ForTwo Pulse CDi

Economical and cheap to run

I was looking for something economical, the rising cost of fuel was crippling me with a house in need of repair, working 37 miles away from home, and due to living in the centre of town, I needed something easy to park, I looked at the Toyota IQ and the Smart ForTwo, having worked for Toyota many years back, I was quite biased, the Toyota was the one in my eyes, what won it was the now "dirty" diesel, the semi automatic box, large boot space/easy, flat loading area, lack of gimmicks, less to go wrong, I'm a bit of a technophobe, so for me, the less the better, I don't even like electric windows!!!
I carried out my research, the Smart was £100 less to service, had zero road tax, had I bought an automatic IQ it would have cost £30 to tax, though that doesn't sound that much, I was in the process of refurbishing my house as it was much needed, so every penny counted, diesel at that time was around £6.80 a gallon, my house was taking my money as it needed more and more doing to it, I had received a redundancy payout so I had some cash, both companies were offering 0% finance, but it was finally the diesel that won it for me, I bought an ex demonstrator from Mercedes in Bristol, the car was brought down from Stockton on Tees, it had 2800 miles on the clock, it was slightly more expensive than the Toyota, but being semi automatic and diesel, the fact that I had a 74 mile round trip everyday for work, along with my not needing rear seats, the Smart was the clear winner, on September 9th, I picked up my Smart, up until around 13000 miles, the fuel consumption wasn't what I would call impressive, it was on a par with the Citroen BX17 I had owned a few years previous, but one day, it made an almighty popping noise as I was traveling along the M5 at silly o' clock in the morning, then, from there, the fuel consumption improved along with the performance, admittedly, I need to be light with the right foot, but the fuel consumption is very impressive, but if I am heavy on the right foot, I can still achieve over 70mpg and the performance for a little 799cc, 3 cylinder diesel, although not groundbreaking is quite impressive for a small car, it sits on the motorway and keeps up with the traffic confidently.
I took out a service plan with Smart/Mercedes, I pay £20 a month over 2 years for 3 services, (that's a bit of a mouthful), I take the car back to where I bought it, the service I receive is first class, the car gets a full service every 10000 miles, it comes back, fully valeted, I can have a courtesy car at no extra cost, or I can just be nosey, go up the road and go shopping or go to the gym, they normally have the car for around 4 hours, I get a full video report on the cars condition, they are very thorough, they also carry out my MoT's and as I cover so many miles, I want it to be right. At 70000 miles, the DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) clogged up and needed replacement, I have an extended warranty which covered the cost of this, then at 100000 miles, the front engine mount was beginning to perish and the front brakes were wearing close to the limit, so I got those done when I got a service and MoT back in February this year, they were only advisories, but I got them done, so outside of servicing, I've paid £350 for those items to be repaired. The only other outlays have been tyres, the Continental tyres originally supplied, on the front lasted 45000 miles, on the rear, 16000 miles, I tried Michelins on the rear, they lasted 19000 miles, I replaced them all with Bridgestones, I'm still a long way off being worn out on the front, the rears lasted for over 25000 miles, I'm on my fourth set of rear tyres, but as the engine and drive is on the rear, that's not too bad, £200 covers the cost of all four tyres, this week, I spent £32 on a set of front wiper blades, when I arrive at work next, the car will be on 102000 miles, my average fuel consumption is around 80 mpg, it doesn't use oil or coolant between services although they get checked every day, so although the car is the smallest car I've ever owned, it's also the cheapest car I've ever had to run, I often carry a passenger who is over 6 foot tall and built like a brick out house and they fit in with no trouble, the car does everything I want, I get first class service from the dealership, between the dealership and the car itself, I am extremely satisfied.
Would I buy another Smart? Sadly not, the reasons being that the electric car doesn't have the capacity to cover the mileage I cover on a daily basis, the only other option is petrol, having owned and run a diesel vehicle for many years prior to owning my Smart, I have found diesels more robust and more economical, as I cover so many miles, I value the running costs of a diesel, dirty or not, I have no intention of changing my car, I look, but it's too reliable and economical to change.

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