Car reviews

Introduction

The Smart Roadster comes with sports car looks and handling, but it’s unlikely you’ll loose your licence in it as it isn’t as fast as its looks. Not that you will realise it when you’re driving it fast anyway, as the low-slung seats give the impression that you’re driving a lot faster than you actually are.

Exterior & Interior

The Roadster comes with sports car looks, even if it doesn’t deliver sports cars performance. The interior is just as good too with low-slung, comfortable seats and high-quality materials being used throughout. It also comes with enough head and legroom unless you’re really tall. As you would expect, there isn’t a huge amount of boot space available, however, it is enough for a couple of weeks’ shopping. The dash and central console are both intuitively laid-out with everything in easy reach and the well-engineered trim makes everything feels solidly-built and sporty.

The Brabus edition also comes with a high level of kit as standard including heated leather seats, ABS, air-con, alloys, electric and heated mirrors, traction control and front and side airbags.

Drive

The low-slung body of the Smart Roadster, with its rigid chassis and rear-wheel drive offers superb levels of grip in the corners, and perfectly balanced handling that makes you want to test it out on more and more winding roads. The brakes are perfectly sharp and there is hardly any body roll to speak of, but the steering could do with more feeling. The Brabus comes with stiffer suspension that improves the handling even further, but this comes at the expense of some comfort.

The low-slung seats give you the feeling of travelling faster than you really are, however, there is some wind and engine noise in the cabin at higher speeds.

Faults & Repairs

There have been some problems with the Smart Roadster and as such there are some areas you should look at when considering one. There have been some reports of electrical faults so make sure to test everything. Checking for dampness in the cabin is a good idea, as some cars have been known to leak on the driver’s side. The car has also been know to overheat when standing idle for a while so when on a test drive try and test this out if possible. Only go for a model that has a full service history as without a regular service, the Smart Roadster is likely to start having more serious problems than the ones listed above.

Servicing will cost a lot, though, as you’ll have to take it to a Mercedes garage as they both fall under the same manufacturing group; and with service intervals set for every 9,000 miles, you are likely to be seeing a Mercedes mechanic a lot more often than you’d probably like.