The second generation of the SMART ForTwo was introduced to the market in July 2016. It was the result of a cooperation between Mercedes-Benz and the French car-maker Renault.
The SMART went a long way since its first model, which was shown in 1998 but the idea remained the same. A very short vehicle with a rear engine and rear-wheel-drive. The car was highly fuel-efficient and had a chic appearance.
From the outside, the two-box shape of the car featured the same very short front side, where some would think it was the trunk. But it wasn't. The front fascia featured a mesh-grille and a pair of headlights with an original design, unseen on other cars. The big bumper featured the fog-lights on its lower side. From the side, as in the first SMART ForTwo generation, the safety cell featured a different color than the rest of the car's panels.
Inside the car, there were two seats as usual, but with plenty of room for the occupants. An unusual design for the dashboard showed a speedometer in front of the driver and two additional gauges on top of it, in the middle. On the center stack, an optional infotainment touchscreen was installed. The small trunk space could have been extended by folding down the passenger seat seatback.
The car's qualities were not the acceleration times or the cornering speed. It was fuel-efficient and it could turn in 8.75 meters (28.7 ft) between walls. It was also, the shortest car on the European market. It was available with a manual or an automatic transmission for the gasoline engines. For the electric motor, it didn't need any gearbox.
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