Had the car just under a week here are a few musings:
First off very pleased overall, despite being a relatively slow car, around town there is never any feeling of struggling, the gearbox, clutch and throttle are all quite light - the latter too light after driving larger cars but nothing you don't get used to. It will struggle on hills at town speeds even in second gear, fortunately first is easily engaged (and fairly high) even on the move.
As noted when choosing, very comfortable. Probably for the only time in its life has spent the first week four up - two accommodating teenagers in the back.
MPG has been low forties (this has been exclusively the worse sort of town driving) so not unhappy, especially with four people on board, bearing in mind the smart car was getting only high twenties (the mk2 smart has a known issue with consumption, check many forums).
We specced the sat nav - this is a touch screen and provides a more sophisticated bluetooth hands-free function, the system also does the best job at handling MP3 files from a memory stick that I have seen - decided against full iPod control because of cost, the use the car gets and the physical layout of the iPod connection not looking particularly tidy (incidentally full iPod control requires the sat nav).
Black was chosen as colour of least resistance but looks good and the rear smoked windows (standard) go well - the blackest I've seen this side of Max Power.
The engine is a long way back - just about behind the front wheels - a fair bit of space in the engine bay, like all modern engines would struggle to change the (three) spark plugs.
Amazingly for a car less than 3m long, 15 inch wheels look too small! How times change.
Handbook is amazingly nannying - the "before driving" section occupies 100 pages and includes such gems as not trapping your fingers when folding the door mirrors!
FINALLY - smart for2 comparison. This may be biased as that is what we changed from:
Interior quality is much better on the smart (fabric and higher quality plastics) and it has a glove box, the iq has an (optional, not taken) pop on portfolio type attachment. The smart is 120mm narrower and the difference feels greater, especially when threading through traffic.
IQ is just under 12 inches longer has less boot space when using rear seats and much more when not - looking at the handbook some countries have variants without rear seats - the rear seats on the iq are split and easily folded up or down. Angie leaves the seats folded.
IQ (conventional) gearbox trounces the smart sequential, engines, nothing much in it - albeit our smart was the turbo so a more accurate comparison would have been the next model down.
Turning circle is amazing in the iq at a tad under 4m, less than half the shorter smart.
Mike
First off very pleased overall, despite being a relatively slow car, around town there is never any feeling of struggling, the gearbox, clutch and throttle are all quite light - the latter too light after driving larger cars but nothing you don't get used to. It will struggle on hills at town speeds even in second gear, fortunately first is easily engaged (and fairly high) even on the move.
As noted when choosing, very comfortable. Probably for the only time in its life has spent the first week four up - two accommodating teenagers in the back.
MPG has been low forties (this has been exclusively the worse sort of town driving) so not unhappy, especially with four people on board, bearing in mind the smart car was getting only high twenties (the mk2 smart has a known issue with consumption, check many forums).
We specced the sat nav - this is a touch screen and provides a more sophisticated bluetooth hands-free function, the system also does the best job at handling MP3 files from a memory stick that I have seen - decided against full iPod control because of cost, the use the car gets and the physical layout of the iPod connection not looking particularly tidy (incidentally full iPod control requires the sat nav).
Black was chosen as colour of least resistance but looks good and the rear smoked windows (standard) go well - the blackest I've seen this side of Max Power.
The engine is a long way back - just about behind the front wheels - a fair bit of space in the engine bay, like all modern engines would struggle to change the (three) spark plugs.
Amazingly for a car less than 3m long, 15 inch wheels look too small! How times change.
Handbook is amazingly nannying - the "before driving" section occupies 100 pages and includes such gems as not trapping your fingers when folding the door mirrors!
FINALLY - smart for2 comparison. This may be biased as that is what we changed from:
Interior quality is much better on the smart (fabric and higher quality plastics) and it has a glove box, the iq has an (optional, not taken) pop on portfolio type attachment. The smart is 120mm narrower and the difference feels greater, especially when threading through traffic.
IQ is just under 12 inches longer has less boot space when using rear seats and much more when not - looking at the handbook some countries have variants without rear seats - the rear seats on the iq are split and easily folded up or down. Angie leaves the seats folded.
IQ (conventional) gearbox trounces the smart sequential, engines, nothing much in it - albeit our smart was the turbo so a more accurate comparison would have been the next model down.
Turning circle is amazing in the iq at a tad under 4m, less than half the shorter smart.
Mike
