A friend of mine had been driving a 2005 Mercedes SUV, and it got written off -- hit by a large truck & trailer in a parking lot (driver failed to account for trailer swing behind the axles when turning and it raked the entire side of the Merc so hard it busted the front wheel & suspension).
So he and his wife went from this:
To this:
This is the .8L diesel model that Canada got, but the States did not (unless you got a grey market one). They switched to a gas engine when it was intro'd in the U.S.
Specs:
- 2005 with 90k km on it (~50k miles)
- 799 cc 3-cylinder turbo diesel
- 40 hp / 74 lb-ft @ 1800 rpm
- curb weight 740 kg / 1631 lbs
- automated manual 5 (6?) speed transmission, single clutch
- Length 2500 mm (98.4 in.) / Width 1537 mm (60.5 in.)
- power opening soft top, manually removable A-to-B pillar roof segments
Fuel economy ratings, NRCAN retroactively adjusted/updated in 2015:
- City: 5.7 L/100 km (41 mpg US)
- Highway: 4.7 L/100 km (51 mpg US)
- Combined: 5.2 L/100 km (45 mpg US)
Driving impressions:
I've wanted to try one of these since they came out, but never got around to it (no dealer in my little city). I once contacted some local members from a Smart forum and started arranging something, but it never happened.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised.
Probably because the "professional" reviews had set me up with pretty low expectations. They harped on:
- "terrible" automated manual transmission -- by far the most often mentioned trait
- underpowered: 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in about 20 seconds
- noisy
- expensive for what you get (the cabrio I drove listed for ~$24k in 2005)
Of course I would have preferred a normal transmission. Most of the complaints are about "herky jerky" gear changes while accelerating. Unintended head-nods. But I didn't think the upshifts were terrible.
The
downshifts, however, were pretty bad
. Mostly because they took way too long. It felt like ~2 seconds from request to delivery. Wow. You'd get used to it and compensate, of course, but c'mon just give me a manual... problem solved. (No 3rd pedal was offered at all.)
That's probably my biggest complaint. Other than that, it was entertaining to pilot the wee thing (probably didn't hurt that the roof was open on a warm-ish, sunny spring day).
It was, of course, pretty slow. Which is saying a lot considering the cars in my ownership history. Not a problem in normal driving, though I didn't do any freeway on-ramps, just city use.
Observed fuel economy
67 mpg US / 3.5 L/100 km -- uncalibrated ScanGauge, 100% sub/urban driving, warm engine start.
I used most of my time with the car to go on the
same route I've used for eco-driving instruction. Not surprisingly, it's one of the best results I've seen. (I'll dig up some comparison numbers...)
Nothing fancy, other than using the transmission's manual mode to short shift & get into the highest possible gear when cruising on the level. I neutral coasted once or twice, but otherwise just relied on deceleration fuel cut-off. I didn't kill the engine at any stop lights.
Would I own one?
Sure! With a caveat.
I came away super impressed by the MPG, and pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as terrible as the reviews suggested. "Manually" operating the transmission kept me entertained.
Price? I think they paid around $4000 for this one. Coincidentally, another acquaintance is selling a coupe version of the same year for ~$3500. (Surprisingly, there are 5 or 6 of these tooling around my city despite no dealership.)
The caveat: I have no idea what parts/repair costs are. I have heard vague rumours that the engines aren't very durable, but haven't investigated to see if it's true.
