A Good, Smart Car - Overall

Those who have followed the development of Daimler's tiny and trendy microcar, the Smart, have surely wondered about this vehicle's safety. Now they need wonder no more. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) have already crash tested the Ssmart Fortwo and found it performed so well it earned the Institute's best ratings for front and side crash protection. Plus, its rear crash worthiness was rated as "acceptable," the Institute's second-highest rating.

Driving the smart fortwo in the US, serves as a clear reminder of just how different the Smart really is. Like the VW New Beetle and Mini Cooper before it, the smart elicits looks but unlike other cars, which reinvigorated an existing vehicle segment through nostalgia-laden styling, the smart is so small and so new that, it's unlike anything else on the road. The car is unbelievably maneuverable, able to slip past obstacles, and make turns that simply are impossible in larger cars. Driving the Smart requires readjusting one's spatial expectations. So for those who do most of their driving in the city, the smart will have immediate appeal.

Efficiency is another area where 'small' has a distinct advantage. Relying only on the principle of small displacement and low mass, the Smart fortwo delivers 33 mpg in the city and 40 mpg on the highway, according to last year's EPA standards. Some experts recommends premium 91 octane fuel to maximize power and efficiency, though it will get by on regular. On the plus-side, low exhaust emissions earn the Fortwo an Ultra Low Emission Vehicle (ULEV) classification.

Safety may be a harder sell because of this car's tiny size in the area of much larger vehicles, but that job should be easier now because of the Smart's very favorable crash test ratings from the IIHS. The key to this crashworthiness is the Smart's so-called tridion safety cell, which is so central to this car's identity that its distinctive silver C-shape dominates the exterior design. The cell distributes the impact of a crash over the car's body and protects the occupants inside. The compact design of the smart also offers certain advantages. The rear-mounted engine is designed to break away and slide underneath the passenger compartment in the event of a rear impact, absorbing energy and reducing the rebound inherent in such a stiff structure. Furthermore, the short wheelbase means the likelihood of hitting an energy-absorbing axle in a side-impact is higher, while the high sitting position means better protection in side and frontal impacts. Playing supporting roles to the structure are two full-size front airbags and two side airbags, plus ABS and a standard electronic stability program that includes traction control.

Ultimately, buyers will purchase smart cars at one of almost 100 "smart centers" located in major urban centers around the country, about a third of these stand-alone facilities with the rest "store-in-store" operations within existing Mercedes-Benz dealerships.