IL Track Tested: 2011 Smart Fortwo Electric Drive Passion

Look carefully and you'll see that this car reaches 60 miles per hour AFTER it crosses the quarter-mile finish line.

wow.

+1 actualsize

my thoughts exactly

I was just thinking ... this would be great on a golf course!

What were the design goals of this car? Suckiness. The only impressive stat is the weight.

Why would even the most ardent environmentalist buy this over the leaf?

Did that guy in the picture outrun the car? I'd like to see the video.

$600 dollars a month for a glorified Rascal scooter? Bolt a grocery basket on the front bumper and take it through the aisles of your local Walmart Supercenter.

I really don't understand this.

WhiteDynamite did, in fact, beat the Smart Electric
Smart confiscated the video......

But I got the bootleg!
BD

what's the lease offer on the volt? something like $350/month? you'd have to be all sorts of tarded to sign up for this joke

Even in gasser form, they still ought to rename these the "stupid" car. No space, no performance, greater chance of injury (despite the crash cell) and fuel economy that rivals a Civic, albeit using premium fuel. The ONLY justification I can think of is if you can't find decent parking or the streets are very narrow, which really means these are a European-only oddity.

...and people say the Lexus LFA is a bad deal.

I don't think cars took 22 seconds to reach 60 even in the darkest days of the 70s or 80s!

hahaha +1 pecci

0-60 in 22 seconds is about even with a mid-70s Mercedes-Benz 240D. Automatic. With 62 hp pulling 3300 lbs. (uphill, both ways, in the snow?)

Smart just got dumber...

Why even bother offering this for sale?

A car THIS slow is unsafe to be out amongst normal moving traffic and should not be allowed to be registered!!!!

this is one car the euros can keep to themselves all they want! GTFO

They should hyphenate the "Fortwo". Whenever I see this name, my mind says, "Fort-woe". Which is not what Smart wants, since the "Fort" part could easily be pronounce "Fart". I see nothing wrong with badging it the "For-two". What IS wrong is everything about the (golf)car(t) itself.

In the press kit, is there any info on the demographic that Smart is after? That would be fun to read also.

Welcome to the 1930s. We're working our way out of a depression and the cars are now able to hit 60mph!

Hilarious!

I didn’t think that Smart was capable of actually making a worse vehicle that makes even less sense than their current offerings but they somehow succeeded…

Ok, Smart just has to be screwing with us at this point. They just want to see how gullible people can be, right? There can't really be a single person out there that would legitimately consider this car, right?

wow that's bad. i wonder if anyone would even bother buying this, seems like it's only good to be a golfcart replacement.

granted the Fiat 126p old but was produced for a long time and was by far slower.

How is this thing legal? It's dangerously slow, never mind how unsafe it is (watch the youtube video of the collision between one of these lunch boxes and a MB C-class, it's terrifying).

This HAS to be the worst car available in the US right now.

If I spot of these on the street I will see it as a direct reflection of the owner's intelligence.

I see these Smart cars all the time in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. I've also checked one out up close on "Green Day" at work. I honestly don't see why people would waste their money on this thing. It looked extremely unsafe. I'm not sure how this car is allowed to be sold in the U.S. You can an even add a factory body kit, optional 14 " rims, and a rag top folding roof to these things.

This car lives up to everyone's worst stereotypes about electric cars. Other carmakers that are making a serious attempt at making practical electric vehicles must be gritting their teeth over this one.

I think the "ED" badge on the side of the car says it all.

ROTFLMAO...

There is nothing else to say, except.... they should be named: DUMB FORTWO...

(Even the regular gasoline version...)

These Smart cars have been pretty dumb since they arrived. Overpriced and poorly built. And they get miserable fuel economy for their size. Pathetic. The electric Smart is really just a city car but if you live in a city you should just take mass transportation anyway. The beauty of living in a city is no need to pay for a car. If you really need one though, the Leaf is light years better than this POS. Anyone buying this car to drive on a major freeway is a complete idiot.

AAAHHHHH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know if I have ever seen a car with a faster 1/4 time than it's 0-60. Is that price right? Why in the world would any one buy this?

emajor says:

10:14 PM, 05/10/11

$600 dollars a month for a glorified Rascal scooter? Bolt a grocery basket on the front bumper and take it through the aisles of your local Walmart Supercenter.

First time I have lol at work in a long time. Thank you.

In 15 minutes, Geico can save you 15% or more on car insurance,... However with this car I'd be more worried about my life insurance, being that I'd want to kill myself after driving it for 5.

In 15 minutes, Geico can save you 15% or more on car insurance,... However with this car I'd be more worried about my life insurance, being that I'd want to kill myself after driving it for 5.

Did Smart voluntarily loan IL this car for this test? Thats the most negative review I've ever read.

Is this something they are looking to put into production? Seems more like a joke!

too bad smart stock doesnt trade. otherwise I'd short the $hit out of it.

This thing is closer to an enclosed, higher speed golf cart than it is an automobile. Brutal.

This car could do for electric cars what GM did for diesels...

This is just a moded-up golf-cart
They are making money hand-over-fist!
BD

in 15 minutes you can save 15% or more on your car insurance,.. unfortunately its life insurance you'll need fast, because you'll be wanting to kill yourself after 5 minutes behind the wheel of this

Kill it quickly when no one else is looking.

+100 on all the comments! LOL

A enclosed cabin golf cart...awesome.

kill me now if this is the future we have to look forward to. :(

What's really unfortunate is that people read this and think electric cars are inherently slow. The Smart ED is such a poor example of a real electric car that it really tarnishes what today's EV's are and can be. This POS should be classified a NEV and be regulated to the glorified golf cart stable. Sad.

I had a Huffy that performed as well. It did not cost $30,000.

Wow, just terrible. I can understand they're probably marketing it for purely urban use but still.

+1 @nuieve! I totally thought that was going to be in the video.

This is the best bit: this 2100lb Smart somehow uses MORE electricity according to the EPA (39kWh/100mi) than the 3750lb Volt (36kWh/100mi) or 3370lb Leaf (34kWh/100mi). How is that possible?

Buy a TDI

We should have a "slow-down" between this and the original unmodified vw bug to see which one is slowest to 60mph.

+1 @ speeder31

ED is too fitting a title. Unlike the manufacturer's.

What a great article, made my day even better (it's open track night at Miller Motorsports Park:)

OK, enough with the lack of common sense here. I feel like I have to defend a car that I was never a fan of. Clearly this car is supposed to me marketed strictly as a people mover for use in a major city like New York. It's a better alternative to a bicycle.

Penske is partly to blame for thinking he could bank on this a few years ago when gas prices shot up (temporarily). He gave this thing a bad name and gave it a bad identity with the US market. Keep it for NY, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai and this thing makes sense. Otherwise, not really.

Now hopefully we can get faster common sense then this car's 0-60 time...

LOL
What a bad joke
Who would even be stupid enough to sign a lease for one of these trashy golf carts

Do you need a driver license to buy one? My 5 yr old son's Peg Perego 24 v Razor has reaches 0-7.5 faster.

Good electric vehicles are probably the future of autonomous personal transport.

This Smart, however, is like going backwards into the past.

Even as an urban-only class car in the world's most congested cities - London, New York, Paris - I think this thing is still too damn slow, and can't carry more than 1 passenger, not to mention any luggage.

All that for just $600/month.

Some damn celebrity who wants to court eco-mentalists will definitely fork over the cash, though.

It should at least come with free electricity for $600/mo! A world-class 3:45 mile runner would be ahead of this car for approx 5.6 seconds, and when finally catching up, it would already be almost half way to its top speed.

This car embodies most of the reasons people hate electric cars.

The car does not make any sense in anyway you look at it. I live in NYC, I would be scared to drive this thing strictly in manhattan, due to the fact that you can't accelerate fast enough to get into a lane. Also, most cities don't have charging stations. The only place you can possibly drive is in a city but at the same time there is no place to charge it. WTF WTF WTF! I have called many cars POS. But this absolutely takes crown.

Should've had a locked out football player come out and race the Smart in a 40-yard dash.

I wouldn't buy this car, but I can see a very small group of people who would: city folks with an itty-bitty parking space and who want a very small freeway legal electric car. I don't see the complaints as being insurmountable.

Speed:
A lot of people - if not a lot of InsideLine readers - don't care that much about top speed. I had an '84 Mazda 2.2L diesel pick up that maxed out at 70mph on flats, and it worked fine. I doubt it was much faster getting to 60mph than this car. I laughed about my hamster-powered Mazda, but I loved getting 40mpg in a truck.

Size:
I recently purchased a Fiesta over a Prius because I have a parking "space" too small for the Prius. It annoyed me to give up better mileage, but living in San Francisco, you don't pass on parking lightly.

Cost:
Some people drop $400 on shoes. Some spend $1000 extra to fly first class instead of economy. Others pay $2000 for season tickets to a sports team. If someone is willing to pay $7000/year to get the precise car for them, fine.

I suspect I'll see one or two in San Francisco, and I'll be glad to share the road with conscientious drivers. For everyone - like me - who chooses differently, huzzah for the free market. I won't call Smart EV drivers stupid.

It should be illegal to even sell this vehicle, on the basis of being a safety issue for the public.

On a regular daily basis I see one or more of the regular Smart FourTwo on I-270, on I-70, on Broad St./Rt 16, and on Shrock Road in Columbus. Sometimes I'm in my car and sometimes I'm behind the wheel of a big rig (18-wheeler). Have never seen one being driven slow; they always seem to keep up with traffic.

Am not looking to defend the Smart car, but there is definitely a market, however small, for unique and distinctive vehicles. Based on the lease price, however, I'm not too sure of the value of this ED Electric Drive version. Though, with above $4.00 gasoline, this might make sense for some people.

You know, I recall back in the day when some folks would have both a Cadillac and a VW Beetle in their driveway. Other times, a guy with a big muscle car for a toy would drive a VW or Honda or Toyota as a daily driver. That's how I could see this latest Smart ED make sense for some people. As already noted, this will probably do OK in the major urban areas like NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle.

My '62 Bug takes longer to reach 60, is no doubt less safe (but it hasn't killed me yet). It cost my dad $1200 when it was brand new and even though it has over 200,000 miles on it it still hasn't consumed the difference in price in Gasoline, even if every gallon had been at today's price. It also has a higher top speed (72 MPH on level ground), but lets not talk about unburned hydrocarbons or carbon monoxide emissions. I haven't looked up the conversion, but I suspect 30kW is greater than 40 HP. I know the old bug weighs under 2,000 pounds. (Oh yeah, it has seatbelts for 4 and my folks often carried 5 kids + 2 adults in it.)

Its a failure from the get-go when you way weigh in outrageous lease payments, only a 2 seater, ultra tiny and - now- with poor performance to boot. Add to that, Smart dealers are closing left and right in the U.S. I doubt the Smart brand will survive much longer in the U.S.

Wow....$28,000 in lease payments for a glorified golf cart. Even sounds like a golf cart.

This car make perfect sense in certain reasonable applications.

If you live in a dense urban area, NYC, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, it works well. going to work or to the shops and most other duties, you are on overland streets and never touch the freeways.

I have spent time seeing these, and other micros, in Europe and they are perfect for their intended task.

If you want to get moronic and take a Smart or 500 out next to a tractor-trailer at 65, you are now driving your own coffin. Rather a cost savings, actually.

Smart has to be the least Smart in the entire auto industry!!! Compact cars get better MPG than this thing and even in EV form it manages to demand that kind of money for a piece of crap that can't even perform in highway traffic?!?!?! What are they smoking???

Smart needs to dramatically improve this car otherwise its headed the same place Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Saturn all went to.

I'm actually disappointed with the Raptor mod numbers...I know the UHaul trailer/Smart EV combo is HEAVY but come on! The Raptor should do better than that...That video just cost Ford a potential sale. I'll hang on to my 2010 Ridgeline...

> If you live in a dense urban area, NYC, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, it works well.

Exactly where do the hordes apartment dwellers in SF (and NY, etc) plug in their Smart EV when parking on the street overnight?