Photo Galleries
10 of the most luxurious airline amenity kits When it comes to in-flight pampering, the amenity kits offered by these 10 airlines are the ultimate in luxury More
7 startups that want to improve your mental health From a text therapy platform to apps that push you reminders to breathe, these self-care startups offer help on a daily basis or in times of need. More
5 radical technologies that will change how you get to work From Uber's flying cars to the Hyperloop, these are some of the neatest transportation concepts in the works today. More
Special Offer
6 of 7
BACK NEXT
Weak warranty
Weak warranty
When writing about cars, I don't often mention the warranty. That's because most car warranties these days are pretty much the same. Not this time.

Almost all new cars today offer a 3-year or 36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty that covers every part of the vehicle. But Smart only offers a 2-year, 24,000-mile bumper-to-bumper plan.

Most cars also offer an extended powertrain warranty that covers the engine and transmission - the parts that make the car go and that would cost a lot to fix if something went wrong. Powertrain warranties are typically at least 5 years long - sometimes as long as 10 years - or 60,000 to 100,000 miles.

The Smart ForTwo's extended powertrain warrant isn't. Again, everything's covered for 2 years or 24,000 miles.

"The Smart experience is built around customization," explained a marketing representative. Additional coverage, tailored to your personal needs, can be purchased from the dealer, she said.

In other words, you can buy an extended warranty just like with any other car.

A two-year standard warranty isn't much of a show of confidence by Smart in its own product, one with no record of reliability on American roads. I take it as a bad sign and advise waiting to buy one until Consumer Reports and J.D. Power have weighed in with some early vehicle quality surveys.

NEXT: Bottom line

Last updated February 25 2008: 3:54 PM ET

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.