I'm thinking of buying a Smart car. It seems about 60 good to 40 bad reviews. If you buy a second hand one, you don't know how it's been looked after, and it's only got a small engine, so I think it's best to avoid high mileage ones.
The thing is, most people who want one are looking for a cheap little car, and don't want to spend thousands of pounds buying one, and it sounds like when they have a problem, you've got to change the engine.
It's all luck of the draw; looking at it, leasing could be a good option with the warranty to fall back on at £129 a month.
3 years later, hand it back and do it all again, no worries. Anybody agree?
I looked at Smart. Very poor warranty, not safe AT ALL (contrary to ad hype) because even a Civic will squash it like a bug, and OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive to boot. I'd opt for a safer, more reliable and MUCH larger Ford or GM with a decent warranty (which you will never need anyway, as they are very reliable). You can get a basic Ford Fusion (one of the highest rated cars in the world) and have enough money left over to buy gas for 5 years. My Fusion was $3000 cheaper than a Smart and gets 34mpg highway consistently. It can also handle collisions with cars larger than a watermelon without disintegrating.
To the comment made on the 17th July 2010.
I'm also considering buying a new smart on finance. It seems to be the only option I have, although I do need to do some research. For example if you're on finance, are you covered for all of these faults that have been mentioned?
The salesman at the dealership told me about the issues with the engines of the models over 3 years old, and has 'assured' me that this has been rectified in the new models.
So I think with smart, the best option (albeit expensive) is to buy new.
Nat.
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