RE: PH Carpool: Smart Roadster Coupe
Discussion
therealpigdog said:
My old roadster never had leaks, and ran with nothing more than normal servicing for the 6 years that I ran it. YJ53 FYZ - probably the only SRC that worked all the time, every time!
Nope, it wasn't! Mine was superb as well. KP54XOF, speedsilver. It was wonderful. Never leaked, never broke down. Cost peanuts to run. Best car I have ever owned! These are massively underestimated. My brother has bought one on the strength of my recomendation, and I'd have another one in a heart beat!
Dan Trent said:
Fair one , they were my words. But the picture made it too hard to resist!
I was at the same track day, and the fastest Roadsters where catching the slowest Elises, but I'd say it was mainly down to driver skill (or lack of). My own claim to fame was catching and passing a Caterham at a later track day, right before the auto-box* threw a wobbley and refused to select a gear. Great little cars on track, if a little under-powered for the faster tracks. If mine wasn't my daily, I'd be very tempted to strip it right out and get one of the more extreme re-maps put on it.- on the box, I rarely use mine in auto, semi-auto being much better for mpg.
I had a lovely test drive in one of these when they first came out. I was in Stockholm for work, second day there and in a taxi on the way to the office, saw the car through the showroom window about 10 mins from the office. Stopped the taxi, walked in and asked for a drive. They photocopied my licence, gave me the keys and said see you later on...
Buggered about in it for about 2 hours. No map. No tomtom. And no idea of how we got back to the garage. Quite decent of them, two random english guys walk in and ask for a go and they let us! Don't think that would happen here...
On the basis of that, I had one on order but Mercedes made such a balls up of the whole process, I pulled out. Did get a rather nice model one sent to me by marketing though...
Buggered about in it for about 2 hours. No map. No tomtom. And no idea of how we got back to the garage. Quite decent of them, two random english guys walk in and ask for a go and they let us! Don't think that would happen here...
On the basis of that, I had one on order but Mercedes made such a balls up of the whole process, I pulled out. Did get a rather nice model one sent to me by marketing though...
You are right about some of the previous owners now hating them! I used to to have a ForTwo that was great so I got a Brabus Coupe that I thought I had bought carefully; everything that could go wrong did and it leaked like a sieve. I ended up hating it and lost about £4k in the few months that I owned it. Awful, awful, awful car! (IMHO, obviously 
)
)Always wanted to own one of these, in a strange way I like the gearbox, if you learn its quirks (i.e. lack of urgency) it's quite satisfying to be one step ahead of it. I really think there would be a strong market for an updated version.
I ended up buying a Sportka for a bit of added practicality, quite similar in many ways - fun, chuckable, divides opinion, gets 'isn't it a woman's car' type comments.
I ended up buying a Sportka for a bit of added practicality, quite similar in many ways - fun, chuckable, divides opinion, gets 'isn't it a woman's car' type comments.
Root Ginger said:
My main gripe with these is the steering. 3.4 turns lock to lock means the steering is very slow. It's 2.5 in a MINI for example. I disliked it on the regular Smart and hoped that they would have reduced it for a "sporty" model.
The steering is too slow and numb and the gearbox is horrible. Shame really, because otherwise it's a really nice little car. tomv1to said:
Does anyone know how these compare to the Daihatsu Copen?
At a guess I'd say the cute looking Smart is poorly built, unreliable, ponderous gearbox, slow steering, no storage space. Some say the cute looking Copen is pretty much the opposite.
But I'm sure many would disagree.
I remember thinking these would sell really well when I first saw them but then the launch pricing was too strong, I was surprised how high it was but when later I tried to do a business case for something similar it was impossible to get the price under control, especially as the market is in effect quite small for what is for many seen as a sub MX-5 level car (where others just see it as a smaller more nimble car).
So I have a huge amount of time for these, a great experiment but one that I don't think in todays market would wash its face unless it was such a simple rebody of a current car to lower cost that it lost a lot of its enthusiast appeal.
So I have a huge amount of time for these, a great experiment but one that I don't think in todays market would wash its face unless it was such a simple rebody of a current car to lower cost that it lost a lot of its enthusiast appeal.
pits said:
Trust me, if you have ever driven a Smart Roadster towards a roundabout, with an oncoming truck, you will know exactly what I am on about.
It wasn't with regard to the comment itself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p3UEzPj4Sk
Good to see you do a carpool Morribund! It's been a while since we've been out in the dales now... need to change that! Yeah it definatly kept up, although I think the twisty, bumpy stuff slowed the fast guys down and have us a chance!
And, WOOOOO if you look hard enough you can see my puma in the fourth photo down!
And, WOOOOO if you look hard enough you can see my puma in the fourth photo down!
Frimley111R said:
fentuz said:
Yes it will but be prepared for the up'n downs... While the elise is great when it works, it is also annoying when it doesn't...
TBH they are generally very reliable, mostly because they are quite simple cars. threespires said:
tomv1to said:
Does anyone know how these compare to the Daihatsu Copen?
At a guess I'd say the cute looking Smart is poorly built, unreliable, ponderous gearbox, slow steering, no storage space. Some say the cute looking Copen is pretty much the opposite.
But I'm sure many would disagree.
My Smart had plenty of storage, excellent steering, also not a thing when wrong with it.
I have a re-mapped roadster and cannot fault it, easily gets 45 mpg, is extremely cheap for consumables and is fairly quick for what it is - the small size and wastegate chatter add to the full effect and on a recent duel carrigeway blast showed it was more than capable against a Civic Type R (much to his surprise....and mine!)
Mine had under 14k miles when i bought it, one owner and all for the bargain price of £3100. The only problem i've had with it is a suspected slipping clutch which was sorted with an ECU adjustment at MB to reset the solenoid position, got a full service along with that for about £200
A definite choice for a fun, small car on a budget
Mine had under 14k miles when i bought it, one owner and all for the bargain price of £3100. The only problem i've had with it is a suspected slipping clutch which was sorted with an ECU adjustment at MB to reset the solenoid position, got a full service along with that for about £200
A definite choice for a fun, small car on a budget
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