You can see the Smart car in a recent Russel Crowe movie "A Good Year" zipping around the countryside in France with Crowe at the wheel. But our Fits are "Smart ForFive".

 

My girl wants one pretty bad but I am still trying to talk her into the fit, after 110k of my miles in my em2 I'm a pretty solid honda fan.

 

Tools,

I test drove the smart for two last august when they were touring US. After 10 minutes of city driving I was not impressed. The brake was worst the a golf cart. The thottle..there wasn't much. It was just very hard to judget how the car pick up and stop.

It does have a pretty cool covertible roof and very modern interrior design. Then after test drove the Fit, I never looked back. And I am not a big fan of working on rear engine car so I figure I probably will have a hard time working on the smart myself.

Smart might look cool but I think the Fit wins as an all-round car.

 

I'm from Germany and a lot of people drive Smarts. But the 3-cylinder engine is pretty loud and not really strong, and the car has just enough space for two people without big luggage. I wouldn't go grocery shopping with that tiny thing. Also, in Germany they're way too expensive, you get a real car for that money! :-)
It might be a good choice for a single person who lives in the city with rare parking spaces.
The Smart Roadster is pretty nice, though!

 

We were on the pre-order list for the US sales also and test drove them in October on their road tour here in Tampa. I drove it as an automatic, my husband used the paddle shifters. I hated it, he thought it was cool. My impression was one of disappointment. When stepping on the throttle and not moving for a few seconds I could feel my life ending sooner than necessary. Very sluggish! Most of the other people test driving that we talked to were also unimpressed. I almost bought a Hyundai but was unhappy with it's pick-up, and then drove the Fit. 'Had to be the easiest sale that guy ever made!

 

I had a Smart Car before I got the Jazz and I really miss it. It was several thousand pounds cheaper than the Jazz, had heated leather seats and 2 levels of air conditioning. With a remap and a few cheap mods, it was like a rocket (up to 80mph) and could 'cruise' at 90 (with a lot of engine noise). It was v economical and I could park it anywhere. It had a plastic body so I didnt have to worry about scratches leading to rust. If it ever got a big scratch i could just replace the whole panel for the price of fixing up a metal body.

I ceased to be an anonymous employee with the security guards at my work when I got the Smart. They all loved it and got to know my name and even reserved a space just for me (which they aren't supposed to do).

I did get blown about a lot by the wind. It sometimes felt I went sideways as much as forwards. To improve stability I would put the windows down so the wind could shoot through without shoving me into other lanes.

Although small, we could fit our groceries in - admitedly, a lot of bags were piled up around my wife in the passenger seat. And, I once fitted in three adults and two large dogs. It was a squeeze but we made it!

I traded it in for a Jazz because the engine went after just 35k miles. The mechanic at the Smart garage said they had a lot of problems with reliabilty because the engines were made by the French and they dont know how to make cars (his words, not mine). He said the Smart engines these days are made by the Japenese (who as we know, DO know how to make cars) so the latest ones will be ok.

The Smart garage offered me a derisory £1500 trade in for my knackered Smart (which I bought brand new off them in 2003) so I looked elsewhere and found the excellent Jazz.

Oh yeah, and because the Smart falls under the Mercedes brand, the service charges are eye-wateringly expensive (although you do get to drive a posh Merc as a courtesy car).