Smart 1 vs Aston Martin Vantage

What's the difference?

It’s easy to get lost in marketing hype, but — based on first impressions — the Smart #1 does what it says on the tin. This is a Chinese-built SUV that feels more premium than most, and one which is priced to tempt you from one of the German big three. The warranty isn’t good enough, though, and the multimedia screen can be infuriating, but it drives very nicely, especially on suburban roads.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

It’s either a comfortable race car or a bonkers grand tourer, but it’s that best-of-both worlds positioning that makes this new Vantage so appealing. Think of it as like a supercar for proper grown-ups, and one you don’t need to grunt and groan to extract yourself from.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

There is an impossibility pretty model in Smart’s new line-up, but the #1 ain’t it. While the #3 — which has also just launched — is a sleek-looking, coupe-style SUV, the #1 is a top-heavy small SUV that doesn’t shine from every angle.

Front-on, or from a front three-quarter angle, the #1 definitely works, with the brand setting out to remove unnecessary fussiness from the design, leaving smooth and rounded bodywork in its place.

There are no body creases or weird angles here, instead it’s a smooth, fluid-like design that flows from the front LED lights bar to the smooth shoulder lines to the matching light treatment at the rear. 

But it’s at the rear where, for mine, the design begins to fall over. From that angle, the #1 looks skinny and top-heavy, especially when wearing the red hat of the Brabus model.

Still, eye of the beholder and all that.

Inside, though, the #1 kicks all sorts of goals, presenting as a properly premium-feeling EV space that’s swimming with technology and lovely cabin materials.

I particularly love the letterbox-style screen that replaces the traditional dashboard. It’s not distracting or overbearing like some twin-screen set-ups, but clearly shows you the key driving stuff you need when you’re on the road.

Side note, though, the massive central screen is super clear and lightning fast, but as usual you need to spend some (a lot) of time with it to figure out where all the functions are hiding, with most of the car’s key controls hidden within its labyrinth.

And side note two, the background graphics look like they were designed by a cordial-addled child, it is busy, cartoonish and out of keeping with the calm, grown-up nature of the #1’s cabin.

Ok, so the first thing you notice is this massive grille, which I now know is exactly 38 per cent bigger than before. That’s mostly for cooling, sucking in great lung-fulls of air – and any stray pets unlucky enough to wander into its path, I’d imagine — to keep that engine humming.

That air has to go somewhere, and the new bonnet vents complete the engine-cooling.picture.

Then there are 21-inch alloys are wrapped in performance rubber, and I love the swollen haunches at the rear tyres, giving the Vantage a mean and menacing vibe. At the rear, a very new and very loud quad-exhaust completes the picture.

In the cabin you'll find nothing in the way of hand-me-down Mercedes switchgear, which makes for change. This is all Aston Martin, and actually it all feels really nice.

The twin-screen setup looks tech-savvy and premium, the materials are all nicer than you'd find in something more track-obsessed, and even the optional race seats managed to be both snug-fitting and comfortable.

The Smart #1 measures just under 4.3m long, just over 1.8m in width and around 1.6m in height, and it rides on a 2.75m wheelbase. And the perk of the Smart’s EV powertrain, the brand says, is Mercedes-Benz E-Class levels of space in the back seat, despite the #1’s diminutive footprint.

It’s a big claim, and while I didn’t break out the tape measure I can say the backseat feels plenty generous, and because the rear pew slides forwards or backwards by 15cm, you can choose whether you want more legroom or more luggage space.

Speaking of which, pop the auto-opening boot (by hitting the ‘a’ in the ‘Smart’ lettering, which I couldn’t figure out without help) and you’ll find 323 litres of space with the back seat as far back as it goes, growing to 411 litres with it pushed all the way forward. There’s also a 15-litre frunk.

Smart says the #1 weighs 1800kg, adding it will tow 1600kg — but I’m sure you can imagine the impact a heavy load will have on your driving range.

You’ll be shocked to hear that Aston Martin didn’t dedicate too much of its limited track time to extolling the practicality perks of its new Vantage, mostly because there simply aren’t that many of them.

But the most obvious one, I think, is that most of the people in the market for a $400k-plus vehicle in this category are likely to be, well, of a certain vintage, and it’s for these people that the more traditional layout of the Vantage will no doubt appeal.

See, the engine is up front, and the doors open in the usual fashion, making getting in and out of the cabin easy, and free of the human-origami antics sometimes required to climb in and out of a scissor-door supercar.

But there have been practical improvements made to performance here, too. There’s 30 per cent more power, 15 per cent more torque, new cooling, better aerodynamics, retuned suspension and anti-roll tech, new brake booster tuning, improvements to the ESP system, more body stiffness. And it goes on.

Let’s start with the big number, and that is the $410,000 you’ll need to park the new Vantage on your driveway. Interestingly, I was also on the launch of the previous Vantage, back in 2018, and that one was just under $300k. That’s quite the jump.

Anyway, for that spend you get a whole bunch of improved performance, obviously, but also quite a bit in terms of cabin tech and comfort. This isn’t a stripped-back supercar, and that’s a good thing, I reckon.

It starts outside with 21-inch five-spoke forged wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport rubber, matrix LED headlights and LED tail-lights, while in the cabin, there’s a 10.25-inch central screen with Apple CarPlay, a second 10.25-inch screen in front of the driver, an 11-speaker stereo, and wireless phone charging.

There are two drivetrains on offer here - one shared across the Pro+ and Premium, and another delivering the prodigious power of the #1 Brabus.

The first shared option is a single rear motor that delivers 200kW and 343Nm, which is enough to knock off the sprint to 100km/h in 6.7 seconds. Top speed for all models is listed as 180km/h.

The Brabus, though, adds a motor at the front axle, giving it AWD, which ups the outputs to a punchy 315kW and 543Nm, dropping the sprint to 100km/h to a very fast-feeling 3.9 seconds.

It’s a single-speed EV transmission in each, which means smooth, constant power delivery with no traditional ‘steps’, and all get 'Eco', 'Normal' and 'Sport' drive modes, though the only thing they impact is the accelerator response.

You can add weight to the steering, but that’s a separate item accessed elsewhere in the screen’s sub-menus.

The 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is still borrowed from Mercedes-AMG, but this is the new-generation unit, making 489kW and 800Nm. It gets modified cylinder heads and bigger turbos, helping generate the extra grunt.

That’s fed through an eight-speed ZF automatic and channeled through to the rear tyres. The race to 100km/h? That 3.5 seconds. Meanwhile, the flying top speed is around 325km/h.

All Smart #1 models share the same 66kWh battery, but how far you can travel between charges comes down to the trim you choose, with the WLTP driving range either 400km, 420km or 440km. The Brabus, of course, covers the least ground between charges, owing to its dual-motor set-up and amped up power outputs. 

When it comes time to plug in, all models are equipped with 150kW DC fast-charging capability, and when plugged into said charger, you can expect to go from zero to 80 per cent charged in less than 30 minutes. 

There’s also 22kW AC charging on board in the Premium and Brabus models, which means you can use three-phase power, but plugged into a regular 7.4kWh home wallbox should see you go from zero to 80 per cent charged in 7.5 hours, which means overnight charging should work a treat.

There’s the official figure, which is 12.1L/100km on the combined cycle, and then there’s the real-world figure. It’s not really fare to judge fuel use when you’ve just stepped off a racetrack, but rest assured it was a large number, which is to be expected really.

The Aston’s 73-litre fuel tank prefers 98RON fuel, too.

The #1 and its sister car, the #3, might share powertrains and batteries, but they are designed to drive very differently. The #3 is the sporty one (always code for a firmer ride), while the #1 is supposed to be softer, more comfortable and more city-friendly.

That’s the theory, at least. In practice, I have no idea. My time behind the wheel of the #1 was limited to its most fire-breathing model — the Brabus, which also scores its own suspension components — and soft is not a word that comes to mind once you’re strapped in behind its bright red seatbelt.

It begins with those bonkers power outputs, 315kW and 543Nm, which deliver genuine push-you-back-in-your-seat acceleration every time you stand on the go pedal.

Better still (well, I think so, at least), is that activating its sportiest 'Brabus' mode also unlocks a deep Abarth-style burbling soundtrack that rises and falls with your inputs.

But like most performance EVs, you can also dial the drive experience right back. In its softer drive modes the #1 Brabus feels calm and comfortable and not overly reactive, which makes sense, given the only thing the Brabus mode changes is accelerator sensitivity.

The result, though, is a car that you can tootle around in silently when you want to but hides a nuclear weapon under your right foot when you want to unleash that part of its personality. 

Downsides? It’s got plenty of point-and-shoot power, but in the few corners we managed to find in it, it didn’t quite live up to the all-out-performance badge. There’s a bit too much movement in the body — a symptom of its near-2.0-tonne weight — and it doesn’t feel entirely engaging.

A couple of important caveats, though. We didn’t get long behind the wheel of the #1, and the dull-as-dishwater prescribed drive program revealed little about its true performance potential. So, we’ll have to wait until the model is properly through the CarsGuide garage to give you a deeper dive on this one.

It's funny, I never felt like the old Vantage wanted for power, but now I suddenly wonder how we ever made do with it. This feels like the engine and the outputs that should have always been, such is the way it suits the nature of Aston’s most performance-focused model.

Everything is about the driver here. From the suspension tune to the gearbox mapping and the increase in stiffness everywhere. You’re supposed to feel like the main character, and you do.

Aston Martin have come under fire in the past for delivering cars that are a treat to look at, but didn't quite deliver the drive experience to match the appearance, and it's something the brand says it is actively rectifying with with the Vantage, and the Astons that will follow it.

The mission, it says, is to be spoken of in the same sentence as the Italian supercar makers when it comes to delivering driver engagement, and this 2024 Vantage is a considerable leap in that direction.

It is, above all else, fun. From the multi-stage ESP settings that you can pair to your bravery, to the retuned and raucous exhaust and the blistering acceleration.

More than that, it feels light and lithe on a racetrack, and super communicative, the front wheels talking through your wrists, and the back tyres through, well, the bit of you that hits the bottom half of the racing seat...

It is plenty fun, right across the park. The power is immense, but somehow it doesn't feel terrifying, partly because you're so dialled-in to the drive experience, and partly because the carbon brakes fitted to our test car were able to slow the Vantage so savagely it's as though we'd dropped anchor out the back window.

The Vantage does have a split personality, though, and it's one that really shows itself once you venture out onto the road. It's quiet, comfortable even, at suburban speeds, leaning more into grand tourer than bonkers track-day special.

The only downside being that, should you sit behind the wheel long enough, it becomes easy to forget you're driving something "super" at all. Well, until your right foot finds its way back to the accelerator, that is...

You’ll never see a Vantage crash-tested by ANCAP, but it does arrive with a solid safety package.

There are front and side airbags, plus a heap of active safety stuff like AEB, forward collision warning, adaptive cruise, lane keep assist, lane departure warning, lane change assist with centring and front and rear cross-traffic alert.

Warranty is a definite soft spot, with LSH Auto offering five years or 150,000km, whichever comes first. For reference, other Chinese newcomers include Chery (seven years) BYD (six years) and GWM (seven years), while MG has just shifted to a 10-year warranty.

Still, service intervals are 12 months/20,000km, and you should be able to take your Smart to any LSH Auto Mercedes dealership (in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney) or either of the Smart dealerships in Sydney or Brisbane.

Service cost for the first four years averages $611 per workshop visit for the Pro+ and Premium (worth noting the fourth service is a big one) and $780 for the Brabus. Not particularly small numbers.

Aston Martins in Australia are covered by a three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, but you can extend that for one or two years, at a price.  You’ll be visiting the service centre annually, too.