A LOT of people I know that have gotten rid of, or are getting rid of theirs are going from orphan to ordered as stated before. There have been a few that the car just didn't live up to their expectations. Most of the time that seems to be pressure of from friends and relatives telling them how stupid they are because they "need" the ability to carry more than 2 people when 95% of the time the car has only one person in it. Brainwashed.
My problem is that I love in Miami with tons of stop and go traffic. My little Saturn gets great MPG. If I do the speed limit, I can sometimes get up to 35-40 MPG. But then as soon as I drive in the city, the MPG tanks to 15-17 MPG. I am in city traffic over 85% of the time, so I want something that gets mid 30's for MPG. I need to rent a Smart for a week and see how it pans out. Otherwise I was looking at a used 2006+ Prius for around the same price as a fortwo. The thing is, the Smart is SOOOOOOOOO cheap to maintain. I could buy 2 Amsoil EAO12 oil filters and 7 quarts of oil and that will last me up to 2 years or 50,000 miles of driving. (That's all this car will need for 2 years worth of driving.) That's ULTRA CHEAP! And the transmission just takes a few quarts of 75W90 gear lube instead of having to go to some place to spend big money to flush a transmission. (Been there and done that with previous cars and the Amsoil 75W90 lasts up to a whopping 100,000 miles before you have to drain it. ) I do all of my own maintenance, so owning this car will cost me next to nothing to drive it. No car I've ever owned in my life would cost me so little in maintenance to drive. For what it would cost for transmission fluid and a flush for a regular automatic transmission, I could probably have it done on the Smart for 5 to 8 times!!
The Prius is nice and made well, but if any major problems come up, no regular mechanics want to touch it and then I will have to go back to Toyota every single time and take it up the rear when it's out of warranty.
The Smart is so small and easy to work on, that I probably wouldn't mind taking out the transmission myself if I had to change the clutches on my own or something like that. It would be similar to working on a motorcycle engine.
Homeslice, if you go by the actual maintenance schedule you should be doing oil & filter changes every 10,000 miles. If you let the dealer do maintenance you're looking at a $200 to $300 bill at each service. That's comparable to a $60 through $90 oil change every 3,000 on most normal vehicles.
Back on topic, a Smart that was sold recently in my area with low miles was, imho, sold by stupidity. The guy bought an orphan and sold it to get one in red that had exactly the same options as his original Smart. He lost about 4 grand on the switch when he could have had new panels put on for far cheaper. They both had black tridions, same grey interior, etc.
Homeslice, if you go by the actual maintenance schedule you should be doing oil & filter changes every 10,000 miles. If you let the dealer do maintenance you're looking at a $200 to $300 bill at each service. That's comparable to a $60 through $90 oil change every 3,000 on most normal vehicles.
Back on topic, a Smart that was sold recently in my area with low miles was, imho, sold by stupidity. The guy bought an orphan and sold it to get one in red that had exactly the same options as his original Smart. He lost about 4 grand on the switch when he could have had new panels put on for far cheaper. They both had black tridions, same grey interior, etc.
Agreed... that was dumb. Is it that hard to change the panels? I can't wait until somebody does a YouTube video from start to finish on it.
$60-90 an oil change? Where are you getting your oil changes? Mine are $60 for 25,000 miles worth of driving. There's no way I'd ever spend that kind of money for a low 3,000 mile oil drain.
I am dieing to buy one of these cars. I have been obsessed with watching most all of the Smart fortwo's on Youtube. I wish they would show me videos doing modifications such as removing the transmission or maybe other "how-to" videos.
HomeSlice, hello from Felow Miamian. Currently in Raleigh, NC. I too was intrigued with the car and went to the Weston dealer in Feb of last year, and was told of the 10 month wait. I forgot about it, but continued the research, then while at work in the DC area I drove by a dealership, test drove one, and they had a Black 09 Brabus Coupe in stock. DROVE IT OUT of THE LOT!!. Love it. Added DRL, Foglights, Rear 12 volt sockets, Dual horns, rear cover. Just ordered Brabus guages, rear Brabus spoiler, MDC cruise control, etc.. The little car Rocks!!!
See you in Miami when I get back in late June!
Ozzie
HomeSlice, hello from Felow Miamian. Currently in Raleigh, NC. I too was intrigued with the car and went to the Weston dealer in Feb of last year, and was told of the 10 month wait. I forgot about it, but continued the research, then while at work in the DC area I drove by a dealership, test drove one, and they had a Black 09 Brabus Coupe in stock. DROVE IT OUT of THE LOT!!. Love it. Added DRL, Foglights, Rear 12 volt sockets, Dual horns, rear cover. Just ordered Brabus guages, rear Brabus spoiler, MDC cruise control, etc.. The little car Rocks!!!
See you in Miami when I get back in late June!
Ozzie
Sounds awesome! If you make it down here, let me know. I'd like to see it. I've driven by the Weston place, but haven't stopped. I think Weston and the Smart dealer in the Gables are both plenty well stocked with fortwo's. I went to the one in the Gables and they probably had at least 20 Smarts on the lot for sale.
I was just telling my wife that I want to get rent another one for a week. It will be a good year until I have the cash. I want the Brabus and it will take me a long time to save $20,000+ for a new one. I don't want to settle for the Pure. I want the tighter suspension if I can get it and the wider wheels.
Panel change$ are easy and if you have good club support, most likely there is at lea$t one person in the club who may be willing to help do a panel $wap who ha$ the experience.
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