2009 smart fortwo Review Summaries

What reviewers liked most about the smart fortwo:

It is the smallest car curious Americans will likely ever get into, and the seeming vulnerability of its golf-cart dimensions, riding on little 15-inch donuts, may frighten off a lot of buyers. But it's very easy to get into and out of; it's not at all cramped inside-in fact, it has about the same legroom, and close to the headroom, of a Cadillac Escalade. The seats are exceptionally comfortable, the materials inside are first-rate, and the view out the windshield is panoramic. And the fortwo comes with an odd feeling when one notices that each of the doors runs almost the entire length of the car.

-- Car and Driver

It's clearly well engineered, and the high seating position and large windshield make the car seem almost conventional...provided you keep looking forward and forget about how close you are to the back bumper. The smart cruises on the freeway at 65 mph with good stability and ease, its rear-mounted Mitsubishi-built inline-3 humming along quietly at 3250 rpm and its rack-and pinion steering exhibiting a strong self-centering tendency. The ride is firm, not overly so, though lacking some compliance.

-- Road & Track

What reviewers liked least about the smart fortwo:

Top speed is 91 in the hatchback, 92 in the cabriolet. Our three-door [hatchback] tester cruised through the quarter-mile in 19.9 seconds at 68 mph.

-- Car and Driver

Although most drivers gradually get accustomed to the fortwo's lethargic automatic shifting, most of us settled on shifting the car manually via the paddles, and lifting off the throttle each time to make it feel more like a conventional manual gearbox, something that the fortwo sorely needs.

-- Road & Track

Best one-liner about the smart fortwo:

It's got the market pretty much to itself.

-- TopGear