CarBrandLogos archive · Smart · 2004

SmartForfour

Two attempts at a four-seat Smart, each built on somebody else's platform.

Photo: Vauxford · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Smart history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Smart Forfour, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Smart's problem was that a two-seat city car is a narrow business. The Forfour was the attempt to widen it, twice, and both versions relied on a partner because a small hatchback cannot carry the development cost alone.

Smart forfour brabus blue front · Matti Blume (MB-one) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Smart Forfour 1.3 Passion – Heckansicht, 1. Mai 2012, Ratingen

Design and engineering

The first, from 2004, was built at NedCar in the Netherlands on the platform of the Mitsubishi Colt, with a conventional front engine driving the front wheels. It was a decent car that looked the part, but it arrived as Smart was losing very large sums, and DaimlerChrysler killed it in 2006 in the restructuring that also ended the Roadster.

Smart Forfour 1.3 Passion – Heckansicht, 1. Mai 2012, Ratingen · M 93 · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

In production

The second, launched in 2014, was more interesting. Developed with Renault, it shared its rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive architecture with the Twingo III and was built alongside it in Slovenia, giving a four-seat hatchback a turning circle no rival could match. It lasted until 2021, when Smart was reorganised around Chinese-built electric models.

Smart Fourjoy IAA 2013 · Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0

At a glance