Test driven 4th May 2015Why to test drive it: I got an invite from Smart (Mercedes) for a test drive and I own older generation ForFour, so of course I was interested how good it can be.
Car specificationsSmart ForFour 2014-2015 (2nd generation)Engine: Renault H-type I3 999cm3, 52kW, 71 HP, Petrol (CO2: 97g/100km)
Economy: 4.2l/100km (67 MPG)
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Layout: Rear-wheel-drive, Left-hand-drive
Model: Passion (Extras: Panorama sunroof, lockable glove box, led & sensor light package, front fog lights, extra dials, black/orange tridion, passion equipment level, sport package, electronically adjustable side mirrors)
Length / axle-base: 3.49m / 2.49m
Width / height: 1.64m / 1.55m
Weight: 980 kg
Smart ForFour 2004-2006 (1st gen)Engine: Mitsubishi 4A9 1330cm3 70 kW, 95 HP, Petrol (CO2 138g/100km)
Economy: 5.8l/100km (49 MPG)
transmission: Getrag 452 5-speed manual
Layout: Front-wheel drive, Left-hand-drive
Model: Passion (Fog lights, rubber carpet)
Length / axle-basei: 3.72m / 2.50m
Width / Height: 1.68m / 1.45m
Weight: 980 kg
Before the test driveI bought my first generation Smart Forfour at january 2014 and I am 3rd or 4th owner of the car. I have driven it about 30,000 kilometers in one year and I know it is not in perfect shape. Anyway during 2014 I watched online stream when they officially announced 2nd generation ForFour and showed it little bit. I was very impressed how agile and how small the turning circle was. Could the almost perfect car be a little bit more perfect? Sure looks like it! Soon afterwards I started to read conversations and reviews about it. they were had opinions on the same areas. One praised and other gave his piece of mind. Well all of them compared it to its competitors but can it beat its father? Well time to find out is the new ForFour even better car or something else.
Towards the test drive!After small formalities I was sitting behind the wheel. Presenter just said to me only difference with generation one is that this is rear-wheel-driven and enjoy test drive. Okay sounds promising, doesn’t it? Well when I was trying to adjust comfortable driving position with good view to the road I found a problem, and I hadn’t even started the car yet. Clutch foot rest place is not far enough, my knee was bent when I have good view and pretty comfortable position. Okay that is not good for a long distance drive. I am just average, 179 cm (5 ft and 10.5”), and the car interior feels a bit small on driver’s seat. Basically the foot rest shouldn’t be on same level as pedals. Other thing that was weird that ceiling was pretty close to my head and rear mirror blocked my view almost completely to assistant driver’s side.
Hit the road jack!My test drive vehicle had a three cylinder engine (surprise to anyone anymore?) which start-up sounded like truck [me gusta feel]. To get rolling was easy thanks to similar hill-assistant feature found on older model also which actually works on flat ground also, revs go a bit higher when you find clutch biting point and off you go.
Now the wheel looks sporty (sport package wheel? I don’t know haven’t received brochure yet!) and is a bit oversized but it feels so good! Buttons are reachable with thumbs and don’t feel bad at all. Wish I could steal this wheel and install on mine.. (note to self: check will it fit). Brake assistant is even more pissed than before. Brakes are on-off! I don’t know is it because car hasn’t been driven so much yet or what but I would like to have a bit more control with brakes. Power steering is much better than before, it feels light but it is not weightless either, yes it is nicely balanced. (Is it still electrical?).
The turning radius, oh boy, I think I could do a triangle turn on single lane cabin road with this, it was just so small! I Loved it! Well after a bit circling around the city I was ready to handle the car with any kind situation so it was time to head to a motorway! Sadly because of the winter I can’t test drive it without 120km/h (75mph) so it was just 100 km/h (62 mph) test. Well car went straight without guiding and reaches 80 km/h fairly fast (50 mp/h). Accelerating from 80km/h to 100km/h takes almost same time as going from 0km/h to 80km/h, yes engine is not very powerful but it keeps its speed nicely when you reach it.
Road noise was a bit louder than older generation but it might be caused by studded tires where my car has non-studded tires. Engine noise is louder inside cabin, it doesn’t sound awful but might annoy somebody. Also feedback from road is same as in older generation (sport package might cause it, different suspension, I will tell you more when I get the brochure) so drive comfort might not be that great on rough roads.
Road performance is almost better in every aspect except acceleration, but we can save more fuel if we can sacrifice a few dozen seconds during acceleration. Only problem is that you will very easily ride the clutch in this car if you become lazy (yes you have to lift leg every time, instead just pivoting it when you use clutch)
Interior, gadgets, etcLights are automatic in this specific car (led & sensors package) so basically when it gets dark it should turn on the headlights instead just daylight running lights. Sadly I didn’t have time to test these functions and it wasn’t dark enough to see are headlights better.
Car’s speedometer is very big, half circle covering half of the dash panel behind the wheel. I don’t know what design idea it is but the speedometer’s glass was magnifying and caused me some nausea. In same area we also have 8.9cm (don’t ask why it ain’t in inches) full color screen that shows onboard computer functions such as current drive statistics, coolant temperature, fuel economy, economy level percentage, on board diagnostic etc.
Fuel economy was around 4.8l/100km for my test drive and it needed 4.2l/100km for 60 km/h, 4.8l/100km for 80km/h and 5.7l/100km for 100 km/h. I think average 4.2l/100km might be achievable if you complete economy level percentage info to 100% meaning you get shifting perfect, acceleration perfect and anticipation perfect which are displayed by bars how good you’re doing. There is a very small arrow showing when you should shift up or down and I noticed it when I close to finish my test drive.
Interior feels fresh and yet nostalgic if you have been sitting in 80’s and 90’s cars and it a bit looks like sculpture. Sadly maestro was sculpting the statue in corner and didn’t finish the other half. Generally the interior is mixture of fake leather, plastic and fabric.
So we had our panorama sunroof but it was small! The windows are much smaller than they were in predecessor but you see through them just fine. They improved sun covers a bit that you pull out but nothing major happened there.
Front seats feel fine and supporting but I didn’t have that much options to adjust it. Just basic ones and I even forgot to check will they flip forward like in “lounge concept”. You can adjust height, distance. Seat heating button is mounted on seat next to the door. Back seats are static, you cannot adjust them any other way than just increase trunk storage capacity by folding them. This is one of the reasons where new ForFour goes badly wrong. Adults over 170cm (5 feet and 7 inches) cannot sit there without tilting their heads. It is very cramped and even a teenager might feel it cramped. Distance adjust would have made this car very nice but without it becomes just extended fortwo where you have just increased storage for luggage. So name should be ForTwo and two halfs. This critical flaw will make new forfour a flop. (Note: This is my opinion, I wouldn’t buy it because I cannot take adult friends with me. Here average height is around 180cm (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height#Average_height_around_the_world)
Almost forgot to mention, rear seats windows are not foldable but instead they have a lever to open them a bit, feels pretty retro.
The dash, well like in older model we still have fabric dash cover but it is much rougher and has bumpy pattern which I think will make it harder to clean. At middle console we have our radio or 7” touch screen media center. Mine had just regular cheap shiny plastic radio which shows fingerprints quite clearly if it was black, like it was in this car. Basic radio has AUX, USB and bluetooth connections and stock speakers play loud and clear without distortion. I tried bass boost on / off but didn’t hear any difference. The radio hops out of the dash like a splash but there is a lot wasted potential. Above radio there is no way to storage anything which would have been perfect place to place your phone and small stuff but no. Now it is just wasted space.
The glove box is very small, it can hold car binder and a few small object like pens and then it would be full. Nothing neat in there. Under the gear stick we have small drawer (factory option?) where you can store candy, USB stick, pens. It doesn’t anymore have small trays on dash and door pockets are smaller also. Generally storage for small items is more limited but I will get back to this when I get brochure to see are there factory options to get more storage drawers or nets. Small neat feature is a double coin holder next to gear stick, nice way to store a couple of coins for parking meter.
Trunk seems to have open and close button on key but it didn’t work (factory option perhaps?) or I did something wrong when I tried to use it. Tailgate button can be found at the very bottom of the door. Anyway there is no wind deflector to keep tailgate cleaner and after 20km test driving on paved road it was already pretty dirty so no improvement there. Trunk is very small thanks to engine being underneath it. It can hold two luggage cases and maybe a few smaller items but thats about it without folding rear seats.
Last things that I can remember is that 12 volt power socket is behind hand brake at the very middle of the cabin. Why it is there? Are there any advantages for that? The key is not foldable and has three buttons, lock, unlock, open and close trunk.
Last thing I can mention that I can mention that air condition panel looks like retro radio but it again has that magnifying glass. Is this the new trend? Magnifying glasses everywhere? Anyway buttons are pretty far and if you need to adjust the blow settings you need to lean forward and perhaps take your eyes of the road completely if you haven’t memorized button order.
SummaryGood:
- Car goes where it should go without constant adjustment
- Wheel feels and looks nice
- Nice looking interior
- Better power steering
- Good audio playback and connections
- Very small turning circle
- Agile
- Fuel economy
Cons:
- Back seat is for children only
- Back seat doesn’t have distance adjustment
- Clutch foot rest place is awkward
- Amount of small item storage space and their size
- Engine power limits during accelerations
- Front bumper is tacky
- Interior feels cramped compared to predecessor
- Rear mirror position
- Why that two color tridion theme doesn't connect on bonnet like in old ForFour? Why?
Last wordsWe know why 1st generation ForFour flopped and production was stopped but did they learn from past mistakes and advantages? Well, you take one step forward and a few steps backwards, actually they slided backwards. What made old ForFour stand out very nicely was folding back seats and distance adjustment and they dropped one of the things and ended up with half-assed ForFour. With distance adjustment even adults would have been travel in back seats, now they simply physically can’t.
I loved the new drive experience that RWD, power steering and wheel offered but just clutch foot rest design… UGH! Almost perfect and this kind flaw. Such a pity
Well I truly believe Twingo offered a nice platform to do ForFour. I wonder would it had been too hard to just move engine to rear, keep old ForFour interior volume specs and cut that front. Sadly new ForFour interior is much smaller than old one even though physical changes to sizes are not that great outside.
Well I fear new ForFour will flop (again) but they could still save it by redesigning rear seats to be similar like in older model and fixing that clutch foot resting place.
These were my opinions, I hope you liked them and take some of the opinions with grain of salt. (Such as front bumper is tacky).
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Topic: Smart ForFour Passion 52kW (2015) vs Smart ForFour Passion 70kW (2006) testdrive (Read 22878 times)