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Showing posts from April, 2016

Driven: 2003 Smart Fortwo Passion W450

Cheers, petrolheads! Today’s review regards the starting point of the Smart range: the very first generation Fortwo (aka City-CoupĂ©), with a petrol engine and Passion equipment level. The, then, City-CoupĂ©, came to market in the end of 1998, the range comprising three equipment levels - City&Pure  (basic), City and Pulse (sportier) and City&Passion (more luxurious) - and two versions of the same engine, a self-denominated turbo-suprex (45 and 54 PS). First on selected European markets, expanding to most of Europe by the year 2000. By then, a Cabrio version was added to the range, as well as a diesel CDI version. As everything revolutionary, market response was very cold. Prejudice was the dominant factor, not helped by the fact that it only took two. If it’s true that most people drive alone most of the time – Smart’s own studies had shown an average of 1.2 person per car in west Europe – it’s also correct to assume that most people need, sometimes, thr