The Smart Crossblade Is a Truly Insane Car You Didn't Know Existed

This car definitely winning the “Doug is the type of guy” award this year

To clarify some things with the crossblade. I worked at Smart in Düsseldorf - Germany when the crossblade was on sale. The engine is not tuned by brabus, there was no cooperation between the smart factory and brabus. We dealers did brabus mods at customer request. The 70HP 600cc engine was added to the facelift of the first generation of smart, it debuted in the smart roadster. And the first generation was not called fortwo at that time, that i think started with the second generation because of the forfour. At that time it was called smart-city-coupe. The three smart logos at the bottom of the center console are ports for acessories. there was a big dual purpose cupholder, able to hold big bottles for the lowest port and things like cd-holders for the other ports. The slots in the tailgate-storage were designed to hold the removable braces of the city-cabriolet, that you got right. You forgot to mention the drain holes in the floor and the instrument cluster. The battery does not really limit legroom, the passender seat is further back than the driver seat, so that the shoulders of the two do not collide, so the whole passenger-space is shifted to the rear.

Doug: "THIS IS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD!!!!!" Also Doug: *assigns cool factor score of 6*

We went to the SMART development center in Stuttgart, Germany in, I think, 2001 or 2002. They had quite a few of these zipping around and they saw it as quite a success actually. While there are other cars w/o roof & windscreen (Lotus, Renault, Citroen) this one was very affordable AND reliable. As a marketing guy, I see it mostly as a brand-building tool for the SMART brand and in that role it worked really well. Also, those who OWNED one were totally enthusiastic about the driving experience!

This started its life as a regular first gen smart convertible. It was then shipped to Binz, a company known for building ambulances, to be converted to crossblade version. The "fake" fuel filler cap on the driver side is actually the engine air intake. It was redesigned in later generations as there were incidents with people ripping out the cover and filling it with gasoline.

Got a Crossblade here in Germany. Lots of fun. Fun fact: it has a windshield washer resevoir under the front hood that wasnt removed during the conversion from a smart 450 convertible.

Like many, I was unsure of the Smart when it first came out. But I ended up with one during a part exchange deal and ...TOTALLY LOVED IT! Since then I have owned 2 more including a convertible and a real Brabus version. Let me tell you, these little cars are so underrated, and once you get used to their quirks they are the ultimate low cost joyride. You will leave most things standing at the lights, they cruise wonderfully and trips to the Fuel Station can be as low as once a month. And you'll do all of this with a huge derpy grin on your face! I'm sad Smart have decided to make the newer versions bigger and more practical because what we all need right now is more fun days that don't break the bank.

Doug this made me laugh along with you. I love it too! I tried to convince my SO to get one years ago! Missed opportunities!

That little round "fuel door" on the driver side isn't just for looks, thats actually the air intake for the engine and basically goes directly to the Turbo. All first gen smarts had that, its basically a factory Cold Air Intake. And since quite a number of clueless owners indeed thought that thats a fuel door, and actually tried to put fuel in there and thus damaged the engine (turns out, flooding your turbointake with fuel is a bad idea) the design was changed for the second gen smart to a normal finned intake.

This thing is so silly and looks like it would be a blast to cruise around a beach town with!

Our Smart is a 2001 model still running nice Doug is spot on when he is saying the major drawback is the gear changing time. And I can assure that after 20years under the Greek harsh sun it's plastics are much much better than any Japanese or Korean city car with half that years. It is already a modern classic and will always stay with us as second or third car.

I’ve never smiled so much during one of Doug’s reviews!

I actually drove this a couple of times when I worked at a car rental company. Was great fun, but a disaster on the highway! Had to wear goggles and it was cold as hell

What's more impressive is the crash rating on this: You'd assume it would be ridiculous but in-fact it passed very well and ahead of many vehicles with full body panels and a roof/windscreen

When I was station in Germany in the early 2000’s, a friend of mine rented this vehicle and picked me up, and we had a blast driving it! It was like being in a roller roaster 😂

Aw man, this is great. When i was young i was living next to the Mercedes Benz Facility, were those cars got build. Very rarely i saw one of those Crossblades driving by and i thought this is the coolest thing ever. Would love to drive one of those someday. Although the weather in that area is usually pretty bad, which adds to the crazieness fo the Crossblade.

Doug has driven every kind of hypercar and supercar but I've never seen him this happy when driving a car before! Considering how happy he was I'm surprised he didn't give it a 10 for fun factor

I miss when he would actually explain why he was giving each score the number it got. Can we get that back Doug?

Loved this video!, so much fun to watch 👏

I love your enthusiasm over this little fun car.. I would love to drive it myself.. though I live in a climate where we have harsh cold winters though the summers would be awesome to drive when its not raining.. this is one cool little car