I quite like the thinking behind the Smart car. Maybe that’s because I hail from the UK and can still vividly recall my experiences there with parking. Drive a large vehicle in London and you’ll not only pay more in road taxes for the privilege, but you’ll also enjoy plenty of leg muscle exercise as there’s never a parking space available within half a mile of where you actually want to go.

I guess the same could be said for a number of Canadian cities, but as I now live in the leafy suburbs, I wondered whether the Smart choice would still hold its appeal for me.

Well, as I collected the vehicle from within Toronto, I quickly found out that size certainly does matter in some cases. The nimble little machine from Mercedes-Benz enabled yours truly to scoot up the inside lane and turn at traffic lights before my friends in their honking great SUV’s could fish out their tape measures to see if there was enough room for them to do the same. Oh yes, the superb all-round vision and small footprint of the little Smart convertible makes it so easy to judge the available lane space that you literally zip through downtown traffic.

Of course, that’s exactly what the Smart car was designed to do, but what if like me, you don’t live in the heart of downtown? Can a Smart car still work in the suburbs?

Well, I know a man who obviously believes it so because he purchased two of them (One for himself, and one for his better-half), and he lives just up the road from me. Why? Well, there’s fuel economy for one. The new 999cc three cylinder gasoline motor doesn’t so much drink fuel as gently sips it (5.9L/100kms City – 4.8L/100kms Hwy).

Another reason is that both vehicles can be parked in one side of his double-car garage leaving the other side clear for the quintessential suburban mode of transport, the ride-on lawnmower. Mind you, I’m thinking that this could be substituted quite nicely for a Harley-Davidson or a drop-dead-gorgeous classic roadster, but maybe that’s just me and my perverted mind. Save a little fuel during the week in order to burn it out in a hot weekend special.

On the other hand, would anyone need a classic roadster when the Smart car is available in convertible form? Well, the Brabus Edition soft-top roadster which I tested certainly makes the car more fun, especially as its fully-electrical hood operates in next to no time. Grab every bit of sunshine on offer is my motto, and with the odd pause in this year’s rather wet summer, I found myself hitting that button rather frequently.

Quite a few changes have been made to the Smart line-up since I last got behind the wheel of one. For a start, as many of you probably already know, the old diesel motor has been replaced with a gasoline power-plant. It is much smoother and quieter than the diesel unit, although I must admit that I’ll miss that wonderful little oil burner. I once drove one all over the countryside for a whole week and spent just $9 in fuel. Honestly, it would have cost me more in shoe leather if I’d walked. Not that I do that very often!

The gas power plant certainly offers noticeably more performance, and also, slightly improves the upper gear change times on the automatic transmission (3^rd to 4^th and 4^th to 5^th) (The 2009 model now sports a 5-speed auto box).

However, as much as it pains me to say this, little has been done to speed up the lower gear change times, so going from 1^st to 2^nd, or 2^nd to 3^rd still tends to feel like an eternity. This has always been my one bug with the Smart car. Now possibly the fault lies with me for not knowing how to drive the vehicle properly because according to the new sales brochure from Mercedes-Benz, and I quote, “The 5-speed automatic with manual shift mode provides for quick gear shifting, virtually free of any delays” (Honestly, I had to read that several times to make sure that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me). 

In my opinion, either the company needs to come around to my way of thinking and offer a decent manual gearbox as an option in this vehicle, or they should at least consider firing the man who wrote that piece before he gets them in trouble under the trade descriptions act.