Everyone gets their fifteen minutes of fame, or so said Andy Warhol, and looking at the Smart Fortwo you would have to say that it enjoyed its own golden period sometime around the late-'90s, back when it was innovative and ahead of its time. Early adopters rushed to be seen driving around in the little two-seater city car.
The car is charmingly individualistic and funkily styled, bringing some class to a dull section of the market. The newest generation of Fortwo carries straight on from the old one, not looking much different, but bearing Smart's scars of a failed supermini collaboration with Mitsubishi, a pretty good but criminally-underrated roadster and an abortive attempt at building an SUV.
Those familiar looks do hide a car vastly different from its predecessor though, with a raft of improvements to tackle some of the criticism levelled at the first-generation car. The engine was made more powerful, the gearbox improved and the size slightly increased in order to help Americans to be able to get into it.
The interior has also changed considerable from generation to generation, with something a lot more conventional than the more characterful affair from the first car. You do get a whiff off the Smart's Mercedes connections through the quality feel of the switchgear and the parts of the dashboard you come into contact with.
With the dashboard a more sensible shape you get an even greater feeling of space within the diminutive car's cabin, which deceives you into thinking it is much larger than it really is. Both driver and passenger get plenty of room and the increase in the car's dimensions means that there's a very useful extra 70 litres of room in the boot too.
The automatic gearbox has been overhauled so that it actually works - that was by far the most infuriating flaw of the first-generation car - and the suspension has been changed so that the Fortwo feels much more settled on the move. The jerky gearbox and fidgety ride were a vicious combination.
There are a number of engines available in various states of tune - the diesel is gasping but unbelievably frugal and the petrol engines all feel quite perky on the move. Even the basic car will return 60mpg though. Sadly the Smart doesn't make much sense these days, but there will still be some fashionistas out there who will have to have it.