• Surprising amount of passenger space
• Less than impressive amount of boot space
• It’s dead easy to park, though

How much space is there?

Rather a lot. Smart says there’s as much space in a #1 as there is in a Mercedes E-Class – and they’re probably not far off. It’s a little narrower than the saloon, but there’s still loads of space up front for a tall driver to get comfortable. There’s lots of adjustment in the seat and steering column, while the wide centre console ensures there’s enough elbow room between the front occupants.

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Space in the rear is equally impressive. We’ve tested the Smart #1 alongside a Jeep Avenger and a Kia Niro EV – and the Smart was considerably more spacious in the back than either of these rivals. It has a completely flat floor which means there’s plenty of foot space and, with its bench slid as far back as possible, there’s ample knee room, even with a tall driver ahead.

Boot space and storage

The Smart’s excellent cabin space is balanced out by its decidedly average boot. With the bench in its rearmost position, you get 323 litres of space. The Premium models are slightly less practical, sacrificing 10 litres of space to the Beats audio system’s subwoofer.

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To put that into perspective, that’s less than an ID.3 or Born and far below the Megane E-Tech’s 440-litre boot. If you’ve got a big baby buggy to cart around, we’d recommend trying it in your local Smart showroom before committing. At least there’s plenty of useful cubbies in the cabin including an air-conditioned storage bin between the front seats.

Is it easy to park?

Yes. The Smart #1 is basically a wheeled snow globe, which means visibility is good. Its side windows are huge and its rear screen isn’t like a letterbox, which is more than can be said of style-led competitors such as the Jeep Avenger and the Peugeot e-2008.

If you need a little more support when parking, the Smart #1 comes with a 360-degree camera as standard. We reckon it’s one of the sharpest camera systems in its class. The resolution is excellent, which means you can easily pick out the white lines of a car park – even at night.

Safety

• Great Euro NCAP score
• Loads of safety technology…
• … some of which is irritating

Euro NCAP awarded the Smart #1 a maximum five-star safety score – and it achieved an impressive 96 percent rating in the adult occupant protection category. Child occupant protection is also good at 89 percent, meaning the #1 is a very safe vehicle in which to transport your family.

All versions come with seven airbags and a suite of driver assistance systems. This includes adaptive cruise control with a stop and go system for traffic jams, steering assistance on the motorway and lane change assistance. It certainly takes some of the stress out of driving, although you do have to give the steering some input now and then.

If you’d rather keep control, there’s a useful blind spot monitoring system and a traffic sign recognition system that, for the most part, works reliably. However, it can get confused by smart motorway gantries. It sometimes mistakes a 3 for an 8 and recommends an 80mph speed limit on the instrument screen.

Overall, Smart’s suite of safety equipment is easy to get along with, with the exception of one piece of technology. The driver attention monitor is incredibly irritating. It uses a little camera mounted above the steering wheel to monitor your face and, if you take your eyes off the road¸ the car will bong at you and request that you pay greater attention.

The trouble with this system is that almost everything is controlled by the car’s infotainment system, which forces you to take your eyes off the road. The tech will also bong incessantly if you’re wearing sunglasses because it can’t track your eyes. What’s worse is that, even if you switch the tech off, the car re-engages it every time you start it.

Watch the Smart #1 crash test video