The Top Gear car review: Smart ForFour

Name: Smart ForFour
Item: Smart ForFour
Rating: 6
Author: Top Gear

£12,485 – £23,030

Full screen

1/4

6/10

Overall verdict

A Renault Twingo that’s not quite so cool as a Renault Twingo. Sorry.

For:

Turning circle, Benz-like refinement, quality, design is pretty clever

Against:

Shouldn’t a rear-engined, rear-wheel drive car be more fun to steer?

Overview

What is it?

Big brother to the new Smart ForTwo, and first cousin to the new Renault Twingo. The ForFour shares its hard points with Renault’s smartly packaged new city car, and is built at the French firm’s Slovenian plant. Like the Twingo, the ForFour is rear-engined and rear-wheel drive, while powerplants and transmissions are Twingo-spec, too: a 71bhp, 1.0-litre naturally aspirated three-cylinder, and a turbocharged 90bhp, 898cc unit of the same configuration.

A five-speed manual is standard, with a Renault-sourced six-speed double-clutch transmission to follow. But Smart says 80 per cent of the ForFour’s exterior is unique and non-Renault, along with 30 per cent of the components beneath.

next: Driving

Title	0–62	CO2	MPG	BHP	Price
The fastest 0.9 Turbo Prime 5dr	11.2s	123g/km	52.3	90	£13,080
The cheapest 1.0 Prime 5dr	15.9s	118g/km	54.3	71	£12,485
The greenest 60kW EQ Passion Advanced 17kWh 5dr Auto [22kWch]	12.7s	0g/km		82	£20,730