Smart’s ForTwo is ready to grow!

[Tideland Prius]

Extra doors and seats make favourite an A1 competitor


The Smart ForTwo is growing – and here’s the picture to prove it! Auto Express has learned that Mercedes is planning to add a pair of rear doors and extra seats to its famous city car.
Doubling the Smart’s carrying capacity to four people, the new variant will give the range some added practicality, letting it compete with an upcoming raft of desirable small cars such as Audi’s A1 and BMW’s Isetta. No name has yet been give to the newcomer, but it’s likely to carry the ForTwo +2 tag, indicating that it’s very much an addition to the ForTwo line-up.

Smart?s ForTwo is ready to grow! | Auto Express News | News | Auto Express




The illustration looks better than the forfour and it even has a few cues from the 2010 E-Class. (i.e. headlights)

[Radon]

Strange they'd spend money to develope that yet they stopped producing the forfour. They even had a nice miata looking sports model.

[Tideland Prius]

Originally Posted by Radon

Strange they'd spend money to develope that yet they stopped producing the forfour. They even had a nice miata looking sports model.

The Roadster was fun, no doubt but the forfour was a little too lego-y. This 2+2 does look a lot more stylish to me.

[amm0bob]

This picture is of a Smart4two... between the trucks... in front and to the left side of the driver's side bumper of the rescue vehicle...



























I'll stick with the midsized Prius thank you...

[justlurkin]

12.8 seconds 0-to-60 for the Smart ForTwo.. No wonder it becomes roadkill when trying to merge into freeway traffic. :P

Imagine how much lower that 0-60 will fall in the Smart ForTwo+2 if they didn't upgrade that engine.. Sounds like a potential deathtrap to me!

It was funny the other day I was riding my bicycle.. I was going up Marathon Parkway from the LIE overpass here in New York City.. And I actually beat a Smart ForTwo to the top of the hill.

Imagine what Lance Armstrong can do against the Smart ForTwo on his Trek Madone!

[Tideland Prius]

I'm pretty sure that isn't the smart fortwo cause those aren't the right alloy design (on any euro or NA smart)

justlurking... guess you don't want to know the time for the diesel eh?

[amm0bob]

Originally Posted by Tideland Prius

I'm pretty sure that isn't the smart fortwo cause those aren't the right alloy design (on any euro or NA smart)

[IMG]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0S02014.WdKnFUAWpijzbkF/SIG=1290efgba/EXP=1248414456/**http%3A//www.cartoday.com/images/news/2003/2/smart4.jpg[/IMG]




OOOOPPPPSS...



Ya know what Bra... I'm looking at the web and thinking teh ex owner may not have had standard rims an all...


But I will also add that I took this from another forum I frequent... a forum that I trust the place in general BTW... but it IS teh interwebs and all... and as such, may be suspect... I'm thinking not, but I'm loaded, and I don't have to prove I can drive... from this chair anyways.

I'm just saying if I had two trucks like that that were coming at me... I'm glad I have a Prius.

[Mike Dimmick]

Originally Posted by Tideland Prius

justlurking... guess you don't want to know the time for the diesel eh?

19.8 seconds on the 33kW diesel that Nikki's just leased. This is the common problem with 'Prius-beating' diesels - they're slow. VW's Polo BlueMotion is listed at 12.4s. Because these are manuals, the real time for most drivers is much slower.

Having said that, 12 seconds is plenty. North America would be a lot better off if car buyers there would understand that they don't need that much power. Also, I bet most of them don't actually use that power - to get the quoted acceleration times you largely have to have the pedal flat to the floor. The complaints I hear about the Prius noise when accelerating suggest that you were never using the power in your old car.

I actually did use the power on my old 1.6 Focus (officially 10.1s, 98 bhp/73kW) and yes, the engine does rev to achieve it - rev to about 4,000rpm then change up. Beat numerous Mercs and BMWs off the line! Despite the slower figure for the Gen 2 Prius, I find it's better at accelerating from 30 to 60 - I can overtake in places that I couldn't with the Focus (usually I had to change down to 3rd or 2nd gear to get acceleration, and then change up while overtaking). The Prius is very slow off the line up to 30mph, but after that it gets going.

I notice that the 2011 Ford Fiesta in the US is going to be the 1.6 Ti-VCT petrol car with a PowerShift auto box. It manages 9.6s 0-62 with a manual gearbox but only 47mpg - imperial gallon, 20% bigger than US gallon - on the weaker EU driving cycle. This is not the 76mpg diesel you may have read about. On the current European Focus, the automatic box adds 15% to the 0-62 time and knocks 15% off the fuel economy figure. You can't get an automatic Fiesta over here.

[qbee42]

Back in the days when Detroit put V8s into everything, we had a Jeep C-J5 with a 304 V8. Even with that beast of an engine, the thing would only do 0-60 in 11 seconds, which was considered pretty good for that class of vehicle. I believe that the automotive mad men have brainwashed the public into thinking more horsepower is always better.

Tom

[justlurkin]

Originally Posted by Mike Dimmick

Having said that, 12 seconds is plenty. North America would be a lot better off if car buyers there would understand that they don't need that much power. Also, I bet most of them don't actually use that power - to get the quoted acceleration times you largely have to have the pedal flat to the floor. The complaints I hear about the Prius noise when accelerating suggest that you were never using the power in your old car.

It depends on where you live and the condition of the infrastructure.

Here in the New York City area where I am, I can tell you 12 seconds 0-60 is most assuredly NOT enough.

You can blame that on the guy who designed the New York City-area highway system-- When Robert Moses planned all of the highways here back in the 1950s, most of the on-ramps are very short. For instance, on the Northern State Parkway, the merge lane can be as short as 150 feet. With traffic zipping by at 60mph, merging into that in such a short run DEMANDS quick acceleration.

In addition, I'm not proud to say it, but here in New York it seems no driver ever yields (slows down to let you merge).

I DO have to floor my Prius getting onto the highways around here, and it's just enough.