Smart Fortwo Coupé (2016) – On the Dynamometer

Change of food makes food. Herjan Pellikaan does it in extremis. By making a switch from a large American pick-up to this Smart ForTwo. “I had a Silverado with a 7.4-liter V8 on LPG and later a Ford Ranchero with a 5.0-liter engine,” he explains. “I had one because I often had to pick up or drop off a scooter. I repaired it in my spare time and then such a pick-up is easy to transport.” But things change and so do Herjan’s preferences and circumstances. At a certain point he believed those scooters and he was also done with the eternal defects of his old Americans. “So I went looking for a nice, special and affordable alternative. Because I was going to make a lot less kilometers.” A small, economical car was the mission. But a little different. So Herjan went for a Smart.

Been from an old lady

Herjan, who lives in Arkel (near Gorinchem), found this car in Groningen. “Not next door, but completely to my liking. It belonged to an elderly private individual. Those people had two cars and only one of them was needed, so the Smart went out. I trusted it completely. I took a test drive and done. Buy Closed!” Herjan paid €7,000 and was completely satisfied, because this ForTwo from 2016 is quite rare. “Most used Smarts have a 70-hp engine and the semi-automatic on board. Fine, but this one has 90 hp and a manual gearbox. I especially like that power, because it only weighs 800 kilos.” That makes the Smart reasonably smooth, because a sprint time of 10 seconds and a bit from a standstill to 100 km / h is quite decent. The top is a bit disappointing at 155 km/h.

Nice and economical, such a Smart

Herjan does not have much experience with the ForTwo yet. He bought it with 115,000 km on the clock and now the car has 119,000. But the fun is no less. “It drives like a regular B-segment car, but if you look over your shoulder, you’ll see that it ends pretty quickly. I drove it to Paris shortly after purchasing it. I was happy with that 90 hp, because you have something left over.” Whatever Herjan does and no matter how hard he presses the accelerator, the consumption of the three-cylinder never exceeds 1 in 20. “At a constant 100 km/h on the highway, you can easily reach 1 in 25.” It also needs gasoline at some point. That was still a big problem in Paris around Easter. “There was no fuel available, all the pumps were closed. From eleven to three o’clock I drove around the city looking for a pump. I found one, I had to queue for an hour. But luckily I was able to drive home afterwards.”

ForTwo scores above expectations

The Smart completes the dynamometer test flawlessly. Chef Ghisbert van Ginhoven has to remove a fuse because the Smart is too short for two rolls. But then the car climbs to a very healthy 98 hp and 151 Nm. Mission accomplished!