Anyone have any experince of these?

Need a car for work,
unflashy
cheap
safe
interesting

will never have to drive it over 20 miles in one journey.

 

I nearly bought one and if I lived in town I can't think of anything else. I test drove a couple of times and could never understand how the 0-60 was only 17 secs, it felt much quicker.

For a two seater there is an amazing amount of room.

A friend rented one in France and said it was even good on the motorway. The only thing he didn't like was that cars felt very close as there's little space between the back of you seat and the tail of the car.

There's a lot of used ones around for under 5 grand so definately a strong candidate.

 

Personally I would (and did) go for a Fiesta diesel.
Incredibly cheap to buy and run but would retain some of your cred. I have only heard rude comments about Smart cars out on the street.
Obviously, the Fiesta is not very interesting, though.

I would hate to see the aftermath of an accident involving a Smart car - I would guess that they're not designed for survivability

 

Believe it or not it did OK in the NCAP (I think). The only comment was that the airbags deploy with more force that normal so risk to short drivers increases. That said can you imagine what I'd look like after being shunted from behind by a 40' artic?? Its a town car mainly though so medium speed impacts are likely and that seems to be what the designers aimed at protecting against.

Tif

 

Tif, looking at the car its hard to believe but I guess they must have met some tight standards to be allowed on the road.
Since seeing Amanda's mum's Mini after being hit at 35mph while parked I can't help thinking crumple zones are an excellent idea. But there can't be much room for crumple in a Smart car.
Any idea how they met the standards ? Is the construction extra stiff ?

 

I'm a big fan of the Smart car - strangely I think it fits quite nicely beside the S2000 as a 'different' car - a break from the norm (as discussed here )

I'd quite happily buy one for city driving, but ... err ... it looks like I've just bought a house this weekend!

Alex.

 

Yep, a very rigid construction so their is not much 'crumpling', that's why the 'bags need to come out so hard to absorb the energy of the passengers in the impact. I'd rather not find out how well it works though!

 

I think that they are quite neat..If I end up ever working in the city I'd definately consider one to get me to the station and back...I seem to remember that you can pickone up for 79 a month..

 

I drove one in Germany for 2 weeks. Initially I was horrified when the hire care company brought it round but my plane had been delayed and they had nothing else.

Surprisingly enough I loved it. Semi-automatic, aircon, turn on a sixpence, park face in and the best bit was I could drive it at 90mph on the autobahn. It was stable and responsive and could happily cruise at that sort of speed all day.

If I had your need, and an S in the garage, I'd get one. They are in right hand drive now which was a problem initially

 

Thanks for the advice everyone. I really am quite taken by these tiny cars. The spec sounds great.


In this current climate of anti speed, cars, fun etc, I cant help thinking blatting through the sequential gearbox whilst still only doing 20 mph is going to be great fun.

My local M-B garage has just started selling them so only has brand new.
I really dont want to end up spending more than 5k

So i'll have to resist the testdrive.

Have to agree with you Shipley would compliment the S2000.