Do You Know? 2001 SMART COUPE

The Smart Fortwo is a rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-seater hatchback city car manufactured and marketed by the Smart division of Daimler AG, introduced in 1998, now in its third generation. Marketed in 46 countries worldwide, Fortwo production had surpassed 1.7 million by early 2015. The Fortwo is noted for its 2.69-metre (8.8 ft) overall length, high H-point seating, offset passenger and driver seats (in the first and second generation, the passenger seat is 15 centimetres further rearward than the driver’s), automated manual transmission (1st and 2nd generation), De Dion tube rear suspension, low CO2 emissions (119 grams per kilometre, North America, 1.0 Liter), two-part rear hatch, interchangeable plastic body panels and prominent steel hemispherical safety-cell, which is marketed as the Tridion cell and is often provided in a contrasting color to the vehicle's body panels. Fortwo models are manufactured at Smartville—a dedicated Daimler assembly plant in Hambach, France—in Coupé (i.e., hatchback) and Cabrio (i.e., convertible) body styles, each in a mono-box configuration. Generations are internally designated as the W450 build series, introduced at the 1998 Paris Motor Show, and the W451 build series, introduced at the 2006 Bologna Motor Show. Smartville underwent a 200 million euro upgrade beginning in mid-2013 for the third generation Fortwo (2014–), internally designated as the C453 build series. The third generation Fortwo made its formal global debut on July 16, 2014 at the Tempodrom in Berlin along with a closely related four-door version, the Smart Forfour, co-developed and sharing the same platform and engines with the third generation Renault Twingo. With the second generation, Smart introduced a version with automatic start-stop, marketed as the MHD, or Micro-Hybrid Drive—offered only in certain markets. A sport model, marketed as the Brabus model, has been available in both generations, and Daimler introduced the Smart electric drive, an all-electric version, in 2007. The Fortwo forms the basis for Daimler's Car2go fleet, the largest car-sharing enterprise worldwide. In 2002, the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) introduced a first generation Fortwo into its permanent collection (the only vehicle to be included into the collection while still in series production), and in 2014 the Fortwo was voted the Best Microcar for the fifth year in a row by readers of the Chinese edition of Auto, Motor und Sport. At the time of its commercial launch, the Smart Fortwo diesel-engined variant, the Cdi, had the world's lowest carbon dioxide emissions for an internal combustion engine, at 88 grams per kilometer rated NEDC cycle. The brand name Smart derives from its early history as a cooperative venture between Swatch and Mercedes: Swatch Mercedes ART. The Fortwo nameplate derives from its two-person seating capacity. Until 2004, the Fortwo had been marketed as the smart City-Coupé.