Smart cars......

Grimreaper666

anyone have one or any experiences of one, thinking of getting one for my Mammy for nipping around town.:)

Mr Benevolent

What's your budget? They're not cheap if you want a good one, secondhand or not.

Grimreaper666

4 to 5k, she's only learning to drive and won't be going far.

Eric Cartman

ill leave my opinions at the door on this one , but considering the normal driver of such a car id get it heavily inspected and only get one with a perfect service history for peace of mind

Grimreaper666

It's literally only for getting her to the local shop, she won't be leaving town in it or not often anyway. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but it's small and automatic and easy for her to get in and out of.

TestTransmission

Eric Cartman wrote: »

ill leave my opinions at the door on this one , but considering the normal driver of such a car id get it heavily inspected and only get one with a perfect service history for peace of mind

If it serves the purpose of the driver I see no issue, pity the budget wasnt higher and get a nice Fiat 500

Grimreaper666

TestTransmission wrote: »

If it serves the purpose of the driver I see no issue, pity the budget wasnt higher and get a nice Fiat 500

She's only learning and the size of it is the big feature here really, the Fiat is even a bit big tbh. Thanks for the replies though.:)

Compton

It HAS to be a brabus!
http://cars.donedeal.ie/for-sale/cars/2077628

Eric Cartman

TestTransmission wrote: »

If it serves the purpose of the driver I see no issue, pity the budget wasnt higher and get a nice Fiat 500

TestTransmission

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

She's only learning and the size of it is the big feature here really, the Fiat is even a bit big tbh. Thanks for the replies though.:)

They see her rollin

Grimreaper666

pkeno wrote: »

Smart cars are a load of dung...end of!!:eek:

We're not looking for performance really just something easy to drive and park and high to get in and out of.

Mr Benevolent

TestTransmission wrote: »

They see her rollin

They laughin'.

OP it's not auto, it's semi auto. You'd really be better buying her an auto Yaris or Jazz.

si_guru

Confab wrote: »

They laughin'.

OP it's not auto, it's semi auto. You'd really be better buying her an auto Yaris or Jazz.

Agreed... the semi auto is horrid, she will hate it.

dr.fuzzenstein

TestTransmission wrote: »

They see her rollin

Lots of Smart bashing on this thread for no good reason I can see.
Had a few of them as rentals and the convertible (same as above) was an absolute hoot!
Smart cars are simply different to normal cars, there's no back seat and there won't be acres of bootspace.
The semi gearbox is not the sharpest, but I always got it to do what I wanted it to do, once had an old Merc with an ultra-lazy auto box and that was miles worse than the Smart box.
Because there are no back seats (an important consideration), the room in them is unreal, I'm 6'3 and couldn't have the seat all the way back because I couldn't reach the pedals, fuel consumption (while I didn't work out the exact figure) is tiny, they are comfy, airy, light and whilst they won't win any traffic light grand prix, they can keep up with traffic, even on the Autobahn, they'd cruise along at 140 km/h all day.
So, while it is important to keep an eye out for the Smarts inherent shortcomings, I believe for the right person they would make a great car.

Alanstrainor

If she is learning to drive, she'd be better off learning in a manual and doing her test in a manual. If she does the test in an auto, she'll get a license that is restricted to an automatic.

dr.fuzzenstein

Alanstrainor wrote: »

If she is learning to drive, she'd be better off learning in a manual and doing her test in a manual. If she does the test in an auto, she'll get a license that is restricted to an automatic.

Good point!

Grimreaper666

Alanstrainor wrote: »

If she is learning to drive, she'd be better off learning in a manual and doing her test in a manual. If she does the test in an auto, she'll get a license that is restricted to an automatic.

It doesn't matter she's in her 70's and just wants to get from A to B.

Owen

I've got one for the last month or so. Mine's a Brabus, with loads done to the little 698cc engine. Was dyno'd in the UK at the tuning house developing nearly 120bhp. The Brabus comes with all the nice toys - leather, bucket seats, aircon, heated seats, 6 speed paddle shift steering wheel, glass roof, body kit, uprated suspension, larger wheels. Mine's got ram air, induction kit, ported & flowed head, remap, larger injectors, janspeed manifold and exhaust. Sounds like a bike, and drives like a bike too - hilarious fun. With the Brabus kit too, she's stable right up to her top speed (Which I won't mention here!).

Spent all of today fitting a boot extension to it which I've had sitting in the workshop for a month. It doubles the boot space allowing me to get all the painting gear in too - so you can have one of these, and make it practical too.

Positives? There's hardly any on the road, parking's a doddle, visibility's great, tax and insurance are cheap, mechanically they're simple. And oddly, in slightly wet weather, it drifts. Which I'm still having a hard time believing, but it does, and it's insane

Negatives - gearbox is a manual with an automatic clutch, takes getting used to, but once you do it's grand. No power steering. Suspension's non existent on the Brabus, but I drove a CDi a few years back and that's much more comfortable. Changing bulbs is a pain in the ass, whole front of the car comes off (Only 10 bolts though). Motorway speeds are noisy. Clutch actuator can get fouled by grime and cause the car to stall, but it's a 2 minute fix with some lubricant and a rag.

TestTransmission

That's mad looking,pretty unique

Mr Benevolent

How much did it cost you PD? I love the Brabus version. 120hp ain't too shabby for a car like that!

Owen

I haven't quite figured it out yet Confab ... car was 3100 Sterling which was a bargain, guy had it incorrectly listed on eBay which meant I was the only bidder. Supposed it was about 4200 cleared including travel, etc. The boot extension was 1000, painting it I would estimate at 400 due to the quantity required to get the fibreglass to come up correctly.

Doing a sound install too, and have done a lot of service work, but I'm not going to classify that stuff as the cost of the car, that's just my stupidity at play.

TestTransmission

PaintDoctor wrote: »

and have done a lot of service work, but I'm not going to classify that stuff as the cost of the car, that's just my stupidity at play.

nah man,thats a given sure