I really like this site and I think is the best place where I can express my experience with my Smart Fortwo passion 2009 in its first 7 months and 7500 kmts so far.
I am extremely pleased with it, it is what I expect of it and a little more, however it does have some idiosyncrasies, not necessary defects that I want to share, although I expect is noting new to the forum.
The first and most strange thing is the steering wheel, too heavy on a stop and too vague on the road, how Mercedes could have missed this one, they should have bough the one from the Seat Ibiza, to me is the best electric steering wheel there is, it could have been the perfect car, a pity.
I have heard complains about the transmission, I think this is fine for me, what I believe is wrong, in my case I drive 96 % of the time in auto mode, why the dam thing doesn't remember that, every time I start it is in manual, by the way, I have a bad feeling about the durability of the stick, will not be good if I do manual all the time besides it is to stiff and yes I don't have the steering paddles.
A thing I did notice is that when you select reverse, the engine will not go more than 2000 rpm regardless, I had to go like 100 meters in reverse and it took me an eternity, I wonder what will happen if I have to stress it in reverse, like climbing a ramp, probably it will not make it.
The ESP is to sensitive to click in, when braking and hitting a bump it make the triangle on the dash to blink and I can feel it entering in action, the same happen when I am parking the car in the garage and the floor is wet, let it be all for our protection, isn't it.
The radio goes blank, off and on when starting the car, I have to turn it off then on strange?. Why the sun visor doesn't turn, it is really annoying drive with the sun on one side and having no possibility of turning it, I wonder if in other markets to mine, the sun visor does turn.
Finally, on my no likes list, the engine gets so much dust for being in the back and fully encapsulated, of course to clean it, is a nightmare there is no space for do it.
Nevertheless, of all I have said, it is a fully enjoyable car, that I forgive all those small nauseas, as soon as I started and listen to the small turbo to spool up. Enjoy it and thanks to all the contributors of the forum.
Replies to This Discussion
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Hi Jose,
Interesting that you obtained a turbo passion in Mexico. I have the turbo pulse, in Australia. Major differences are wider wheels and tyres on the pulse; paddle shifters came standard; I did not opt for the electric steering.
Manual steering is great. Very stable at speed; resists side winds and bumpy roads... as long as I relax the grip on the wheel. It is quite sensitive with no dead centre slack; very slight movements will twitch the smart. Hands off the wheel and it is rock steady. A tight grip on the wheel and body movement is transmitted to the wheel; then the smart seems too sensitive.
I have the Auto option (manual is standard). I don't use it often. It is quite hopeless with the turbo from a standing start - the engine redlines in first gear far too readily and the transmission won't auto shift smoothly. Using the paddle shifters is much quicker and smoother than the Auto program. The stick shift is very stiff and clunky. Paddle shifters are very light and quick to use.
The smart is deliberately limited in speed in reverse gear. It's a safety concept... most of us don't have to reverse far, so it's not normally an issue.
I hardly ever see the green ESP triangle light up... that's possibly due to the fatter tyres and a higher programmed slide G force (don't know.. just guessing).
Yes.. the sun visors are cheap, nasty, and almost useless. I use a USA smart cap, very kindly sent by a fellow on this site. It is by far the best smart sun visor!
At 7,500 kms, your car is possibly not quite broken in. Mine really started to get zippy at 10,000 km... then I had a slew of cold starting problems that had me and the dealer baffled. They found a faulty crankshaft positioning sensor and replaced it... but the dead cold starting problems continued. I finally found that pressing and holding the brake pedal down solved the problem. Weird. The problem went away and stayed away.
Happy motoring.
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Hello Ian
Interesting how the marketing guys play with us, the customers, they know better what we should get, ja ja.
Anyway, my smart has almost all I wished save for one thing, side airbags, it is not even an option, actually our options are coupe, convertible and colors, well not true, there is the option for the MHD.
I don´t mind about the steering paddles, I have other cars with them I get them to use only on vacation trips through the mountains, but on the day to day conmuter trips, never, I have learned that if you have the option for manual or auto, I ended always in auto.
In the case of the smart, the auto mode, to me, is not that bad, yes, when launching it will jerk in 1st gear, but the rest of the gears are good enough, it does the ups and downs in a fashion I enjoy, when doing manually, I hate the arrow on the display telling me what to do, what is its problem, is manual or auto, why it has to tell me what to do in manual.
Regarding fuel economy, ohh boy that is another interesting subject, I will comment in other ocasion with my data to back up my words, I have read figures I dream off only.
Drive safelly...JAS
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"finally found that pressing and holding the brake pedal down solved the problem. Weird. The problem went away and stayed away."
I've noticed this too but I believe it is a safety interlock in the transmission. I suspect that sometimes when you stop the engine, the gearbox doesn't have time to change into neutral before the electrics are switched off. The next time you come to start the engine it refuses to do so because the gearbox is still in gear even though the lever is in neutral. The same interlock stops you starting the car whilst it is in reverse. Pressing the brake pedal triggers the gearbox to shift into neutral. The engineers probably decided that this was safest because if the car was parked in gear on a slope, it could start to move unexpectedly if it automatically shifted to neutral when starting, hence the need to press the brake.
A similar interlock operates to prevent the transmission selecting 1st without the brakes applied just in case the car is rolling backwards.
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