Smart Car Problems

Don't. Just don't.

Yaris.

Chris

That bad?

Care to elaborate?

As you have discovered, they eat engines. Replacement is expensive enough to become uneconomic in many cases. You certainly wouldn't want to do one on your drive.

They have other common problems also, on top of which from my POV they are dreadful to drive.

There are so many better city cars around now, you would have to ask 'why bother?'.

Chris

What exactly do they do to them? Just wear them out, or specific issues?

The wife wont notice that bit :)

No wonder they are cheaper than a bucket of shit.

until you fix them.

I'm a sucker for oddball cars, but i get the message here :)

Just in case you go for it, this guy:

Clicking the 'Why rebuild' link will give you info on why they fail.

Chris

Yes, but Nige wrote off a Triumph Sprint recently.

Horrid.

AIUI, there's a failure-prone body ECU that doesn't just do the niceties like CL, but also mundane things like indicators.

What in that class isn't?

Chris

En el artículo , Chris Whelan escribió:

Fiat 500 Abarth?

Not sure that would fit the OP's needs for 'a run around for the wife'!

Chris

If the OP was looking for a Smart, it is probable that an automatic was in mind. The later Yaris only has automated synchro box which all reports suggest is pretty awful. Similarly Aygo/C1/107.

Otherwise it seems CVT is the most common fitment in small cars but for a torque converter, as far as I know, the i10/new Picanto are the only candidates. My mother has just swapped a 307 for an i10 and IMO the i10 has smoother shifts.

Difficult to define the class. The Yaris actually is quite a large car, not in the same class as the Smart. The alternatives seem to be the Toyota IQ, Hyundai i10, Fiat 500. None of them seems quite as horrid as the Yaris.

Interesting, quite a few have come up at auctions - with low miles never investigated why!

In the context of this thread, I was thinking of the OP's statement 'run around for the wife'.

Indeed, although the original is significantly smaller than the latest version, and might match the sort of price that an early Smart is worth.

Yep, from a keen driver's perspective. As something that's likely to be trouble-free to own and cheap to run, I would still consider a Yaris.

Only one owner's experience of course, but my SIL bought a Yaris when they were first released, and has had nothing since. She changes them every 3 or 4 years, so not a test of longevity, but she does fairly high annual mileages,and not one of them has ever had a single defect of any kind.

Chris

ITYM 'Abarth 500', as Abarth are listed as the manufacturer of the car.

(Similar to Alpina and BMW)

The IQ is a horrible little thing, too.

I'd probably suggest Panda 100HP.