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There is really nothing affordable that drives and handles like a smart Roadster.
They are fun, practical (for most), good on fuel and great on sunny days with the top down.
On the flip side, they aren't the most reliable cars in the world.
The electrics can be dodgy, the engine doesn't last as long as a "normal" car engine and water ingress can kill it stone dead leaving you with a heafty repair bill. However, if you are like me and like to tinker with your cars and you don't mind having a go at some things yourself, these cars are great. You do need to be proactive when it comes to Roadsters. If you are the type of person who only fixes something because it has broken, don't buy a Roadster.
Starting with a good Roadster is important.
All new roadsters came with a two year warranty, which is not a great deal by todays standards. Older cars purchased through a dealer network may come with a third party warranty, read the small print and check to see what exactly is covered, some policies are better than others. Check that it specifically covers water damage to the electrics, although roadsters can be sealed!
Private purchase will come with no warranty at all.
Check all windows for scratches or chips. The front windscreen is not heated, so although not the most expensive screen to replace, it will still cost a fair amount to do so. The side rear glass on the coupe is plastic, servicing can mean it needs to be removed, so make sure it is not scratched. Check the wiper blades are not low, not expensive but a sign of a cared for car! Electric windows should operate smoothly up and down, no jitters.
All roadsters are going to look clean and shiny! They have plastic panels, painted, and lacquered. Check that there are no deep scratches, also check the lacquer is not peeling. Replacement panels would need to be painted to match the car. Look around the rear wheel arches, there are often stone chips there, it is not a big deal but might be taken into account when negotiating a price.
An off colour may be a replacement panel due to an accident.
Make sure both open from the inside and the outside and both lock. It is quite common
for a catch inside the door to come loose and not permit the door to be opened.
If the doors lock and then immediately unlock when you use the key but lock properly using the
dash top button, the car has an easy to fix wiring fault. Use this fault to get a big discount.
Lift the front trunk liner out (undoing the retaining screws with a coin) and see what surprises are in store - probably nothing, but it's worth a look. The battery is under there, batteries are usually designed to last three years, some longer. Check the connectors on the horn (passenger side), they have a habit of going rusty and stopping the horn working.
While you are under the front boot liner, check the steering rack. It should be tight with no movement,
if you can lift it by holding the steering column then it will be in need of attention.
If you could take the wheels off it would be easier to see! The top half of the first coil tends to snap off.
Roadsters should stop on a sixpence, just make sure there is no pulling to the sides. Some drivers do report that the brake pedal feels a bit spongy, that is just a roadster characteristic! Depending on the wheels fitted you might be able to see the wear on the brake pads, and also the wear on the disks. Even a low mileage model can have a damaged disk, mine had just 10,000 miles on the clock when a disk was scored by a stone stuck between the brake pad and disk. Front pads are not expensive.
There is not a vulnerable cam belt, instead the roadster has a timing chain. This chain can sometimes rattle
a little, again it’s more of a characteristic than a problem as chains are naturally more noisy than a belt.
However, if you hear a lot of noise from the right side of the engine, the chain could be stretched, the hydraulic adjuster could be at the limit and the guides could have snapped. The noise will be the chain slopping about and possibly even hitting the timing chain cover.
inside of the oil filler cap is clean, you do NOT want to see a grey sludge, this would indicate head-gasket problems.
You need to check the chassis number, it is stamped into the edge of the engine bay at the drivers side (RHD) towards the front of the car. It is repeated in the drivers door shut, however, the door shut is only a sticker and may have been removed for cosmetic reasons or worn out! The two numbers should match, and more importantly they need to match the DVLA paperwork for the vehicle. Use the chassis number and registration plate to do an online search of the vehicles history.
Check the hand brake works, when the car is turned off in the “Neutral” position it is all that holds the car. Roadsters can engage reverse before switching the ignition off, this locks the wheels, it is the equivalent of putting an automatic into “Park”.
It is not uncommon for any of the models to have been remapped. This involves replacing the software that controls the engine management with new software to perform differently, some giving more acceleration, some more torque at various speeds. Remaps would officially invalidate a warranty, however Smart dealers often do not detect it. You need to make your own mind up about remaps, but just because the car has a remap it doesn’t necessarily mean it has been driven hard, as someone pointed out, just because you have the extra power does not mean to say you will use it every second of every journey, just as you would not floor a car every journey.
It should feel tight and accurate, no play. Roadsters drive like they are on rails, the car will go exactly where you put it. Make sure there is no clunking when moving from lock to lock. It seems like the most unlikely car to need it, but most roadsters have power steering, this does cut out at higher speeds, not that you can notice. A few owners have reported needing a new steering rack.
Check all lights are working. Some bulbs can be a job to replace. Headlamp units are not overly expensive, allow about £50 to replace a cracked light (if you do it yourself). Xenon light bulbs fitted into standard units are not legal. Xenon lights, however, if fitted as a factory option are legal and will have headlight washers fitted. A factory fitted Xenon unit is expensive, roughly £500 per unit. Finales and Brabus Xclusive models will not have factory fitted Xenon units, because the plastics were too shiny then lights caused too much dazzle, so it was not an option on cars with colour matching front panels.
Check that the 2 lower grill lights function correctly, they match each other (there were 4 different types)
and make sure the glass isn't broken as the units are expensive to buy and awkward to fit.
Check all the rear lights work as the Roadster can suffer from water corrosion in the wiring loom to the rear lights.
A very small hole drilled into the inside corner of the lens will sort it out.
Check the panel lights up evenly, it uses surface mounted LEDs and they are hard to replace! Seats generally tend to stay in good order, just check for accidental tears or burns from cigarettes. I always look at the ashtray and lighter, I like to see these unused.
Check it works. A common problem is for the hoses to crack from the compressor,
they need to flex as the engine moves around and seem far too rigid for the job.
Two sets of keys is important. Both must work to lock, unlock, and immobilise the car.
Yes, roadsters are known for leaking, you have been warned! Check under the carpets, this can be done by sliding the seats forward a little, and you’ll see a joint behind the seat, get your hand right under. Also, lift the seal at the base of the door and slide your hand under the carpet in front of the seat. Then slide your hand under the very front of the foot-well carpet.
Check the number plate lights too for leaks, they are another easy fix.
However, in either case, if they are left with water in them, it can corrode the bulb sockets.
Check they have not been “kerbed”, and consult the model guide to see which wheels should have been fitted. Smart alloys often loose their lacquer and can look unsightly, there are companies that specialise in refurbishing wheels at about £60 - £100 per wheel.
Where a soft-top is fitted (which is most cars), make sure it moves back and forwards smoothly without jerking. It is not uncommon for the fabric to fold itself incorrectly on the way down, this is easily rectified. The roof should be quite black, a faded roof probably has not been looked after well. Smart, and other companies, sell treatments to clean and seal the roof, these should have been applied regularly. Water should sit on a well treated roof in beads.
Refer to “Leaks”. Ensure everything works!
Roadsters are sports cars. The best handling is achieved by running on quality tyres. A non-Smart dealer selling you a car saying he will fit you a new tyre or tyres is likely to fit the cheapest of cheap, so make sure you only accept one of the big names.
for their tyres, you’ll find more information about this on their web sites.
Check the state of the tyre side wall and tread depth as low mileage cars could still be running original tyres nearing 10 years old. You can get perishing of the sidewall and edge which can weaken the tyre.
You might as well try and get as many optional extras as possible, see the model guide on this site to see what should be on your car.
Above: a roadster factory fitted with the automatic wipers. The sensor is easily visible, but it does mean
having a different windscreen so it would not be cost effective to fit this to a roadster at a later date.
* Electric mirrors
* Center Arm Rest
* iPod Holder and Interface to Radio
* Bluetooth Phone Kit
* Heated seats
* Leather seats and trim
* Hard top in addition to a soft top (and vice versa)
* Automatic wipers
* Automatic headlights (come on when dark)
* Alloy Wheel upgrades
* Smart luggage set (custom made luggage)
* Cup holder insert in CD tray
* Floor mats (I put rubber ones over my Brabus ones to protect them further!)
* Twin center exit exhaust (a Brabus part)
* Sound package (uprated speakers + tweeters)
* Gear change paddles on the steering are very desirable
* Center pods showing boost pressure and engine temperature
* Air Conditioning
* Satellite Navigation (rarely found, an expensive Smart optional extra!)
Cruise Control featuring Speed Limiter
Parking Sensors (optional - two rear sensors with audio beep alerts)
Trip Computer
If you have never driven a roadster before then be prepared to really learn the gearbox! It takes quite a bit to get used to and performs at it’s best in manual gear change mode. If you want a true automatic then I would suggest the roadster is probably not the car for you.
Unlikey after this amount of time, however...
Make sure there is no outstanding finance on a car you purchase. Cars sold with outstanding finance remain the property of the finance company, you stand to lose a lot of money. For around £35 you can do a check on-line which will reveal any outstanding finance and whether the car has been an insurance write-off at any time.
No service history? No sale. Make sure the car has been regularly serviced, at least
once a year or every 10,000 miles maximum. The service book should be stamped up.
There should be an owners manual. Also they may be a Smart dealer location booklet, although it will be out-of-date anyway! Don’t forget the radio security code card too!
The roadsters have no space for a spare wheel. Smarts solution is to put a bottle of puncture repair fluid
and a cigarette lighter powered compressor under the carpet of the front passenger foot well. Check
these are present and the fluid is not used or beyond it’s use-by date. You do not need to replace it with
a smart own brand puncture repair fluid.
Here is one such treatment: Ultraseal; carrying a compressor and pump is no longer necessary.
There are a lot of dealers who say the cars are not good for many miles, this is nonsense. Ignore them.
Providing the car is regularly serviced, there is no reason why it should not go on and on.
Several owners have reported their roadsters turning 120,000 miles.
A lot of us on the forums use ours every day as our only car, they can handle the mileage if looked after.
One owner with higher mileage or several owners with low mileage? Which is better? You could argue that a high mileage car with one owner has not had any problems, hence the owner kept it for a long time. You could argue that a low mileage car with many owners was problematic and passed from person to person. But, there is nothing to say that either is true or false. You have to make your own mind up. A well serviced car is key no matter what.
This frequently comes up, usually tall people ask. I’m 6'2" and I have no problem.
Smart’s office answer on this question:
to 1.90 metres tall and weighing 95 kilogrammes and a petite 57 kilogrammes and 1.51 metres.
The roadster you look at could show the colour on the V5C registration document as being either black or silver, it relates to the colour of the tridion, not the main colour of the car! So a red roadster with black tridion may well be listed as a black car! In 2007 the DVLA finally changed the rule that the colour of a car is not based on it’s chassis colour but more sensibly the most dominant colour will be listed.
The roadster has no steering lock. Parking in reverse will stop the vehicle being towed easily.
There are sites on the internet that will give you tips about your behaviour when looking at a car, and how to negotiate a good deal. You should NOT appear over enthusiastic, at the end of it all, the seller is after as much as they can get, and you should be after paying as little as possible! Good luck!
