About a month ago The Good Car Guy let you in on five essential facts encountered by a smart driver in the first two months of ownership. For instance, 70 horsepower is actually satisfactory and the smart's 3-cylinder engine really needs breaking in.
However, those five statements were ambiguous as to their positivity or negativity. Today, The Good Car Guy will be bashing the five bad smart fortwo characteristics without regard for the feelings of the car parked beneath GoodCarBadCar Towers. Here then are the Top 5 Bad Things detected after nine weeks in a 2009 smart fortwo pure.
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#5- HIGH BRAKE PEDAL: The fortwo's brake and throttle are attached, via an amalgam of rubber and plastic and metal, to the section of the car's floor just where it rises to become the... er, wall. Though the throttle is placed perfectly, the brake pedal sits too high. When extra pressure is required, it's not good enough to have a toe or two on the brake; the whole foot is necessary. But that requires significant heel movement. Perhaps this isn't a problem for every foot. I'd guess smaller feet struggle more.
#4- NO TACHOMETER: Not every smart is tach-less, but GoodCarBadCar.net's '09 fortwo pure does not let us in on the rev secrets. As drivers who make full use of the manual function, it'd be nice to know where the revs were at, especially when the stereo is thumping The Grits and the engine can't be heard.
#3 - CONSISTENTLY DIRTY: GoodCarBadCar.net's smart is white with a black tridion safety cell. Fortunately, the white is crisper and more beautiful than a lot of the pearlescent creamy whites you see these days but the black... oh, the black. Before a wash and after a wash, the safety cell looks dusty (not to mention scratchy, which is normal). Scrub it, and it looks dusty. Spray it? Dusty. Rinse, soap, scrub, rinse? Wow, still dusty.
#2- LACK OF INNER TRUNK RELEASE: Regardless of how easy it is - in most circumstances - to hold down a button on the keyfob for three seconds to pop the rear glass (and then flick open the lower shelf), why can we not open the fortwo's rear hatch from inside the car with a little lever or button like everybody else?
#1- SMALL SQUEAKS: GCBC's fortwo feels as though it's built like a rock. Solid door thunks, a nicely-finished interior, and quality materials make for a pleasant atmosphere. The squeaks present in our fortwo do not occur as a result of rough roads or a loosening of fixtures. They're just... there. Sunvisors buzz when the humidex climbs above 26C. The driver's side seatbelt periodically yelps like a dying dog in the distance. It's a clear case of tolerances being too tight - which is good, in a way - but the noises are more apparent because the rest of the car maintains its decibel equilibrium.
Pictures of GoodCarBadCar.net's smart in Souris, Prince Edward Island and a potato field near Kensington, Prince Edward Island.
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