Driving the diesel-powered Smart ForTwo

Smart

Last week, I had the opportunity to spend a few days with a European-market Smart ForTwo. It was an '06 model, so it had the old styling that we Americans never got to see, and it was equipped with the miserly diesel engine that's definitely not available stateside. The car belonged to Bosch, which is a supplier of diesel fuel injection systems for a variety of Euro-market cars. They maintain a fleet of forbidden fruit like this so that members of the media can get a taste of what drivers on the continent get to experience.

In the case of the Smart ForTwo CDI, drivers here aren't missing too much. Oh, there are positives. For one, it looks great. The tester was a Brabus "Nightrun" special edition (exactly as seen in the above photo) so it was outfitted with a great-looking set of wheels, an aftermarket filler cap, and other assorted trim bits. The interior was plenty spacious for me, and I'm not exactly a small guy, but the instrumentation/accessory layout is admittedly a bit funky. Cargo space is surprisingly ample for a car this size, and the rear tailgate folds down for easy access.

While the car had Brabus accessories, there was no corresponding power. The rear-mounted 3-cylinder diesel is only good for 40 horses -- and it feels like it. It's loud and slow, and the overall experience is worsened further by the Smart's annoying quasi-automatic gearbox, which lets you roll in a herky-jerky automatic mode or shift yourself via wheel-mounted paddles. Highway merging can feel death-defying, especially from a dead stop. It's much better suited to around-town use, but either way, it's still not very entertaining to drive. Ride quality is about what you'd expect from a car whose footprint is the approximate size of a lawnmower: not good.

How is it on fuel? According to the European driving cycle, the Smart diesel is good for 56 mpg in combined city/highway usage. That's a gaudy number, but in the end, the car leaves too much to be desired for it to sway my opinion. I love the looks -- it's like a tough little puppy. I love the overall concept. But Smart's diesel is just not very fun. I'm now interested in trying the gasoline-powered U.S.-spec version, which is restyled and has 30 more horsepower or so. No, it doesn't get the same lofty fuel economy, but if it's more entertaining while still being respectable at the pump, that's fine by me.

Alex Nunez is associate editor of Autoblog.com.