Smart ForFour Brabus anyone owned one?

[dannytherev]

As title says has anyone on here owned one? interested in these seems they are quite a rare car to track down thanks in advance

[dannytherev]

J500ANT said:

I had one of the very first BRABUS forfour's in the UK, even before the press launch and now my partner has one of the very last to be registered in 2008. I drove my car quite hard, and I did have some issues with it. I had the steering rack replaced as it was clonking on full lock, and a front strut top mount as it was creaking. I had the car for about 18 months, 24k and lost a shed load of money, due to being an early adopter. Andrew's car has had a few niggly things wrong, the major thing on his was the gear selector going stiff, and the door handles, both covered on the 4yr warranty.

Other than that, it was a great car. Service intervals are confusing, inside the door it says the car needs an oil change every 6000 miles but the dash computer doesn't know about that and gets confused. I ended up doing 6k oil change, 12k service, 18k oil change, 24k service. Lots of cars won't have had those oil changes.

Things that go wrong on them now:
Gearchange gets very heavy - gear selector on top the gearbox needs replacing, not massively costly.
Door handle issues - cables need changing or lubricating.
Wheels - the BRABUS wheels are VERY soft, I never buckled one, but my partner buckled 2 on his. VERY expensive.
Rear shock absorbers can leak for a passtime.
Cambelt change - when I had mine I was told it was every 5yrs/60k

I would suggest you join www.forfour.co.uk for forfour only info, and www.thesmartclub.com for general smart stuff.

Tony

Edited by J500ANT on Friday 14th January 18:58

Cheers for the reply may have found one, we had gearchange and doorhandle issues on the ones in my works (non Brabus models)
bit of a worry about the wheels why are they a staggered fitment on a FWD car?? over a grand for a set without tyres