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Smart Forfour variants
Total price
Monthly payment
Figures are based on a 20% deposit

Finance representative example (PCP)

Total cash price £18,699. Borrowing £14,959 with a £3,740 deposit at a representative APR of 12.9%.

49 monthly payments
£280.75
Fixed interest rate
12.9%
Total amount payable
£24,333.02
Cost of credit
£5,634.02
Optional final payment
£7,117.00
Annual mileage limit
6000 miles

Smart Forfour buying guide

What Smart Forfour trim levels are there?

In early 2021, Smart swapped from offering three trim levels for the Forfour – Passion, Pulse and Prime – to just two called Premium and Exclusive.

Entry-level Passion cars include alloy wheels and automatic emergency braking. Pulse trim adds larger alloy wheels and folding rear seats, while Prime gains heated front seats.

You can add packs to these trims. This includes Advanced pack with rear parking sensors and an infotainment system with DAB radio and, from around 2019 onwards, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Premium pack adds to this a panoramic glass roof and a reversing camera, while Exclusive pack also includes auto lights and wipers, LED headlights and ambient interior lighting.

For newer Forfour models, the entry-level trim is now called Premium and includes alloy wheels, a panoramic glass roof, climate control, a reversing camera, automatic emergency braking, heated front and rear seats, and an infotainment system with DAB radio, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Exclusive is the top-level trim for newer Forfours and adds LED headlights, automatic lights and wipers, ambient lighting and leather upholstery.

What's the Smart Forfour's interior and technology like?

Inside, the Forfour is refreshingly quirky, with a neatly styled dashboard and instrument panel. There aren’t lots of storage cubbies available but there are at least spots to store a smartphone up front. Top-spec models get luxuries such as leather upholstery and ambient lighting, which helps the Forfour feel more premium than its price tag suggests.

Pre-2021 cars with the Advanced pack and all newer Forfours include an infotainment system. It has all the functions you’d expect, including Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from mid-2019 onwards, but could be a little quicker to respond to inputs.

Practicality isn’t the Forfour’s strongest suit so buyers that regularly need to carry more than one extra passenger or bulky cargo might want to consider a larger car. However, if you can fit it into your life, the Forfour is able to handle most urban driving jobs with ease, and has a useable boot if you fold the rear seats down.

Smart Forfour engine range explained

Smart Forfour EQ 60kW 17kWh

All Forfours are now powered by electricity only. You get a 60kW (80hp) electric motor powering the rear wheels and, while the 12.7-second 0-62mph time doesn’t sound very impressive, it’s pleasingly nippy when accelerating from around town speeds. The top speed is 81mph, so motorway drivers that spend all day in the outside lane might prefer something with more punch. Range is 78 miles which, by any measure, isn’t a vast distance but is likely to be more than enough to cover for most urban drivers’ daily mileage.

Smart Forfour FAQs

The Forfour comes in only one version – a five-door, four-seater hatchback. It may be tiny, but it’s actually the bigger brother of the Fortwo two-seater.

If you’re considering a Forfour, you might also want to take a look at city hatches including the Volkswagen Up, Toyota Aygo, Kia Picanto, Fiat 500, Hyundai i10 or Skoda Citigo.

The Smart Forfour is small – really small. It’s a little less than 3.5 metres long, which makes it shorter than almost all its key rivals, with the exception of the Toyota Aygo. That means the Smart will fit in almost any parking space, made easier by the ultra-tight turning circle and optional rear parking sensors.

There’s a tradeoff, however, for the Smart’s easy-to-park dimensions in the form of a small interior. It’s strictly a four seater without the fifth centre-rear seat you’ll find in the Kia Picanto or Hyundai i10. There’s not much leg or elbow room for the two rear-seat passengers so adults will only be comfortable back here on shorter journeys. Boot space is tight, but you can fold the rear seats down to give you a useable load area with room for a couple of large suitcases.

There’s just one engine option for the Forfour, and it’s not actually an engine – it’s an electric motor and battery pack that’s ideal for urban use.

The Smart Forfour is a relatively affordable car so isn't decked out in optional extra equipment that could fail down the line. As a result, part of the car's dependability can be traced back to how simple it is comparatively speaking. This is especially true for EV versions, which have fewer moving parts than engine-driven Forfours, making them more robust as a result.

Despite this, problems can arise the older a car gets. You can add an extended warranty to your Forfour that kicks in once the manufacturer's coverage runs out. This will protect you from unexpected repair costs caused by electrical or mechanical failures.

The Forfour is one of the very smallest cars you can buy so, if you live in a congested city centre and often find yourself battling for tiny parking spaces, this could be your ideal urban companion. Plus, unlike the two-seat Fortwo, the Forfour actually has a second row of seats for a third and fourth passenger, with side doors for easy access.

EV versions are smooth and easy to drive and, while they might not have the longest range among small plug-in cars, they're ideally suited to nipping through city centres. Plus, the modest battery size means they recharge quickly, even if you can only find relatively slow chargers.

Back when the first Smart car – the Fortwo – launched, it was built in Hambach, France by Mercedes. The first Forfour model, however, actually shared most of its parts with the mid-2000s Mitsubishi Colt.

The current Forfour is built alongside the Renault Twingo in Slovenia using mostly the same parts and engines. This operation is a joint venture between Renault and Mercedes.

Future Smart cars will be built by Geely – the Chinese company that owns Volvo and Polestar – since it bought the brand outright from Mercedes.