 2006 smart fortwo cabrio. Click image to enlarge |
Story and photos by Peter Bleakney
For this road trip, the theme was green. The “stream green” Smart Fortwo Pulse Cabriolet I was driving, with its diesel sipping three-cylinder 799 cc turbocharged engine certainly qualified as a green machine, and my destination was the Green Mountains of Vermont, which has to be the greenest state in the union – both visually and ideologically.
But there was another type of green I was looking for. Envy. Yeah, I know. Perhaps not the noblest of pursuits, but I was really hoping my little eco-friendly four wheeled space pod would cause a stir down there. It was time to turn the tables. We Canadians have been peering south of the border for years, pining for cars we can’t get. A few delectables in this crop of forbidden fruit include the Pontiac GTO, last year’s VW Golf R32 and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. Damn.
But I was feeling especially patriotic, and just a little smug. As Mercedes elected not to sell the Smart Fortwo in the U.S., I was fully expecting to see a few patchouli-oiled Vermont tree-huggers squirming in their Birkenstocks when they spied my motorized roller skate. In your face, greenies! Of course I had to get there first.
Everybody knows the Smart Fortwo is a frugal and oh-so-chic form of inner city transport. But if I had a buck for every time someone said, “I’d never take one of those on the highway”, I could buy lunch at the Bel Air Cafe for a week. In fact, several acquaintances suggested my 16-hour return trip in the Smart was decidedly un-smart.
 2006 smart fortwo cabrio. Click image to enlarge |
So I’m here to bust that preconception. The Smart proved to be just fine for extended highway motoring. The seats are supremely comfortable and supportive, the driving position spot-on and the tall greenhouse offers panoramic visibility.
Yes, transport trucks blew us around a bit, and the ride can get a tad choppy over rough tarmac, but otherwise the Smart was pretty happy to purr along at 110 clicks. Any form of acceleration at that speed, however, is glacial. Momentum is your friend.
Strangely, when you’re behind the wheel of a Smart Fortwo, you have little sense of how small it really is. The car drives bigger than it looks, thanks in part to the elevated driving position and the substantial Germanic feel to the controls.
If it weren’t for all the other motorists gawking, honking, pointing, laughing, and taking pictures, well, the six-hour slog east along Interstate 90 through upstate New York would have been just another boring car ride.
 2006 smart fortwo cabrio. Click image to enlarge |
Things started getting interesting once I entered Vermont. Route 9 cuts right through the Green Mountains, and serves up a smooth, winding and incredibly scenic drive with lots of drastic elevation changes. The route is dotted with charming towns and hamlets. This terrain proved a little more challenging for the Smart.
The little three-cylinder direct-injection turbo diesel, which lives behind you under the floor, delivers forty horsepower and 74 lb-ft of torque (available from 1800-2800 rpm) to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential transmission. The Pulse model is equipped with F1-style paddle shifters, and my tester also had the optional Softouch automatic gear program ($350), which, when activated by a button on the side of the floor shifter, takes care of the gear-swapping for you.
All well and good, but you soon learn to drive the Smart Fortwo on its own terms. And those are: Relax. Take it easy. Don’t push me. Enjoy the ride.
Attempts at brisk acceleration are rewarded with lurching forward progress as the considerable gaps between upshifts become more pronounced the harder you push. Using the paddle shifters and easing up on the throttle while shifting smooths things out considerably.
Similarly, dive into a bend with too much gusto, and the engineered-in understeer will have you backing off pronto. But up to that point, the Smart feels nicely balanced and the un-assisted steering is wonderfully direct.
 2006 smart fortwo cabrio. Click image to enlarge |
With the fabric top open, and the cool mountain air swirling through the cockpit, the Smart and I found our rhythm. Working the six-speed with the F1 paddles while carving the apexes, I felt like Schumacher. Not Michael or Ralf, but Gunther, their un-talented secret half-brother.
First stop was the antique car museum at Hemmings Motor News headquarters in Bennington, Vermont. As would be expected, I was peppered with questions the moment the little oil-burner shuddered to a halt.
What is that? Is it electric? How many miles per gallon? How much? How fast? Is it safe? After a while, I got my rap down and could quickly recite all the vital stats.
 2006 smart fortwo cabrio. Click image to enlarge |
Frankly, I was amazed at how much attention the Smart garnered down south. The Fortwo was the celebrity and I was its manager/publicist. “Sorry folks, no more questions. The Smart has an appointment in Brattleboro. All right ma’am. One more picture.”
I hooked up with my friends in Brattleboro and we headed north to Putney for an evening folk concert on the village green. In the sixties, Putney was famous for it’s hippy communes, and the town still has both feet firmly planted in that era. How hippy? Let’s just say if you were to open up a brassiere and leg-waxing boutique here, you’d be out of business in a week.
Back in Brattleboro, we cruised the streets before enjoying an exquisite meal at Capers restaurant. The comments were coming in fast. “What golf course did you steal that from?” “Hey! A green roller skate!” “Where’s the wind-up key?”
And from a couple of yahoos in a pickup:” Who picked that colour? Looks like puke. Are those aftermarket gauges?”
The next morning I took the Smart to the weekly Brattleboro Farmer’s Market. Is this where I would bask in that shade of green I was seeking?
 2006 smart fortwo cabrio. Click image to enlarge |
Pay dirt. Sure enough, the locals were all over the Smart Fortwo like bugs on organic broccoli. That morning I got a pretty good read on how the Americans in this corner of the country feel about their current administration and the nation’s lust for gas guzzling SUVs.
Invariably, when I got to the part in my rap about the Smart not being distributed by Mercedes-Benz in the U.S., there was disappointment, a rolling of the eyes and a chorus of “Why not?” The 60-mpg figure was the clincher. I could have probably sold a half dozen that morning.
 2006 smart fortwo cabrio. Click image to enlarge |
As Peter Rizzo put it, while his son Ernie crawled through the cabin, “It figures we can’t get them. If there were too many of these down here, Bush wouldn’t be able to go to war over oil.”
It was time to leave the Green Mountains and head back to the Big Smoke. Above all, the Smart Fortwo had brought a smile to the face of everyone who laid eyes on it. I suspect the folks here will be talking about the little green car from Canada for quite some time.
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