brd

Anybody out there have any recommendations on knowledgeable mechanics or service centres in west end Toronto with decent pricing for doing work on 451's? There doesn't appear to be much in the Service Options tab.

Not as much fun at parties as you obviously, ranting at the walls.

About 43,000 smart roadsters were built. Don’t know where you got 47,000 from.

To get back to the point of this thread, here is Jasper's video on what he likes and doesn't like about a 2003 smart roadster after the first year of owning one.

He sure had good fun driving the roadster and is rather enthusiastic about the car.

You miss the point entirely and conveniently which is you are comparing a 2013 car to a 2003 car, as stated in post #20. Guess what, the 2013 car is based on the latest technology at the time as was the 2003. So guess what, the 2013 performs better, but it's not a night and day difference.

Lucky you. I have owned two 450 cabrios which had leaks fixed under warranty. The worst was the 2004 pulse which had the cabrio top replaced under warranty, then a couple of years later a leak was repaired and the SAM replaced. Good thing that was all under warranty.

Thanks for pulling up the Top Gear review. It’s been several years since I watched it and it is amusing. The 220HP, as well as the under 5 seconds, is as per Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Roadster and the 220HP is also mentioned in the Top Gear review. Yes it’s your AR 4C as in YOUR comparison car. Again, comparing a 2003 roadster to a 2013 AR 4C is comparing apples and oranges. Like comparing your 404C to the AR 4C in terms of performance.

A production version of the V6 roadster coupe would have had about as much storage as the roadster (ie notchback). Your comparison to the AR 4C is apples to oranges as the Alfa was first produced in 2013 versus 2003 for the roadster V6 prototype ie technology changed a lot in 10 years. That said, your Alfa was 1100kg driven by 240HP versus a 840kg V6 roadster with 215HP. Your Alfa did 0-100km/hr in 4.5 seconds versus “under 5 seconds” for the roadster v6. Sounds pretty close to me.

Actually, Brabus had a manual transmission option in the works for the roadster. It was the same manual transmission that it had tweaked and was standard equipment in the smart forfour (454) brabus. The intent was to have it as an option for the 2006 roadster brabus AND as a separate kit to modify existing roadsters. Unfortunately this was tossed in the bin when Daimler prematurely cancelled the roadster. Note that Christoph Maushardt, owner of Autohaus Maushardt (AHM) in Bruchsal Germany, THE top smart dealership in the world https://www.autohaus-maushardt.de , has a rare roadster with this prototype manual transmission in his car collection. Speaking of a bigger engine, I had forgot, but at the behest of Daimler, smart developed a prototype roadster coupe using the engine, transmission and rear suspension from a MB A class. The idea was to market what would have been the most powerful and expensive smart roadster in both MB and smart dealerships (at the time there were many standalone smart dealerships in Europe). Again this concept was dropped with the premature demise of the smart roadster. And yes, Christoph Maushardt has the only prototype which was built sitting in his collection. When you examine this prototype the exterior really doesn’t look different from the roadster, other than it’s unusual 18” rims. And a final note on a bigger engine, the smart skunkworks developed a six cylinder engine comprised essentially of two smart 3cylinder engines welded together. A prototype was built and racetrack tested and several more were then built in Ferrari red. Active consideration apparently was given to bringing the v6 roadster to market and one was even provided to the BBC’s Topgear program to review. Unfortunately this never came to pass likely partly due to the sky high price sticker, and the Ferrari red versions were collected and destroyed by the factory. The black prototype, which I examined in the smartville factory museum over 15 years ago, sits in the Mercedes Benz museum in Stuttgart.

Further to how it feels to drive a smart roadster brabus, here is a review of a 2005 model done by a MB dealer in England in August 2022.

Here is a review of the 2005 smart roadster brabus done by a MB dealer in England last August. It gives you decent overview of this car.

To improve the roadster acceleration always shift manually and don’t use the automatic mode unless you’re warning up the turbo when you first start your ride or cooling it off towards the end of your ride. The budget model of the roadster had the 61hp engine along with steel wheels and missing a few other features. You would definitely want to stay away from those. Note that a handful of roadsters were made with the diesel engines we had in our 450 smart fortwo’s sold in Canada. Imagine what the acceleration would be like in one of those. Which brings me to my second point, which is if you want to improve the acceleration (and torque) in a roadster you would want to have the engine remapped just like a number of us have done with our 450 diesels. If you shop around it would cost €150-250 plus shipping to have that done in Germany. There are a handful of other things to be done to improve the responsiveness and acceleration of a roadster ie replace the stock air filter with a permanent Pipercross unit, replace the intercooler pipes with silicone ones, replace the Turbo Induction Kit with a Forge Motorsport silicone version, and replace your exhaust with an smann unit. The total cost of all those, excluding the smann exhaust, is a few hundred euros plus an afternoon of your time to install them. To improve the aerodynamics, and acceleration, you might want to add a front spoiler for €100-250 plus shipping. So bottom line is there is no need to to replace the roadster engine with a Honda or Toyota unit if you want to improve the acceleration in your roadster. All that aside, most people find the roadster an exhilarating car to drive, regardless of the acceleration. It’s described by some as having a go-kart feel. Again, try it before you buy it.

Good for you! That's not my experience with 450 cabrios in Canada.

See my comments on this above. Good point on prices of the roadsters going up in 2028 to 2031 when they meet the US 25 year rule to import them into that country.