Buying a used Smart car

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Permalink Reply by SATO on July 27, 2010 at 9:44pm

451 or 450? what year? how many miles? we cannot help if we have nothing to base it on.. Are you in Canada? US?

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Permalink Reply by Al Cooper on July 27, 2010 at 9:50pm

I live in Canada . I am looking at a 2006 Smart with a diesel engine with 58000km.Thanks for the reply

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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell on July 28, 2010 at 2:49am

Expect electric/electronic problems. Also be aware that you won't have any warranty left on 2008 and some 2009 models.
This is a real problem if the previous owner didn't have the Transmission software updated to the 2009 version (no charge), which greatly reduces the 1-2 shift time.

I have a 2008 model that I took in to Smart for a look-over right after purchase. They treated the car to a new battery, the 2009 transmission software and a new user's manual (all at no charge). I made two more trips to have this car repaired due to computer problems. This week, the fuel gauge seems to have gotten stuck, or else I'm getting about 100 mpg!

Check the Smart User Groups on this site and others to read up on the mechanical problems.

No diesels were sent to the USA, but there are Canadian user groups that should be able to give you some statistics on diesel reliability in the 450 model.

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Permalink Reply by Al Cooper on July 28, 2010 at 1:04pm

I will take a closer look at these problems and updates. Thanks for the information

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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell on July 28, 2010 at 4:47pm

Al -

Update to my reply 13 hours ago: I'm NOT getting over 100mpg and the gas gauge is NOT stuck any more. Maybe I overfilled the tank.

The gauge dropped by two more squares today (out of 8 squares total). When the gauge dropped to 5/8, the odometer read 112.8 miles. Assuming that each square represents one gallon (U.S.), then I got 37.5 mpg so far.

Hope this helps.

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