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Yeah, the gas version comes in for a lot of criticism over economy but I think the diesel is completely different and could quite easily achieve the figures that Smart claim for it given a more steady drive than mine was.
Performance wasn't great, but wasn't awful either - the diesel is actually the slowest production car on sale in the UK at the moment, 17 seconds to 60mph and 85mph top speed.
However, at city speeds it moves off the line quite nicely, and even on the motorway at 65-70mph it's sitting at a nice 2,500rpm with some power and torque to spare. And that 85mph limiter can't have too much willpower as I managed another 10mph (indicated) on top of that at one point which it then happily carried up a hill, so I reckon if you wanted the performance occasionally it'd have just enough to get by.
My main criticism was of the instrumentation - there's no instant MPG reading, which seems like a bit of an oversight. I'm sure people here would fit a scangauge or whatever but an instant MPG meter is always nice, especially on such an economy-biased car.
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