Smart Passion Cabriolet

Few left-hand drive cars have proved as popular in the UK as the Smart.
The little city car was conceived as a joint venture between Mercedes Benz and Swiss watchmaker Swatch, but it stole the hearts of enough Brits to encourage a host of specialist importers to bring it into Britain. So Daimler Chrysler decided to do the importing itself – in right-hand drive form.

Now, in towns and cities across the land, cute little Smarts can be seen buzzing about – as a shopper, easy-to-park commuter, business delivery/courier vehicle or as a cheaper alternative in the company fleet sector.
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the quirky Smart Passion Cabriolet when it was delivered last week, but my unease vanished very quickly.
I was amazed by the wealth of features and gadgets that have been crammed into such a small space.

To be fair, once you are seated in the Smart Passion Cabriolet you can forget how small it is – as the dashboard and front half of the car don’t look a lot different to a Mercedes-Benz A-Class, for instance.
It’s only when you look behind you and see the radiator of a 42- ton juggernaut about a foot from the back of your seat that you remember just how tiny the car really is.
But that small size means you can park (almost) anywhere.

Power comes from a three-cylinder 600cc turbo engine. Three states of tune are available – the entry level Smart and Pure offers 44bhp, the sportier Smart and Pulse 61bhp and, as in the test car, the plusher Smart and Passion 54bhp.

The Smart Passion Cabriolet manages the 0-62mph dash in a leisurely 17.5 seconds but performance doesn’t seem too sluggish, although even small gradients sometimes need a change of gear.
Swapping ratios is easy, if somewhat jerky, thanks to the semi-automatic gearbox. There’s no clutch and only a stubby lever to move back and forth to change change gear sequentially.
The system takes a little getting used to although the Smart Passion Cabriolet does have a fully automatic mode that makes driving in town a doddle.

Ride quality is okay, but that’s not saying very much. The Smart Passion Cabriolet copes well enough over slightly rippled surfaces but larger holes or bumps cause you to wince.
Things smooth out on the motorway and the Smart Passion Cabriolet can bomb along at 85mph. The downside is that things get fairly noisy and the radio is almost inaudible at speed. But the Smart Passion Cabriolet isn’t really designed as a motorway cruiser.

Traction control and stability programme are standard, as are twin front airbags and ABS. Even so, hustling through bends isn’t that enjoyable.
So, who would want to drive such a weird-looking car? Well, your bank manager might like the sub-pounds 10,000 price tag for a soft- top that comes with an electric roof, EBD, ABS, leather trim and alloy wheels.

And, of course, parking the 2.5m long car is easy, insurance is Group 3 and average fuel consumption is over 55mpg.
To top it all off – it’s a lot of fun!

This has to be the wierdest-looking piece of metal on four wheels, and yet it’s street-cred is sky-high. It looks for all the world like a mini car that’s been sawn off behind the front seats, yet it is the chopped-off effect that adds to its peculiar persona.
That, and the steeply-raked arc-sweep, from the front roofline to the bumpers, makes this the oddball to beat all oddballs.

Why its popularity has taken the city market by storm is difficult to say. It is cheap and cheerful, of course. Cheap in terms of low tax and insurance bandings and running costs but not so low-cost for the initial outlay at pounds 9,965.
Cheerful? Well, no-one can deny that its freakish looks make you grin, whether in support or sympathy, but refreshingly, its outlandish demeanour represents a bold stance against convention.
Somehow, Smart creators Mercedes Benz and watchmaker Swatch have developed a daringly unorthodox design which has captured the imagination of motorists from all walks of life, young and old.
Having resisted driving the ‘Noddy’ car for so long, I finally brushed aside prejudices and took to the wheel.

Surprisingly, there is a decent amount of room for driver and passenger, contrary to what I had imagined. Okay, it wasn’t generous but it offered as much, if not more, than the front of the more conventional four-seater supermini.

Nevertheless, you couldn’t help feeling a mite conspicuous in the eccentric-looking Smart Passion Cabriolet made more brash by its bright blue and white zebra livery! But the saving grace for me was that it was the cabriolet version which, when topless, helped tone down the ‘volume’.

Its six-speed semi-automatic gearbox seemed an unnecessary novelty at first. Used in full automatic mode, resp;onse was something of an afterthought and often jerky – at least until you gauged how much gas to apply – and when.

It was a similar case when in manual mode, using the neat, slick sequential gear stick which I liked very much. I soon found out that the litgtle robust, 600cc turbo engine perfoemed the more you bullied it. Persevere with this and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
I drove the Smart Passion Cabriolet in manual form almost full-time and it performed very well. But in automatic mode, especially on the open roads, it didn’t disgrace itself.
The urbanite was quite bouncy around town but it behaved quite well on less pock-marked surfaces and on motorways.

However, motorway travel can be unnerving in such a small car with wagons thundering all around and I was constantly worrying in case they hadn’t seen me.
The Smart Passion Cabriolet is quite capable of speeds up to 85mph but strong crosswinds on the M62 over the Pennines caught the car once or twice even at 50mph and less.

But the urban jungle is the Smart’s natural habitat and its squeezed contours make parking a cinch, and its highly commendable low CO2 emissions make it an ideal city runabout for the 21st century.

Engine: 599cc 6-cyl 54bhp@5250rpm
Performance:
Top speed: 85mph 0- 62: 17.5 secs
Economy: Town: 47.1/ out of town: 65.7/ mixed: 57.7mpg
Insurance: Group 3