I noticed a new car on my neighbours drive the other day. Walking past this evening we had a chat...it’s replaced his wife’s very prone to problems Mini convertible. I didn’t recognise the ‘badge’ but apparently it’s a FourTwo, tiny turbo engine with 90 horses, 3 years old, 2 seater, split tailgate, full length non opening pano roof in ‘Prime’ spec. Silver and black paintwork.
Quite funky inside, ideal small city car ( although we live in the sticks) and knowing zilch about them I read an online review. Which was very favourable.
Hope to go for a spin in it soon...it was delivered on a trailer, he took it for a short test drive, checked it over, paid by BACS. Simples.
It will be interesting to see real world mpg
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I have the non-turbo auto version of similar vintage in the same colours (though they might be reversed).
Bought on impulse for SWMBO, and as a plaything for me.
It is an absolute hoot as a runabout (and just about acceptable for longer distances, I've done 150 mile runs in it), and has most of the "toys" you might want.
Where parking might be an issue it is car of first choice.
Its party trick is to do a 180 degree turn in our (non-to-wide) road. (Smallest turning circle of any "major" production car).
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Andy’s mum has one of those...I can’t remember if it’s one or two years old, but it’s going in for a service this week. I asked how many miles she’d done...it’s up to 1,300 now!! So I’d ask her what the real world fuel economy is for you, but I suspect (a) she doesn’t know and (b) it’s not representative!
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Neighbour's daughter has the 4 seater one as her first car. Says it's a doddle to park. RWD, rear engined, turbo and German...now there's a thought... ;-)
But you might struggle to get your wheelbarrow in it LL !
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Mon 8 Jun 20 at 04:56
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We looked at one with a fabric sunroof for my wife. But the boot space might have just held two shopping bags and the rear headroom was so restricted that even at 5'7" I hit my head on the roof when sat in the back. My boys would have been totally unable to sit there.
I remember trying to open the front boot, given the car is rear engined.... I assumed there was more space there like the Fiat 850.
But there is no front boot. The bonnet only opens for major service items by the garage.
Last edited by: Netsur on Mon 8 Jun 20 at 09:04
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>> It will be interesting to see real world mpg
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....on the non-turbo auto, somewhere around 53mpg (with not much variance for method of driving).
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Not for me . The semi auto box is dire . At least the ForFour is available with a regular manual shift . Same as Renault Twingo . The only thing smart about these is the badge . Cheap to buy , expensive to fix .
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>> Not for me . The semi auto box is dire . At least the ForFour
>> is available with a regular manual shift . Same as Renault Twingo.
I think you're confusing things.
The pre-2014 Smarts had an automated manual gearbox, the reviews for which were, ahem, "mixed".
The post-2014, different-shaped cars (which will be the one the OP has mentioned) which share underpinnings with the Twingo, have an option of either a manual or a fully-automatic (DCT) box in both the two-seat and four-seat versions. The DCT box isn't the best I've used, but is very acceptable and just the job for urban driving (manual override changing is also easy and smooth).
>>The only thing smart about these is the badge . Cheap to buy , expensive to fix
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I have to say, I disagree with the former, and so far haven't had great issues (nearly four years in) with the latter.
The car I have was somewhat north of £14K list! (It does have all the toys, leather, aircon, auto, satnav, heated seats, sunroof, etc. but that is still an awful lot of money.) It wouldn't have been anywhere near on the radar, except for the fact that I bought a main dealer pre-reg, three-month old car with 9 miles on the clock at a discount of just under £5K.
That's still quite a lot of money for a small two-seater, but the Smart Fourtwo is in a niche market of one (Toyota IQ was the only thing that ever really got close). The Fourfour, however, is quirky in mainstream market, is expensive, doesn't have the same cachet, and IMO just doesn't "look right". The available competition makes it a relatively expensive and unattractive buy.
In my ownership, I have had one sticky door-handle replaced under warranty. Apart from that, no issues.
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>>...no issues...
Aye well, apart from nearly crashing it a couple of times if I recall?
;-)
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...those occasions were other people's issues.....
;-)
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Smart Fortwo - Smart Smart - tyrednemotional
