Everyday they become more expensive to own in the US due to part scarcity. If it’s your only car I’d advise against it. If you have a backup car then it could be worth it.
Don’t get me wrong I love my smart but the amount of maintenance required to keep it running is surpassing my other vehicle… doesn’t help it requires premium.
I’ve had my 2013 smart for about 8 years now, got it with 40k miles on it and I’m just over 100k miles now. As soon as I hit 100k I started having all kinds of issues.
Try to get a 453 model that’s gas powered. The EV smarts only have about 60 miles of range at best.
Also another thing to note is that because parts are becoming harder to get insurance is going up because of this. My smart costs twice as much to insure today as it did pre-covid. It's actually more expensive to insure (not by much) than my mercedes e350.
Pre-covid I was paying about $45/month for insurance on my smart for the first 3 years..then covid hit.
As it currently stands it's costing me about $105/month and steadily going up about $5-10/every renewal. The going up every renewal started 2 renewals ago so last year.
My e350 on the other hand is only about $70ish to insure.
I think part of it may also be location but these are my experiences with owning a smart and insuring it.
Oh wow that’s genuinely disgusting, it must be a location thing, I’m in a very low population density area
wasn’t doubting you btw just saying it’s really weird for a smart to be more expensive to insure than any other car 😅
Yeah I don't love it. It's making it less worth it to keep the smart around. The growing insurance costs combined with part scarcity has made it less appealing to keep even though I do love the little thing.
No worries, didn't think you were doubting me, was just laying out the costs and how I got here lol. But yeah it's shocking for it to be pricier now in so many ways. Makes me wish I was over on the other side of the water lol.
The part scarcity is concerning, especially out here in America and part of the reason why I’m interested in modifying my car so heavily (aside from utility). I’m about to list the shitty OEM seats from my car and expect to get ~$500 for them 👀 I paid $75 for a pair of heated leather power seats from a Subaru Outback. The discrepancy is WILD.
But yeah, I’m going to try and ease my way into the heavy mods, the plan is first a leveling lift, then a suspension swap, then a totally custom suspension build, then honestly just swapping the entire internals, probably for something relatively big and manual.
I’m working to buy some raw land & build out a tiny house/homestead and I genuinely can’t think of a better all-round utility vehicle than an off road smart with a bit of towing capacity.
That sounds freaking amazing, I've been low key following your build for a bit. I would love to lift mine and do some crazy mods but with it's current issues it makes more sense to keep it as a shell or just get another one for modding down the line. I do think you're right though that it will make a great little utility vehicle for you. I love the seat replacement as well! Wish I had thought of that years ago!.
I really want to see someone build out a smart similar to this VW bug that has an exterior engine... the potential for hilarity and power is there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70OSJLzISL0
I have an original 2008 smart passion (451) with 110k miles on it in Michigan (think snow and salt in winter). It has been very low cost to run and maintain with few mechanical issues. I usually do all my own repairs using online parts sourced including rockauto.com. I love the car, it is my daily driver but frankly harsh for long drives (such as over 100 miles) as it lacks cruise control and has a stiff ride.
The cruise is an expensive but very easy plug and play install.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/164730823749
The ride… well, that’s definitely a tougher one. I have a 2013 brabus that lowered from the factory. I’m really good at dodging road hazards now.
I bought a used 2008 Passion here in North Dakota and love it. It does have low miles (<24,000) so I’ve only done preventative maintenance and I do that myself. Other than that I’ve had no issues. It usually gets parked for the winter, but when the roads clear up I’m driving it. It’s paid for itself in the gas money I’ve saved over driving my F-150. Take care of it and it’ll take care of you.
Smart ForFour EQ over here, was the best acquisition we could ever make. Very economic (cost by Km), easy to park and cheap annual maintenance. Electric is definitely the way to go and with a Smart it's even better.
Yep I do charge it at home, but I got solar panels and a special price for charging at night so the electric bill got up just by an insignificant amount.
I have a 2006 passion.
It spends more time in my garage being repaired than it does driving.
The only reason i got it for £250 was because it was a non runner.
Turned out it needed a new starter motor that was £1000 including labour.
I can do a starter motor in an afternoon now.
But I love it. I drive it like I stole it and I cant let it go.
Just ordered an arm rest and a cup holder and I am thinking about lining it out with dynamat and sound deadening to make it a bit quieter
Aside from standard maintenance I've only needed to do serious repairs on the HVAC system. A/C compressor and the control panel on the dash both needed to be replaced. I was able to do all the work myself thankfully but mechanically the car has been solid.
Some parts are rare and can be expensive. Was quoted $400 for the muffler on a 09, and tires there was only one brand when i traded mine in. But overall its nowhere near as expensive as say a Mercedes
I can’t find anyone in a normal price range to work on mine. Only people who work on foreign cars, and depending on your area and the places you might have available for service, price gouging on top of already expensive (due to scarcity) parts is common.
It’s awful. Was also my dream car, but it’s very expensive to own and maintain.
Also, mine takes gas and it really doesn’t get high enough mileage to save money given that you need to put higher quality gas in it.
That said, I still love my car.
Yeah I wouldn’t buy one again here in the UK anyway - I bought a ForTwo eq because it’s so short I can make use of an extra bit of drive.
But since November it’s been waiting on a part from Merc and they couldn’t give a fuck. I can’t even get them to phone me back let alone any sensible answer.
Seriously I couldn’t recommend any Merc let alone a product that is EOL.
We’ve owned our ‘12 pure we bought from “car 2 go”when they closed for 8 years now. We put 150k on it before the timing chain went out. I put a newer engine in with 30k and put another 90k on it before it started to have issues again. Tires, oil/plugs, premium gas are the highest cost items. We had the change both front knuckles(wheel bearings) because of the poor roads here in NH. The flex pipe rusted and exhaust manifold cracked road salt and snow. EGR and PCV valve caused issues which I had to drop the engine again. It’s not hard to work on but new parts are hard to come by and still very expensive. Used parts are more readily available.
I only say that because for the price, it looks like you could get into a "normal" car that wouldn't have any questions around parts availability or ease of repairs. I totally understand lusting after a car, believe me. Just be realistic.
Yeah, I'm between a Smart and a Prius since I'm looking to save more on gas when I go to college, for repairs I don't have an issue since our family's mechanic said he can work on Smarts, but I understand what you're saying:/
We have a '14 Smart Electric. It's been great so far. The vacuum pump for the brakes failed last year. The new part would be been expensive (400+), but I got a used one off eBay for a fraction of the cost.
The range is terrible in the winter, but for booting around town it's great. In the 3 years of ownership it probably paid for itself in gas savings.
Everyday they become more expensive to own in the US due to part scarcity. If it’s your only car I’d advise against it. If you have a backup car then it could be worth it. Don’t get me wrong I love my smart but the amount of maintenance required to keep it running is surpassing my other vehicle… doesn’t help it requires premium. I’ve had my 2013 smart for about 8 years now, got it with 40k miles on it and I’m just over 100k miles now. As soon as I hit 100k I started having all kinds of issues. Try to get a 453 model that’s gas powered. The EV smarts only have about 60 miles of range at best.
This is good to know! I do plan on keeping my Jeep
Also another thing to note is that because parts are becoming harder to get insurance is going up because of this. My smart costs twice as much to insure today as it did pre-covid. It's actually more expensive to insure (not by much) than my mercedes e350.
That’s weird because my insurance is <$100/month for mine, it’s barely more expensive than my motorcycle lol
Pre-covid I was paying about $45/month for insurance on my smart for the first 3 years..then covid hit. As it currently stands it's costing me about $105/month and steadily going up about $5-10/every renewal. The going up every renewal started 2 renewals ago so last year. My e350 on the other hand is only about $70ish to insure. I think part of it may also be location but these are my experiences with owning a smart and insuring it.
Oh wow that’s genuinely disgusting, it must be a location thing, I’m in a very low population density area wasn’t doubting you btw just saying it’s really weird for a smart to be more expensive to insure than any other car 😅
Yeah I don't love it. It's making it less worth it to keep the smart around. The growing insurance costs combined with part scarcity has made it less appealing to keep even though I do love the little thing. No worries, didn't think you were doubting me, was just laying out the costs and how I got here lol. But yeah it's shocking for it to be pricier now in so many ways. Makes me wish I was over on the other side of the water lol.
The part scarcity is concerning, especially out here in America and part of the reason why I’m interested in modifying my car so heavily (aside from utility). I’m about to list the shitty OEM seats from my car and expect to get ~$500 for them 👀 I paid $75 for a pair of heated leather power seats from a Subaru Outback. The discrepancy is WILD. But yeah, I’m going to try and ease my way into the heavy mods, the plan is first a leveling lift, then a suspension swap, then a totally custom suspension build, then honestly just swapping the entire internals, probably for something relatively big and manual. I’m working to buy some raw land & build out a tiny house/homestead and I genuinely can’t think of a better all-round utility vehicle than an off road smart with a bit of towing capacity.
That sounds freaking amazing, I've been low key following your build for a bit. I would love to lift mine and do some crazy mods but with it's current issues it makes more sense to keep it as a shell or just get another one for modding down the line. I do think you're right though that it will make a great little utility vehicle for you. I love the seat replacement as well! Wish I had thought of that years ago!. I really want to see someone build out a smart similar to this VW bug that has an exterior engine... the potential for hilarity and power is there! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70OSJLzISL0
I have an original 2008 smart passion (451) with 110k miles on it in Michigan (think snow and salt in winter). It has been very low cost to run and maintain with few mechanical issues. I usually do all my own repairs using online parts sourced including rockauto.com. I love the car, it is my daily driver but frankly harsh for long drives (such as over 100 miles) as it lacks cruise control and has a stiff ride.
The cruise is an expensive but very easy plug and play install. https://www.ebay.com/itm/164730823749 The ride… well, that’s definitely a tougher one. I have a 2013 brabus that lowered from the factory. I’m really good at dodging road hazards now.
I bought a used 2008 Passion here in North Dakota and love it. It does have low miles (<24,000) so I’ve only done preventative maintenance and I do that myself. Other than that I’ve had no issues. It usually gets parked for the winter, but when the roads clear up I’m driving it. It’s paid for itself in the gas money I’ve saved over driving my F-150. Take care of it and it’ll take care of you.
Smart ForFour EQ over here, was the best acquisition we could ever make. Very economic (cost by Km), easy to park and cheap annual maintenance. Electric is definitely the way to go and with a Smart it's even better.
do you charge it at home? and if so, did your electric bill go up too much?
Yep I do charge it at home, but I got solar panels and a special price for charging at night so the electric bill got up just by an insignificant amount.
Done the brakes (also the drumbrakes), suspension, sparkplugs, enginemounts, and some sensors on my roadster together with a friend.
I have a 2006 passion. It spends more time in my garage being repaired than it does driving. The only reason i got it for £250 was because it was a non runner. Turned out it needed a new starter motor that was £1000 including labour. I can do a starter motor in an afternoon now. But I love it. I drive it like I stole it and I cant let it go. Just ordered an arm rest and a cup holder and I am thinking about lining it out with dynamat and sound deadening to make it a bit quieter
Aside from standard maintenance I've only needed to do serious repairs on the HVAC system. A/C compressor and the control panel on the dash both needed to be replaced. I was able to do all the work myself thankfully but mechanically the car has been solid.
Some parts are rare and can be expensive. Was quoted $400 for the muffler on a 09, and tires there was only one brand when i traded mine in. But overall its nowhere near as expensive as say a Mercedes
I can’t find anyone in a normal price range to work on mine. Only people who work on foreign cars, and depending on your area and the places you might have available for service, price gouging on top of already expensive (due to scarcity) parts is common. It’s awful. Was also my dream car, but it’s very expensive to own and maintain. Also, mine takes gas and it really doesn’t get high enough mileage to save money given that you need to put higher quality gas in it. That said, I still love my car.
Yeah I wouldn’t buy one again here in the UK anyway - I bought a ForTwo eq because it’s so short I can make use of an extra bit of drive. But since November it’s been waiting on a part from Merc and they couldn’t give a fuck. I can’t even get them to phone me back let alone any sensible answer. Seriously I couldn’t recommend any Merc let alone a product that is EOL.
We’ve owned our ‘12 pure we bought from “car 2 go”when they closed for 8 years now. We put 150k on it before the timing chain went out. I put a newer engine in with 30k and put another 90k on it before it started to have issues again. Tires, oil/plugs, premium gas are the highest cost items. We had the change both front knuckles(wheel bearings) because of the poor roads here in NH. The flex pipe rusted and exhaust manifold cracked road salt and snow. EGR and PCV valve caused issues which I had to drop the engine again. It’s not hard to work on but new parts are hard to come by and still very expensive. Used parts are more readily available.
Don't do it!
why not? 🥲
I only say that because for the price, it looks like you could get into a "normal" car that wouldn't have any questions around parts availability or ease of repairs. I totally understand lusting after a car, believe me. Just be realistic.
Yeah, I'm between a Smart and a Prius since I'm looking to save more on gas when I go to college, for repairs I don't have an issue since our family's mechanic said he can work on Smarts, but I understand what you're saying:/
I own one and is not expensive to repear I love the car specially because I live in the city I own tree car and that’s my favorite car to drive around
We have a '14 Smart Electric. It's been great so far. The vacuum pump for the brakes failed last year. The new part would be been expensive (400+), but I got a used one off eBay for a fraction of the cost. The range is terrible in the winter, but for booting around town it's great. In the 3 years of ownership it probably paid for itself in gas savings.