My Smart's an orphan!..Sales end in North America

My Smart's an orphan!..Sales end in North America

Author
Discussion

RDMcG

Original Poster:

19,513 posts

214 months

Tuesday 30th April 2019
quotequote all
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/04/30...

When the Smart was released in Canada ( before the US) in 2004, it made sense to have one in the centre of a dense city. It still does. 15 years later it shows 29,500km - almost all of it in the city for trips of 5-10km.

It has not been cheap to maintain, but on the other had it has sat outside for many Canadian winters, often for weeks at a time. It has had a blown turbo ( 13500km) and both front and rear suspension rebuilds ( the roads are pretty rough). Yet, it soldiers on with its 3 cyl diesel and it is difficult to think of anything specific to replace it.There are faster cars in the garage ( all of them in fact), but I am sorry to see Smart exit the market here. It is surprisingly roomy, powerless with a dreadful transmission, but it does the job of finding parking spaces where nothing else here will do. Dreadful air conditioning, barely adequate heating, but still can't part with the thing...