so much space the cup holders at the front of the center console seem too far away. I like my coffee close.

Fortwo

But how does it drive? The folks at Joe Machens Ford lent me the car for the afternoon so I could run a couple errands.

Having never driven the Fortwo before, there was a moment at the beginning where I felt defeated. After a couple of minutes trying to find the ignition around the steering column, I finally located it clear-as-day on the top of the center console, between the seats (I’ll be honest; I actually got out of the car and got back in before finding it).

After a smooth start, the windshield wipers took off full speed. It took me another few minutes to figure out how to get those turned off. It turns out that off is the second position in the range of motion. I understand that style is common in cars, but it was new to me.

Once I figured out where everything was and how it worked, I put the car in drive and took off. Like many cars, the Fortwo has an automatic manual transmission with paddle shifters on the steering wheel. It’s like a manual without the risk of stalling. While starting out, I left the car in automatic as I got a feel for it.

Shifting is more like a multiple-speed bicycle than a typical manual transmission in which you use your feet to alternately push the clutch and the gas pedals and risk stalling. The computer can handle shifting for you, or the paddle shifters on the steering wheel can be used to make the process more manual, but the computer still handles the clutch. When starting out, I put the car in full shifting automation to get a feel for it.

Coming from a Camry (and a Park Avenue before that), the Fortwo felt a little jerky. It stops very quickly, and I felt the road more than I’m used to. There is a lot of road noise, but with its small size, that’s not surprising.

My biggest issue was with the automated shifting. In low gears the car would lay down. Until the 3-4 transition, the car practically stopped accelerating at every shift. This became a concern while trying to make a right turn into traffic on Stadium. It also made for an extra jerky ride. Putting the car into manual shifting made a difference. Once I got a feel for the car and the two paddle shifters, shifting was easy, and the ride much smoother.

In general, the car was quite responsive and handled very well. I was able to pull out of a parallel parking space without backing up. In the 40-50 mph range, the car zipped along in traffic with ease.

I drove it all the way out to Lemone Industrial Boulevard to pick up a package from FedEx Ground. On the way out, Grindstone parkway was smooth and easy.

The storage is limited; the medium-size box I picked up from FedEx practically filled the trunk, and I doubt I could fit most of my tools in there.

On the way back, I took U.S. Highway 63 to Interstate 70. The Fortwo kept up and easily reached a speed of 70 mph. But the car is light, so I was concerned about drafts from large trucks passing. In the end, the worst problem was the wind as I drove over the bridge on Highway 63 at the Stadium exit. It took a lot of energy to keep from being pushed around.

Overall, I enjoyed the car. It gets good gas mileage, is easy to park and very affordable (under $17,000). Obviously, it’s not a family car, and it’s not designed for long distances. Its attraction is for the city dweller who wants an in-city, supplemental vehicle that can be parked anywhere.