As many of you know, the smart car brand was started after two different ideas from two very different entities had a baby. One of those entities was none other than Mercedes-Benz,->ke187 who figured that since a Europe-wide study in the late 1980s found most people travel alone while in the city, there were a lot of people occupying extra real estate just to do their daily errands. The Germans' solution was to create a hobbit of a car that can carry two persons and their luggage and be extremely nimble in a crowded city.

The other entity was none other than Swiss watch maker Swatch, who had an idea of a highly customizable city car that would be closer to a trendy fashion statement -- kind of like their watches at the time. After first going for a collaboration with Volkswagen, where then newly elected CEO Ferdinand Piëch dismissed the idea because the brand was planing the Lupo, Swatch finally got into an agreement with Daimler->ke3653 Benz to create the smart brand from scratch.

Long story short, in the years that passed since the brand was thought out and its first product reached the market, Daimler bought Swatch's shares and the company became a fully-owned subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz. Some of the ideas from Swatch, such as changeable plastic body panels and a colorful interior, were kept over time, but the real fully customizable smart fortwo only arrived with the second generation of the model.

It was 2009 when Brabus,->ke368 smart's official tuning house, implemented the so-called "tailor made" program, leaving fortwo owners of the time to choose between myriads of exterior and interior color combinations and materials. In other words, customers could spec their car like it was a four-wheeled suit from Savile Row. With the third-generation fortwo now reaching European dealerships, Brabus is preparing a new "Tailor Made" program for its customers, with two concepts of what can be achieved having been presented at the 2014 edition of the Paris Motor Show.->ke227

Click past the jump to read more about the Smart ForTwo Brabus Tailor Made.

2015 Smart ForTwo Brabus Tailor Made

Specifications
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  • Model: 2015 Smart ForTwo Brabus Tailor Made
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Pros
Cons

Exterior

One of the best features about Brabus' "Tailor Made" program is that it gives you the freedom to go wherever you want in terms of customization. Sure, most manufacturers offer flashy online configurators->ke4840 that give you the illusion of creating an individual vehicle suited to your own tastes and needs, but ultimately that is not entirely true for mass-produced cars, even ones with exchangeable body panels like the smart fortwo.

What Brabus has done, using its expertize as a car customization specialist, was to offer a similar buying experience to those of Rolls Royce or Bentley, or even British tailors if you want.Those are big words for such a small car but not for the specialists in Bottrop, who can offer you a choice of thousands of exterior color combinations for the body panels, including more alternatives for the color of the soft-top and distinct light-alloy wheels. Two examples of what can be achieved when buying a smart fortwo "Tailor Made" were brought to the 2014 edition of the Paris Motor Show.

Interior

Although the third-generation smart fortwo has evolved immensely compared to the previous model in terms of interior quality, the Brabus "Tailor Made" concept takes it to a whole new level. Completely customized leather for the seats, steering wheel and parts of the dashboard will be available, with customers being able to achieve a specific look for their cars' interiors. That sounds like a lot of work for what in essence is a means of city transportation, but that didn't stop Aston Martin with its Toyota iQ-based Cygnet a few years ago.

Nappa or Brabus mastik leather, Alcantara, checkered carbon-fiber inserts and other similarly-expensive add-ons can engulf most of the interior, including leather-wrapped buttons or A/C vents. This can turn a smart fortwo from having just a funky and cheerful interior to a downright luxury cocoon for two. The possibilities of customization are almost endless.

Drivetrain

We are still a few months away from when the new smart fortwo will get a Brabus sports variant, meaning that the "Tailor Made" program doesn't include any performance add-ons for the time being. This will change in 2015, but if you only want the "all show, no go" bit you can have it, as the options will not be depending on each other.

As a refresher, in the beginning the current smart fortwo lineup will consist of two engines and three power outputs: a naturally-aspirated 1-liter three-cylinder with either 60 or 71 horsepower and a turbocharged 0.9-liter three-cylinder with 90 hp. The Brabus variant is expected to offer around 120 horsepower.

Prices

Even though the new Brabus "Tailor Made" program hasn't officially started, looking back at the second-generation smart fortwo we can speculate that it will certainly not come cheap to fully-customize your tiny car. Since the options are technically almost endless, there is no official starting (or ending) price, as it all depends on what you want and how much you would like to add on the car. In Europe, the new fortwo starts at a little over EUR10,000 ($12,200), but with the Brabus "Tailor Made" you can go quite a bit higher than that. To give you an idea, I personally know from a Brabus PR that its most expensive customized fortwo Brabus from the previous generation was sold for approximately EUR70,000 ($85,000) to a German customer. To be fair, the car also included a lot of performance-adding options, but you get the idea.

Competition

Aston Martin Cygnet

Between 2011 and 2013. the Toyota iQ-based Aston Martin Cygnet was arguably the only direct competitor for the second-gen smart fortwo with Brabus "Tailor Made" goodies, but after dreadful sales its production was eventually canceled. As a basic smart fortwo also struggles to find an opponent, you can probably guess that a "Tailor Made" one is practically alone in its ridiculously small niche it created.

Conclusion

There are many things hat can be said about the tiny smart fortwo – whether you are talking about any of its generations - but "cultivated" or "luxurious" are probably among the least used words. Now in its third generation, the lilliputian city vehicle has had to go through a lot to arrive where it is. Especially in America, where some still see it as the laughing stock of the car world while others are drawn to its cute look and unrivaled parking prowess, the smart fortwo still has to battle a lot of stereotypes concerning its status as a real car and not an over-sized Barbie toy.

From some points of view, the Brabus "Tailor Made" program is trying to change those stereotypes, but that comes at a price unfortunately. Actually, scratch that, it comes at a huge price, so it chances at succeeding are slim to say the least. Just like Aston Martin only managed to sell under 200 units of the ridiculous Cygnet in two years instead of the projected 4,000 units per year, a fully customized smart fortwo doesn't really stand a chance to populate the roads in large numbers.

This doesn't mean that its existence should bother anyone. Quite on the contrary; I wish more car makers would be so bold as to introduce such a wide array of customization options, as individuality in the automotive world has been pretty much killed by the "Just In Time" production strategy.