Practically Classics Forum

did you break your smart car john

The evil little sod broke itself, Rich. It needed every suspension bush replacing, the driver's seat frame had broken, there was a dodgy bearing at the inboard end of the o/s driveshaft, the DeDion tube had started to seize which gave the rear suspension a bizarre sort of twitch - like a P6 with a rusty boot - and the clutch had started dragging rather badly as the release fork was worn so the servo wasn't disengaging fully and some of these parts were placed on order a week before the second year of the warranty expired so the dealer waited and waited then Mercedes UK started ringing and hassling me to cough £18 per month to raise the cover to the original level or pay for the work. This in spite of the Ts & Cs when I'd got the Smart being quite clear about the fact that I had 3 years of warranty out of the box.
So back went the Smart car - rejected as unfit for purpose - and I bought the VW car (MK7 Golf TDI with 7 speed dry DSG transmission) instead. It even has a spare wheel.

But hey, I had Renault 12 estates and a Citroen or three and won't let my fondness for French motors be ruined by one bad dealer experience. I already have an early - with the LHD as the Smart Diesels all were pre-2008 - 2000 model but with coil suspension Smart CDI that I plan to play with. It cost me £800 and has covered 372,000KM, its suspension bushes and seats are still perfect! Moral of this tale is that Smarts are entertaining enough and great fun sideways in the wet but as high mileage daily transport? Look at Fords, VWs, Kias, Hy&drys, Skodas, Nissans, Fiats in fact any bloody thing apart from Smarts built between 2008 and 2012, later ones have totally conventional suspension that actually works and is apparently much more durable but was I going to take a replacement one of those? Leave it out! Like sh*te was I.

JPB wrote:It even has a spare wheel

now that is going too far! just think of all the extra MPGs you could get if you took that out and replaced it with a can of tyre weld

Dammit, Terry you're right! I'll remove that tomorrow and stash it in the spare bedroom.

should have bought an autobox mr2 john you are too young to own a golf....

My dad owns a golf and he is ancient! (54)

rich. wrote:should have bought an autobox mr2 john you are too young to own a golf....

I've had several Golves, the first one would probably be a classic now if it hadn't rotted away as I drove it. It was a white one even though I'm a straight man who doesn't practise barbering.
I would agree that I'm probably too young for some things though, a midlife crisis is one of them, Midlife crises being those episodes where an otherwise perfectly normal person goes and buys a mid-engined two seater in a desperate attempt to relive their youth.

TerryG wrote:My dad owns a golf and he is ancient! (54)

Ancient my arse! He's five and a bit years older than me (48yrs, 11 months). I hope he puts you across his knee for saying such a terrible thing!

me trying to relive my youth.... a list of unreliable bl products & rust... not to mention some really scary girlfriends.....errrr no thanks

At least you can remember it Rich. I'm sure there are others that would struggle to remember that far back...

mach1rob wrote:At least you can remember it Rich. I'm sure there are others that would struggle to remember that far back...

i was traumatised.... think glenn close/bunny boiler type but worse....