Review of the new smart for two brabus

For most, Brabus is associated with massively powerful Mercedes limousines. Captains of European industry sit in the back and are swept across featureless autobahns at speeds more akin to private aviation than wheeled transport. Fortunately for us, we can now get the Brabus touch on less than Euro commissioner salaries in the form of the Smart ForTwo Brabus, a citycar with real attitude.

The 1.0-litre powerplant has been massaged to give a full 98bhp, up from the 84bhp offered by the turbo model in the standard range or the 61 or 71bhp options served up by more humble Smart ForTwos. This is enough to thrust the shoebox sized car to 60mph in a smidgeon under ten seconds, around two seconds faster than the Brabus version of the first generation ForTwo. It's also feels surprisingly quick, despite the gearbox remaining a little dull-witted off the mark and is more than enough to give other city motorists the humiliating view of your blunt back end.

That said, there's no way they'll mistake the Brabus model for a common or garden Smart variety. A number of body styling features distinguish the Brabus version including lovely Brabus alloy wheels, a deeper front spoiler and rear valance, plus a sports exhaust and heat shield.The effect of these styling touches is to bring the car even lower to the ground, giving the optical appearance of a rather rapidly moving block.

Otherwise, it's the usual Smart recipe - albeit a rather expensive one. The coupe is priced at £13,525 (around £1,200 more than the MK1 equivalent) with the cabrio weighing in at around £2,000 more. This is comparable to cars like a nicely specified MINI Cooper or one of the plushest Fiat 500s, both vehicles with their own dollop of style and a good deal more day to day practicality than the little Smart. The Fortwo has its own very individual street presence however - and of course it's smaller for mopre convenient urban use: try parking a MINI or a Fiat 500 at a 90-degree angle to the pavement. On second thoughts, don't.

As with all smart models, the Brabus features standard-fit Electronic Stability Control Programme (ESP): basically, if you get the car out of shape, the electronics will automatically use throttle and brake inputs to correct the situation. And this Brabus version is plenty quick enough to get into quite a situation should you try: 96mph on the flat will see this Smart easily keeping up with the cut and thrust of typical British motorway traffic. Strangely, it's in the city that the smart feels a little clumsy. Yes, it is ridiculously easy to park, but the clutch take up in stop/start traffic is rather severe and you'll dread negotiating speed humps. Even at low speeds the lurch feels pretty nauseating.

"It's the usual Smart recipe - albeit a rather expensive one"

If you owned one of the original Fortwo models and haven't tried the latest one, you'll find that it's a little larger than before, having swelled almost 20cm in length and 4.3cm in width. The track and the wheelbase have also been stretched but the majority of the length has been imposed upon the company by new pedestrian crash legislation.

Space inside was always pretty good for two adults (if not their baggage), but the latest car is better still. Somewhat unusually, the passenger seat is mounted 15cm further back than the driver's seat so that shoulder room can be maximised. Smart claims that passengers have an additional three centimetres of elbow room compared to the old car which never felt small even for taller people. Luggage room has also usefully increased from 150 to 220 litres.

The car's face looks a little different, with projector lights and a smiling grille aperture, while the side reveals a slimmer aspect to the tridion safety cell in the sill and door area. The door handles have also been rotated around ninety degrees for ease of use. The rear wings are more contoured and the rear window has more slope to it than before. Four instead of six rear lights are now apparent, the fog light and reversing lights now slotted beneath the brake lights and indicator composite units.

There aren't too many cars that can beat a Fortwo in terms of cost of ownership. The key thing driving down the pence per mile figure is the residual value of a used example, and though Brabus variants aren't the best in the range in this regard, the latest model still looks set to better its predecessor in terms of used desirability. Then there's the fuel economy. Granted, Fortwos don't tend to soak up big mileages but they are often used in cities where many conventional cars return lousy fuel consumption figures. Expect a combined figure of about 55mpg from this car. This model will also emit just 124g/km of carbon dioxide, making it one of the cleaner cars on sale and therefore very attractive if one is using the car in congestion charging zones.

Insurance costs are driven down by the Fortwo's ease of repair, the elastic plastic body panels being capable of shrugging off typical parking knocks. The panels are flexible and the colour is deep moulded in, so superficial scratches are hard to spot. It also means that a more seriously damaged panel can be replaced inexpensively without need for costly and time-consuming repainting.

If they were priced more accessibly, there would be a quite a few reasons to recommend the Brabus smart models but the stratospheric asking prices relegate them to the ranks of expensive curios. The novelty wearing off one of these is a rather costly sound.