Smart Brabus Tailor Made

19 Apr, 2010 11:22am Jack Rix

Maximum personalisation for the ForTwo... at a mighty price

Verdict

No matter how much you like the look of the Brabus Tailor Made, you’d be mad to spend £21,845 on a two-seat city car. On the plus side it’s well put together, ultra-economical and good looking, but the driving experience is seriously flawed. The demand for car customisation is growing rapidly – just ask MINI and Fiat – so you can’t blame Smart and Brabus for attempting to tap into the market. But for a handful of optional extras, the price tag is impossible to justify.

If you want a city car that stands out, then look no further! Smart has taken the customisation of its FourTwo to the extreme, by offering a luxurious Brabus Tailor Made styling pack across the range.

The idea is that drivers can shower the £11,415 cabrio with extras. These include a bodykit, 15-inch alloys, leather seats and plenty of Brabus badges. This doesn’t come cheap, though. It costs £6,950 in its most basic form, and some of the features on our car aren’t even included.

For example, a colour-coded Tridion safety cell – the part of the bodywork that normally comes in a contrasting colour – costs £2,700. Daytime running lights and ground-illuminating LEDs in the side skirts are a comparative snip at £780. According to Smart, there’s a story behind each of the 18 exterior colours. Ours was finished in Byfleet Blue, which is a nod towards the banking at the historic Brooklands circuit, and also explains the Union Jacks stitched into the headrests.

Strip away the adornments, though, and this £22,000 car loses its sparkle. Instead of the 98bhp turbo engine fitted to the ForTwo Brabus, the Tailor Made version use the standard 71bhp unit.

It has a raspy exhaust note and is willing to rev, but the semi-auto gearbox’s slow responses destroy any driving fun. Take control via the wheel-mounted paddles, and unless you lift off the throttle during shifts, the ForTwo lurches as it finds the next ratio.

It’s a shame, because there’s a lot to like about Smart. It takes a refreshing approach to personal mobility, and this Brabus pack makes it more individual than ever.

Disqus - noscript

Submitted by Bobbybev on Tue, 2010-04-27 04:45.

These things are not cars, they are gimmicks, and I would like to see the crash test figures on them.
I had a photo on my PC showing a crashed smart.
The driver’s legs were in the car and his torso minus some bits was 15ft up the road.
Not a pretty sight.
Sorry; for that money you can still have individuality and have traditional safe, and stylish transport, and there is a lot out there to chose from.

Submitted by adey1972 on Wed, 2010-04-28 16:51.

the smart fortwo scores four stars in the Euro NCap crash tests.

Admittedly these Tailor Made fortwos are horrendeously expensive when you can get something that is a million times better to drive for the same money but that misses the point. Get yourself behind the wheel of normal BRABUS spec car that's reasonably priced at 12 months old, get used to the slighly odd gear change (it's not that bad really!) and have yourself a hoot out on the open road!

smarts are virtually unique, both in construction and design. It's just a shame the recent tie-in with Renault will dialute even more the original smart concept. Original smarties have gone up in value recently and will become rare collectors cars in the future. One of the last truly quirky little cars on the road today...

Submitted by Fuelmiser on Fri, 2010-06-11 20:16.

There are many people out there that have £22,000 to spend on a designer statement which this Brabus will become.

There is no other car for sale prabably in the world that will be built to your exact specification no matter what it may be.

I own a Smart Passion Cdi and was sent a brochure for this very exclusive Brabus.

If you want every wheel can be a different colour or colours and if you can come up with a colour of your dreams that is rainbow with a tinge of pink then Mercedes will match it up for you.

The same goes with the interior, anything you want will be provided.

Yes £22,000 is still a lot of money but if you have this kind of money to spend on a city runaround and want a totally unique car that you are 100% certain nobody will have ever seen before then i suppose it represents value for money.

Imagine the cost if BMW offered the same package on their 3 series.

For a car that will be built from scratch taking prabably many hours longer than a standard Brabus it represents good value.

Put it this way if i was earning a huge sallary that £22,000 was affordable i would have one of these cars and my specification would run riot.

Key specs

* Price: £21,845 (as tested)
* Engine: 1.0-litre 3cyl, 71bhp
* Transmission: Five-speed semi-auto
* 0-62mph: 13.3 seconds
* Top speed: 90mph
* Economy/CO2: 61.4mpg/106g/km
* Equipment: Leather trim, sports steering wheel, illuminated side skirts, 15-inch alloys, sat-nav, iPod connection, electric fabric soft top
* On sale: Now