Smart ForFour Passion and 3rd owner problems

Hello, I am Smart ForFour

The Smart Forfour is a supermini car produced by the Smart division of the German manufactuer Daimler AG, between April 2004 and June 2006 and available only in Europe. Unlike the other models of the marque, the Forfour was a more conventional five-door hatchback with a relatively roomy interior, available as a four/five-seater.
[source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Forfour, 3.5.2014 18:59]

Lets talk about a bit first about my needs and how my old car was

Okay, because I have owned Smart ForFour for 5 months now and I have hopefully found out what things were broken and what is in superb condition. But lets talk first a bit first about my old car

My old car was Nissan Primera P12 2.2 Tdi Sport deck 5D 2005 which I bought from my parents as my first car. Well quite nice car other wise but too big, tax was too high and turn radius was gigantic. It had almost every factory option but in Finland those don't matter. Most of the cars here are sold as we say "karvalakki malli" meaning minimum amount of factory options. Well I started a search for my new car with following criteria

• Consumes less fuel than my old one (5.8l/100km average)
• Is smaller in size (therefore turns in smaller radius)
• Feels good to drive and is comfortable
• Doesn't look too bad
• 2000€ exchange payment
• 4 people inside and has enough room to move stuff around when needed
• Rear wheel drive if possible

Well then I asked around and they said Smart ForTwo is rear wheel drive but holds only 2 people. Then someone remembered Smart has also four seat version but it is front wheel drive. Well started to look around it, saw tests of it and so on and went to drive one. Felt absolutely marvelous. Almost perfect.

Then to find best deal around Finland. Around Christmas I finally found 1.3 liter version with good kilometers and price. How horrible wrong I was. I found after deal following things:

• Extra 50 tkm on total trip
• No another key (old owner had lost it)
• No service done in 50tkm
• Broken rear wiper arm (saw that at park but thought it was just removed because I saw arm inside but it is broken)
• All tires in very bad condition (though it was expected) but other wheels had missing parts: missing center cap and bore reducer spigot missing also these weels are slightly bent (based on my ass feel) and they have pretty a lot balancing weights
• Almost not any factory extras. Just automatic air conditioning and rubber mats. (there are over 10 pages of factory extras, well this was expected for Finnish car)
• Handbrake cables in very bad condition
• two speakers broken (blown)
• Rusty brakes

So I think I personally paid at least 500€ too much for the car. 300€ for key and 200€ for missing service.

Now what were good things in this car?

• No useless features == less maintenance / broken parts
• Almost no rust on body. Only rust I found is behind trunk roof pillar which I fix later in this summer.
• Engine sounds good despite lack of maintenance records
• All things were in car work! Radio works, air conditioning works, wipers, 2 speakers that work sound good, rear seat folding system works, very clean and no smell of chemicals == not cleaned chemically == no barfs on seats (no traces)
• Damn fun to drive
• Transforms from 4-5 people car to mini van! You can probably can put a fridge in the car

So now I have driven it for 8tkm already and totally love it. I just hope nothing big breaks that cause me to do expensive repair.

So in other words the car is just perfect?

Yes and no. Sometimes it feels it doesn't need more power but sometimes it does that it needs a turbo or something. But again turbos might be from very reliable to very very cranky things so I am avoiding those for just purely "Smart" driving meaning low driving costs (fuel, repairs, taxes etc).

Another fault for car is the very expensive tire choice. The standard tire size is 195/50 15" which is not so common size for summer but it is still being made. In other hand then when winter comes and it starts snowing you don't get 195/50 snow tires labeled "nordic compound" which are a must here so you need a little bigger 195/55 which are 30-50% more expensive than next one step bigger size but they are too big for '44'. More about this in other blog post.