Short Take Road Test
Take one practical two-seat city car and rip off its top. What do you get? Well, we were expecting the automotive equivalent of cutoff jeans, something designed to be useful with some, if not all, of its function lost in the name of fashion. What we found, however, is that compared with the hatchback, the Fortwo cabriolet requires little or no sacrifice in practicality and utility. We did find that the cabriolet has one thing in common with denim shorts: Men look really dorky in them.
For an added $3000—from a base price of $17,235, as tested $18,695—Smart basically makes the Fortwo Passion hatch into a targa. Getting the Fortwo into its open-air configuration is a multistep process. An electrically operated cloth top with a glass rear window rolls back and creates a vast sunroof. For most drives, we were content to open only that big sunroof, not bothering to remove—it’s a manual task—the roof rails and unlatch the rear portion of the top from the trunklid. Take those extra steps, and the Fortwo’s cloth top folds neatly into a furrowed stack, and the absence of roof rails gives the car a full-convertible feel, despite the fixed B-pillars.
Driving the convertible is much like driving the hatchback. Not surprisingly, the ragtop lets in a bit more noise. More surprising are the roadster’s quicker acceleration times, even though the cabrio, at 1852 pounds, is 37 pounds heavier than the hatch. We’re not sure why the roadster reaches 60 mph 0.8 second quicker (13.6 seconds versus 14.4), but maybe it was due to strong crosswinds during the hatchback’s testing, or maybe it’s just that our test ragtop was somehow blessed with a peculiarly strong engine. Otherwise, the roadster experience is identical to that of the hatchback.
The ragtop is plagued by the same slow-shifting transmission, a lack of power, excessive squat and dive, and sensitivity to gusts of wind. Fortunately, it’s also blessed with tour-bus-like visibility, a terrific seating position, and the quick reflexes of the three-door.
Aside from the price, the Fortwo cabriolet sacrifices little in the name of style. And although men can’t help looking a bit silly from behind the wheel, we found that women wear the Fortwo cabriolet like a good pair of “Daisy Dukes.”
