SMART CARS.

[robbie2flippers]

Has anyone first hand knowledge of these great looking little buzzers? They never seem to stop long enough for me to ask questions. Looking on eBay I see they come as manual, semi-auto and automatic. How does the semi-auto work? LHD or RHD, any problems? How about distance driving, say a journey of 50 miles and back? May be my next car in 2007! Bob D.

[Jean]

Hi Bob, Make contact with Robin Spalding our Scooter correspondent, he had one of the very early Smart cars and used it up and down the motorway when visiting me many a time.

[bubblenuts]

I love my smart and ive had it for 6 years now, its a left hand drive as thats all that was available when I bought it. Ive only had one problem with it which was a duff starter motor when it was still under warrantee, it got replaced and ive never had any other trouble at all. Motorway driving is fine, I travel 40 miles to work and back daily and rip past other cars. Ive clocked up 120,000 kms. I recently thought about replacing it but when i came to look at other compact cars they didnt have the roomy-ness inside and I was left feeling that they didnt compare, Im 6ft tall and you sit so far back from the windscreen being just a 2 seater you cannot touch it unlike many small cars and there is far more legroom than so many other makes. As for the boot space Its large enough for any families weekly shop, and Ive carried all manner of things in it, Ive even done car boot sales from it as the pic will prove and I can get my mountain bike in there with the front wheel and saddle removed with the quick release gear[

[marcus]

I drove one of these a few months ago, and found it great, lively, fun and comfortable. I only drove around a few blocks and have no idea how they are on motorways. Apparently the engine does rev a bit at m/way speed but otherwise fine. I know from TV that they are immensely strong. All good, but I have to say that I drove a Bride and her Dad to Church, then Bride and Groom to reception in my Trojan, and that would not be at all possible in a Smart 2 seater! I think thet hold their value too.

[Neil Hoskins]

The lady wife & I run a LHD Smart as well as a Ligier Ambra and a Toyota Yaris Verso for carrying loads of stuff and/or people.  The Smart is very different from the Ligier by being both much heavier and much higher-tech.  I would personally put the Smart in the same category as an (old) Mini rather than a bubblecar.  The Smart is tremendous fun to drive but extremely quirky, being largely drive-by-wire.  Basically you tell the computer what you want to do and the computer calculates whether or not that's a good idea then does it for you.  Ours has both clutchless manual and fully automatic gears, which you change at the flick of a switch.  The fully automatic mode is pretty sluggish and laborious, without a proper kick-down, but apparently the later models are much better in fully auto mode.  Lower-spec models apparently only have the clutchless manual.  Personally I think a CVT drive would be a good idea, and I'm hoping the forthcoming 2007 model will have that as an option.  There's not as much space in the boot as there is in my Ligier, but there's acres of space for stuff on the sill in front of you, as long as it's a dark colour and doesn't reflect off the windscreen.  The engine is an absolute gem: a perfectly-balanced triple with tubo-charger.  It's extremely peaky and you really do need the six gears.  There's abs, traction control, and sensors all over the place to tell the computer what the car is doing.  Best of all, compared to my Ligier, there's an absolute wealth of information all over the Internet telling you how to do various tasks, and even entire "Pimp my Smart"-type websites.