Smart ForFour Brabus

[Tomley79]

So after killing my £500 Yaris T Sport within about 2 weeks of ownership, it was about time to replace it.



Considering i'm 15.5 stone and 6'2", I have a strange attraction to small hatchbacks, which was probably started over 20yrs ago...Mk1 Golf, Mk2 XR2, Mk1 XR2, Pug 1.9 205GTi....and so on.

Anyway, after doing the usual trawl of Gumtree, Auto trader (select price range, then select 0-8s Acceleration ), eBay etc...I noticed that these little Smart ForFours were relatively cheap! i'd never looked at them before, who has!?

A £16.30 train ticket (Cheers Virgin Trains), 5hrs of travelling on Public transport and then a 185mile 4hr drive home....I have a replacement

A few little bits to sort (small crack in the rear bumper, pano roof blinds are sagging, and the wheels have the common 'soft metal' damage)...which is not bad considering it was advertised as "needing TLC", which is also why I managed to get it about £1k cheaper than the average price.

My 2005 ForFour Brabus...



Never driven one before, not even a standard ForFour, plenty of room, quite comfortable...interior is very nice looking. And it's quick, as quick as my old DSG Mk5 Golf Gti...but feels twice as quick because of it's size and firm ride.

Probably just tidy it up, get the Cambelt replaced, service it and enjoy the 5 mile commute to work

[SloppyClock]

Yes mate! Brilliant cars, the fact that this thread has no comments is quite surprisingly in some ways, but in many ways not.

They are so underrated. Owned my 454 for about a year now, its a 3 cyl 1.1 pulse that's been specced to the teeth. Really peppy engine and even with the stock brakes and shocks/springs gives a really engaging drive. Agree with you that the interior is not bad at all; especially with the 4.1 sound system.

Are you on the forfour.co.uk forum? Really great spot for advice etc.

In you ever see a blue pulse with silver tridion bars driving around surrey gimme a wave.

[Jonny_gti]

Nice replacement don't see many of these around never mind the brabus. Just had a look and see it has a 180bhp 1.5 turbo in there so must go pretty well being light! any plans for it?

[ph9]

Nice car.

What happened to the T Sport? I'm currently driving a 1 litre Yaris, and have been thinking about buying a T Sport if one turns up.

[cat with a hat]

I had a look at these recently, was pleasantly surprised they had 180bhp

[Tomley79]

T Sport is currently in bits on my Drive....the Head gasket went, and I only had that car, so just kept topping the water up everyday until it completely went. Car only cost me £500 so was not my time, effort and money to fix it. Picture makes it looks 10x better than it actually was.

Plans for the ForFour, new rear tyres....then purchase of a new Nylon hammer to keep the wheels straight haha. Cambelt, not over due miles but probably way over the safe time frame (8yrs)

Then just tidy it up and drive it

May remap it once I'm confident the engine is good. Ideally I'd like to replace the wheels, but I'm pretty picky and I'm not keen on spending £1k for the right set of shoes on my second car....but who knows, some may come up 2nd hand

Oh...and yes on Forfour.co.uk

[Tomley79]

Oh, there is one annoying issue...

That little square stumpy backend mixed with the wheels being quite wide (225)...



That was after I'd cleaned the number plate, and a bit of a rain wash. Never seen anything so bad after 1 longish journey in the wet, literally couldn't see the number plate or anything else on the back end.

You can see by how bad it was by how clean the rest of the car is

[GregK2]

Hah, the back end getting like that used to drive me mad. I think mudflaps would help.

[SloppyClock]

There's my little beastie. Cracking car although its not turning over after I replace the tranny mount; either due to me busting the starter motor or battery woes.

OP I'd suggest taking a real close look at the roof guttering as I found that it gathers up loads of crud from tree's. Nothing a blast with a hose wont solve but you'd be surprised at how much gunk can get in there.

[Tomley79]

I'll give you a wave if I see you

Yes, noticed the roof gutters are quite big/deep. They are clean though.

[micloi]

Nice little engine. I had a Mitsubishi Colt CZT which had practically the same engine, albeit with a more conservative map. I managed to get a little over 200hp from it and it flew, being so small and light.

[sjtgeray]

Good little purchase...quite fancy one of these myself. The missus has a 1.1 Passion, with the (as said before) Mitsibishi 3 cylinder engine. Had it from 17K miles and now on 81K and it's never missed a beat to be fair to it.
A couple of niggles from me to keep an eye out for
- the forementioned filthy back window/hatch....need some rally style mudflaps
- the swivelling centre air vents have both broken
- the suspension (i assume there is some) is way too hard for what is a family shopper. Makes for go-kart handling but quite how that ever got signed off before production i will never know. If the Brabus is stiffer still, then best get a Denplan contract sorted as your fillings will soon be falling out !
Much nippier than i expected, even in 1.1 form, so yours must be a bit of a beast

[Tomley79]

Yes, there are a few niggles that i've found already.

And...the Brabus Suspension has shorter springs and upgraded shocks, but it's still not as hard as a Civic Type R lol

[GIYess]

Great wee car! Well, my wife had a 1.2 when we got married. Best fun I've ever had driving a car. (Especially when the exhaust fell off) the suspension was practically non existent though and on our roads that's not really great so we sold it.

It took to stalling randomly for a while but seemed to fix itself after I got my hands on it. Could have been all those drives on the rev limiter

[Ste372]

Im currently looking at these to replace my ignis sport. I see it as a more grown up alternative but just as quirky.