smart city-coupe passion review
Published: 24th August 2003
city-coupe passion
How It Drove - Performance
The performance of the 2003 model has been improved. The three-cylinder
turbo engine of the 2nd generation smart city-coupe has been redesigned
to offer more power and more torque resulting in a noticeable improvement
in performance. The cars now have 698cc engines instead of 599cc
and the new petrol engines are available in 50bhp (37kw) and 61
bhp (45kw) and as before the maximum speed is electronically limited
to 84mph.
We tested a 61 bhp model and found that progress around town was
rapid and the handling was nimble. The SOFTOUCH automatic mode (standard
on the passion) allows you to drive in a fully automatic mode which
is excellent around town although the gear changes can be jerky.
The new kickdown function enables you to spontaneously change down
a gear or two with the accelerator pedal. The smart also features
as standard a rev counter and digital gear display which recommends
when to shift up and down the gears.
On the open road the SOFTIP sequential 6-speed transmission is intuitive,
simply knock the gear lever forward to change up and backwards to
change down. If you do get carried away and forget to change up
a gear the transmission will automatically shift up a gear for you
in manual gear-changing mode (SOFTIP) when the rev limit is reached
during acceleration. The smart is very capable on A roads, performance
is not hampered by its small size and it certainly gave drivers
of larger faster vehicles a few surprises.
It is only when you venture onto the Motorway that you notice the
smart's lack of power however, it will comfortably cruise at legal
motorway speeds although it does become noisier. You may notice
that some road users like to bully small cars and this can be intimidating
especially when you are sat so close to the rear window. But generally
most other road users show great respect and admiration towards
smart cars.
The engine is in the rear under the load space and although not quiet whilst accelerating it has an exhilarating engine note. It’s truly addictive.
