I bought another smart
 

So after over 5 years of great service and a desire to drive a smart again - my daughter is driving my 5 year old 90,000+ mile one all the time now, with two more drivers to come - I decided to get a new smart.

Well, not really new. It's new to me: a 2006 model smart convertible diesel modified in the BRABUS factory in Germany. This car was leased to a Ferrari dealer in Toronto for 3 years and they kept it in the Ferrari showroom all that time, barely driving it. It has under 350 km on the odometer.

Mercedes-Benz Canada got it back off lease in December and I decided to buy it. Only problem is that I live 4400 km away from Toronto. So my wife and I are flying there next week to pick it up and drive it back through the USA. We will have winter wheels and snow tires on it - the plan is to take I-90/I-94 all the way to Seattle. Maybe one of you will see us on the road!

The car is a diesel of course and the engine is not modified. There were only 4 or 5 of these made for Canada - they're painted all one colour, in the case of my car, all white, they have the BRABUS body kit as well as a leather and Alcantara interior. Of course the car has all the options too.

A friend of mine near Vancouver bought the red version of this same car and it too was at the same Ferrari dealer.....he's having his shipped out west.

Looking forward to getting it!

https://img35.imageshack.us/img35/7646/2851085.jpg

https://img651.imageshack.us/img651/5236/2851084.jpg

And here's a photo of the red one my friend bought.

https://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8959/2875931.jpg

Hey Mike,
Your recent post on a "People Powered" thread told us you weighed in at 225 pounds. I guess you've taken away the argument that the "Smart car is not big enough for me".
I can't look at one without smiling (I won't use the word "cute", promise.) I don't know how common the Smart is in Canada but you're likely to draw some attention (positive, I hope) here in the US.

Good luck and best wishes for a safe and pleasant road trip and with your new car.

I personally weigh around 235-240 (working on it) but I am only 5'7". I test drove one with my wife. I won't say her weight but we are comperable. we actually enjoyed it quite a bit.

the only problem we had. the ONLY problem is "three don't go". we adopted a child last year and now our family is too big. I was actually on the waiting list for about 9 months or so. I got off of the list because of the "3-don't-go" thing.

we have still considered it knowing it's drawbacks. if you have never driven one, take a test drive. it reminded me of when I was 9yrs old in my first go-kart. it is a ball to drive. the interior room isn't that bad at all. I may be biased since my first car was a 3cyl geo metro so space isn't that important to me nor is leg room (short dude)

kudos on the new smart, and the diesel is awesome. won't see that in the states.

So why not get a Smart ForFour?

they don't make it

(not to my knowledge anyway, do you know different? now I'm interested)


***edit****

I saw where it is rumored to be coming back out with the for4 in 2013. I knew they had different models but had dropped all but the for2. didn't know they were coming out with newer ones.

it may be a consideration in the future. thanks

I've been looking at these since I heard about 'em, but why the devil we can't have the diesels in the Deep South is beyond me.

My 70 mile drive is getting expensive, and my festiva project car is giving me fits with that spaghetti bowl carb setup that I don't know how to fix.

So how much does one of these things cost?

Yeah I weigh about 223 right now to be exact and I am 6'3" tall so it's definitely not too small!

Used, the diesels can be cheap (the smart diesels), so they are a prospect for importation provided you can get a title in the USA (Mississippi is easy, so they say). Cost ranges from $6500 to $14,000 CAD depending on model, condition, mileage, options. A decent pulse coup? with air might be had for $8000. We know of about 20 in the USA but no doubt there are more. I refer here to Canadian-sourced diesels.

My white one was a little more than the top of that range mentioned above, but it's a bit unusual. Despite being 3.5 years old, it has full factory extended warranty to the end of October 2012 and 120,000 km (75,000 miles). I don't expect to put more than 60,000 km on in that time.

Thanks for the good wishes on the road trip!

so you CAN import them to the US?????

this is news to me, I thought that emissions would keep them out? I really like the diesels and this is definitely an interesting idea to me.

I was always told that if it isn't available in the states, you couldn't get it.

Even if emisions regulations (not necessarily a bad thing) could be accomodated I believe it would be an expensive endeavor. The cost effectiveness would need to be considered carefully. Also, diesel fuel can be hard to find in many locales. Then there's maintenance, having a unique car will not work in your favor.

Diesel fuel is no problem here, up to and including b100 fuel. My problem is...where do I look?? I haven't seen any on ebay and beyond that, i'm just not sure what to try.

Search on google for "smart cdi for sale Ontario" and you will find about 30 of them.

Any particular sites you recommend or recommend avoiding?? Like you say, there are dozens!

i thought smarts got 42 mpg or so... so wait do they get 59 mpg usually? is that diesel?

the american version gets 40ish. they made a canadian and european version that had a diesel option that gets yea 60ish.

not available in the states but some are importing them. interesting concept

Auto Trader.ca or Auto Catch.com are good sources. There are over 250 for sale right now, with prives between $17 K and $6K.

Well I got it home and it is a FINE car. Thr drive through the northern USA in the depth of winter was great!

Does anyone know of a private sell of one for USD$7500 or less?? I've got to transport it to Mississippi....and drive it till the wheels fall off

Here is a shot of the car now that it's home.https://img818.imageshack.us/img818/8651/smartb.jpg

One more from the side: https://img294.imageshack.us/img294/5718/dsc08409v.jpg

why couldn't you have brought yourself to just buy a prius instead?

Brought myself to buy? Curious syntax!

Hmmm, let me see, a Prius or a convertible with heated seats that gets better FE. I think that is called a "no brainer".

It's doubtful that the Smart fortwo gets better mileage than the Prius. I mean you may be getting better mileage than the Prius' EPA rating but if you applied the same techniques to the smart as you did to the Prius, you may very well be getting MPG in the 80s and 90s, I know I did when I rented a Prius. Only thing I didn't like about the Prius was that it was an automatic and that I only got 60mpg on the freeway despite going 55mph.

I can think of several reasons to buy a Smart...

1. They're just plain cool! (That's my opinion, of course, and we all know about opinions...)
2. There is a convertible Smart available, but no Prius convertible.
3. They only seat 2 people. Easy excuse not to give ride to that annoying friend...
4. They take up little space
5. They are a great example of using only what you need.

Huh? Does your friend have some sort of weird multiple personality disorder where they think they're multiple people and multiple people need multiple seats, so therefore a two seater wouldn't work?

I mean I can agree on the premise of buying a vehicle that uses only what you need but when it's less efficient than a Prius, I just don't see the point in it. To me, that would be like me buying a scooter or motorcycle that gets 50mpg when my passenger car already gets 50mpg..

Some people just prefer one car over another, even if the math isn't quite as good.

there is also the sticker price delta. a prius runs $22,800 with epa of 51/48 where as the smart runs $11,990 for the base but a better comparison is the passion which starts at $13,990 with epa of 33/41.

I can buy a lot of gas for $9k

and they are really fun cars (test drive one and you'll know why)

I guess that's the only thing that I can logically deduce from choosing one over the other.. However if I'm buying a vehicle based upon Price difference, I mind as well just get a used vehicle which would save even more money. The value of a new vehicle to me is quite low which is one of the reasons why I may not ever own a Prius, the used ones hold their value very well (out of my price range) and I simply don't buy new vehicles..

you do also realize that logic has very little to do with preference. many of us prefer certain vehicles over others just because of our likes and dislikes.

we all have made FE sacrifices. if we had not, we would all be driving around on 50-150cc scooters. it is just enough to do the job.

on a side note: if you ever do get the opportunity to test drive a smart, give it a try. it is a truly enjoyable experience. pickup sucks but it turns like a go-kart.

Consider your doubt comprehensively erased.

Toyota Prius: 44.9 US MPG (1066 cars in sample)
https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/overvi...ml?powerunit=2

smart 450 diesel: 56.5 US MPG (845 cars in sample)
https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/overvi...06&powerunit=2

Looks to be priced WAY lower, a mac-dady Toyota Pretentious is almost 30k!
Betters the mileage by a lot, and doesn't look like a retarded jelly bean. :thumbup:

It's just not available in the states. May not be offered new in Canada anymore either. Great if you can get it.

True: the last model year that the diesel was available in Canada was 2006.