Smart Car anyone?

[forevermore]

I am looking for a car to take dd to childminder then onto station (45 min a day in total) and a little run around when DH has car for work at weekend.

strapped for cash

thinking smart car....is it true that this is exempt from tax, congestion charging (i live in London) and cheap fuel/insurance???

anyone test driven one, got one, thinking of getting one?

My boss has one of these & loves it! can't help you with the tax & congestion charge but I know he finds it very economical - If I didn't have 2 kids I'd have one!

Doubt it is exempt from congestion. IIRC that only applies to mixed-fuel / hybrid / LPG or electric cars...

hula is a big fan.

\link{http://www.goingreen.co.uk/index.html?PageID=G-WizDepth\this} is excempt, dont htink smart car is.

meant to add that is a electric version of smart car.

meant to add that is a electric version of smart car.

We have one! Deffo NOT exempt from road tax, don't know about congestion charge (don't live near London).

We love ours. Super easy to park and remarkably spacious inside.

Ours is one of the early ones (2001) and they only came in left hand drive at the time, which is fine. The only gripe I have with it is the gear box. It has a switchable tiptronic or fully automatic transmission. I really dislike the tiptronic mode but don't use the fully automatic mode until the engine warms up or it really over-revs before it finally decides to change up a gear (does any of that make sense?).

Also the gear box is not very smooth in either mode (although I believe this has been sorted out on all the newer ones). So, if you were thinking about buying a second hand one a test drive would be advisable to see if it is smooth or not.

Sorry, rambled on a bit there.

I had a little Smart when they first came out and loved it. Still had to pay tax though. Petrol is only chepaer as fuel tank is quo=ite small (bigger than it used to be though) and it is pretty economical. I used to drive over 80 miles round trip to and from work on motorway and it was great. It was fab to drive and great fun. Lovely little car.

I currently have a Smart ForFout Passion and love it :)

Teaandcake - sounds like you have one similar to our little Smart Passion. I didn't get on with the triptronic much, prefering the automatic mode. Dh was the oppoosite though for some reason.

Hellooo Hub!

Hi, we have just got rid of my husband's smart after having it for 3 years.

It is great for parking, and excellent allround visibility, and high driving position.

Make sure you test drive it in both gear mode and auto, I couldn't get on with the gear mode (its just up and down and I didn't drive it enough for it to become second nature for me), but beware the auto mode, especially when trying to pull away at junctions/roundabouts after slowing, many a time I have put my foot down and nothing has happened for what seems like a number of seconds, whilst the gearbox chooses its gear.

Also check car seat compatibility if you need one. We were considering a car seat, couldn't find one compatible and our local dealer didn't bother replying to our messages for information on car seats!

Think the tax thing applies to just one model... from What Car..

Owners of cars emitting 100g/km of carbon dioxide or less won't pay any road tax road tax each year, although this will only beneft 400 drivers in the UK that either own a Honda Insight hybrid or imported diesel Smart Fourtwo. No new model currently on sale has low enough emissions to qualify for this zero tax rating - Toyota's Prius comes closest at 104g/km.

I've got a ForFour Passion. The insurance is quite cheap but the fuel consumption isn't as good as I expected.