- Review Centre
- Motoring
- Car Reviews
- City Cars
- Smart Fortwo Passion
- mvirard's review
Picture courtesy of Flamin Nora.
| Performance | 7.5/10  |
|---|---|
| Practicality | 8/10 |
| Reliability | 7.4/10 |
| Value for Money | 5.1/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 6.7/10 |
| Overall Rating | 7/10  |
By mvirard
on 20th Nov 2004
| Year Manufactured | 2005 |
|---|---|
| Length of ownership | 1 Month |
| Performance | 7/10 |
| Practicality | 10/10 |
| Reliability | 9/10 |
| Value for money | 9/10 |
| Overall value | 9/10 |
 mvirard's recommendation | |
Excellent visibility
Extraordinary attention to safety features (it even beats my Volvo 850!)
Good seats albeit a bit firm
Excellent interior design with good fit and finish
Just powerful enough to get along with the traffic.
Incredibly easy to park.
Small but very convenient trunk.
Easy entry and exit.
1.Noise, noise, noise: the diesel engine remains a bit too noisy. Some padding could do wonders...
2.City driving gas milage: far from the advertised "average" milage of 3.4 l/km. So far I do not think we ever did better than 7 l/km. Still we have not measured it on long highway trips so it could be a consequence of pure city driving and break-in period.
3.The lack of power steering is really a sore point if your upper torso muscles are less than average. Women in particular may find this a problem.
Unless you already own a flying saucer, you will be unprepared for the type of attention the MCC Smart Car is generating. It is simply incredible: it is impossible to go downtown and not be interrogated about the car. Children fall in love with it immediatelly and smile at us for no other reason that this car looks like a toy (which it is not).
Parking paradise: my wife and I exchange tips about Montreal orphan "half parking spaces". By orphan I mean forgotten by the Montreal Parkmeter Authority. (perhaps we will publish a catalogue one day). Usable half-spaces occur when the length of a sidewalk is not an exact multiple of the standard length for a "standard car" parking space (about 6 meters). Since the car is only 2.5m it is possible to park into 2.70 m spots, often just before or after a back alley outlet or a private driveway. So far, no ticket!
In fact the savings in downtown parking exceed by far the savings on gaz (at 15CAD for 3h of parking, it is easy to see why).
Essentially it boils down to one statement: you can use it like a standard car and yet park it like a motorbike. For a car-saturated downtown citizen, it is an unbeatable combination!
mvirard's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
tontonjung on 16th Apr 2008