MarCor

NEWBY TO EVERYTHING SMARTCAR

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2006 Turbo Diesel...good or bad or recommendations, am shopping and no one here knows anything LOL. Help ! Open to all help, hints, warnings, jokes and criticisms. Please inform me cause I really want a smart car. P.S. I`m Margo  

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welcome to the club!  So have you found none? How many kms? How many owners? Has it been cared for? 

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I found one 2 hrs away with 100,000K but sky light doesn`t open and needs a windshield. I don`t know much about smart diesel @

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Perfect little money saver! 100,000 Klms on well cared for 2 owner car, custom interior and exterior. Power windows and locks, AC, Turbo. Under 500 Km on the car last three yrs. Winter rims, garage kept. So hope to check it out Thurs or Fri. ( Wanna buy a Chihuahua Custom sized for Smart LOL)--------------------MarCor

 

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Welcome to the site....the next question is how much do they think it's worth?  Hmmmm......what can we say....there are many things to look for imho.....how much time do you have to read...lol.

OK,....codes?  Idiot lights on dash..? What is showing in centre of dash , 3 bars across centre or a"N" or gear number or "A". Check for water marks running down corners of inside edge of windshield as to tell you the windshield is leaking, they do leak well...lol. Check under carpets for rusting floor boards. It will have a model passion, pure on a badge on the front door pillar, which is it? Look under dash passenger's side for water stains running down inner firewall. Lift passenger's side carpet up to see battery and look at wires for rust or corrosion. IF the sun roof leaks as my beater's does it'll drive you crazy fixing the leak, I siliconed mine shut...it's my beater so don't care. You may care far more and also make sure it opens and closes completely. Make sure you get 2 keys, Look in engine bay and check main grounding cable a multi braided wire, usually rots and causes issues. Look for oil leaks, stains etc especially around the inter cooler rad and under it. Check the large hoses for rub marks coming from cooler to top of engine, usual rub through maybe?. Look under engine in the same location to check for intercooler oil leaking. Check corrigated intake hose for oil leaks also. Check for oil around injectors. Check front coil springs at the top for broken top coils. Check rear reluctor rings for cracks or bad rusting. Check muffler for rusting along bottom seam. When first starting cold engine check if glow plug light is lit and then goes out. How easy does it start. After glow plug light goes out it should start easily. 

These are things to check on any smart car imho if you want, as they are some of the possible issues you will face down the road in the future. All basically maintenance items many do not do while owning the car, imho.  BUT, at 100,000 kms it should be in good shape and show little signs of weather damages if garage kept. 

As for a price.....Hmmmm....if a good car it could be thousands....for a beater it should be 1,000-1,500.....then go up quickly for a very clean good car with that mileage...and possibly in your location?   Once serviced and gone over...you should expect to get close to 80 mpgs or 3.5 litres per 100 kms driven at sea levels, mountain driving will greatly differ I bet!  I get 80 mpgs but I live in a flat location, rolling hills at best.

Good luck and keep us informed and start researching all the points I mentioned so you know what they mean so to speak...but I dobt you will see many of them with 100,000 kms. and garage kept.

 

Again welcome to the site.....don't let that list put you off owning a Smart as all vehicles require maintenance...or they fall apart. IF you can turn a wrench you can fix just about anything.

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my advice is to not do it unless you can do your own repairs and want to learn a lot of weird things....or know someone who already knows these cars and charges cheap rates..

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Asking $4,300.00 but he`s willing to dicker a bit. Thank you for all the information that is all useful to me. Will look around for a mechanic with knowledge locally just incase, I buy a lemon LOL------------------MarCor

 

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Buying a 15 year old car is a crap-shoot.  You could end up with nothing but a money pit where you spend all your spare cash into it OR, you could end up with a perfectly good vehicle with  years of trouble-free driving.

 

A lot depends on how it was treated before you get it.  Is it a Pure, Pulse or Passion?  Coupe or Cabrio?

 

Willys made several good points about checking for codes and other potential problem areas. 

 

I am suggesting that you are going at it correctly by asking question BEFORE buying.  I wish you good luck and hope that if you buy this car, it is good to you. 

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8 hours ago, MarCor said:

Asking $4,300.00 but he`s willing to dicker a bit. Thank you for all the information that is all useful to me. Will look around for a mechanic with knowledge locally just incase, I buy a lemon LOL------------------MarCor

 

I'd be pushing hard to get that under the $4,000 price point for sure......
BUT, as said above, you must be able to either be willing to turn a wrench and learn OR have extra funds to spend on repairs as with any 15 year old vehicle as also stated above......The main key issue is for repairing these cars is the STAR diagnostic system required to solve and reset the electrical issues these cars experience when shit hits the fan so to speak.  Nothing else will work but a STAR system, do not listen to any mechanic that tells you otherwise. Sure a smaller issue can be solved but when it counts you must use a STAR system.   Now after saying all this BS....you can build up your own STAR system if you want to. Again that isn't a cheap thing, somewhere in the $1,000 price range for a completely set up system. But think about what a shop charges for diagnostic and repair hourly rates now a days......it wouldn't take long to rack up that cost and you would have the tool to help you solve future issues  on your own.  A simple key re-programing from what the local MB dealership or is that Stealership is posting for their cheapest MB vehicle is $456.  EACH...WTF..!!!!  Now is that for a Smart Car or their bottom of the line MB vehicle I do not know but I'll bet a Smart car is the cheapest vehicle they work on IF you can find a stealership willing to do actual work for you or will they simply over price any work making you scrap the perfectly good car because of the price of repairs. It seems to be what many are doing now a days. They can get you any part so to speak almost over night, but when it comes down to spending time diagnosing problems, they seem to want to make you scrap the car over fixing it.    BUT, again, after saying this....there are many very knowledgeable mechanics hidden around who own a STAR and are willing to work on these cars, you just need to find them.  Best thing is to learn to repair them yourself. It's always a good thing to be able to at least get a good idea on what is wrong with your vehicle BEFORE taking it to a mechanic to get a quote or repairs done. IMHO. 
Even this site is a wealth of information on repairing these CDI cars. It is IMHO the best site around and that means globally for the 2005-2006 CDI Smart cars. Seems Canada had more than any other country and we got to learn how to deal with them.

IF you like a quirky little car and enjoy something different, then I say have at it. learn all you can and get your hands dirty.  In the end it's only a grown up's large jig saw puzzle. It comes apart and goes back together just like the kids game. 

But beware....once you get one.....it won't be long before they multiply....lol.

The next question is, .....do you have extra funds lying around to repair any vehicle you choose to purchase or are you looking for a one time purchase and it can't cost anything after purchasing it?  All vehicles need the simple things, brakes, exhaust, lights...etc.....it's the finer costs that'll hurt on all vehicles.  There are many vehicles that are well known to be far more cost efficient than others. Honda Civic, Toyota Corrolla, Mazda, 

And all vehicles once maintained well will be good cars, it's only when they get neglected they start to cost big bucks and some in a hurry.

I bought a beater Smart Car to last me long enough to rebuild my good Smart car over the winter months...it was a $1,500 at best car.....beaten and semi rusty, dirty inside.  It started great, didn't smoke.....I have put a few things into it like injector nozzles, glow plugs and fixed a few smaller items.....it had 135,000 kms on it.  It's still running strong after 3 years!   And no, I haven't finished the rebuild process on my good car yet...lol.   It just goes to show you that you may luck out and get a great car and have very little go wrong with it after all the BS we have been warning you of....lol.    But we have warned you as all forums will do with any make of car etc.   OR we could ahve said yep...GREAT DEAL  buy it quick...!  And watch you suffer without saying a word. As some sites do.

Hopefully we hear you have a great car and love the experience.   

 

Hope this helps.

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Hi Margo

Welcome to the club.

I saw silver on silver CDI at a small lot on hwy 4 on my way home to Port Alberni this weekend.  It was sporting the passion rims so in all likely hood it is a passion.  I will stop there today on my way back to work and get the base info.  if it is not behind a fence I will get the vin.  MikeT can run it through the data base and tell you about how it was ordered and where it has spent a lot of its life, he can do that for most smart cars so send him a message with any smart your thinking of buying and he will look it up for you.  Flying Tiger Developments is in Richmond and he is my non dealer go to for my CDIs have had four in the family.  

If you want a pre-vehical inspection I would head to Eddy's owner of flying tiger and sole empolyee.  !00,000 is low milage for a 16 year old car;

The glass roof in a lot of smart cars does not open, the power moon roof (that does open) was an option.

The pure was the base model, the pulse the sport model (slightly nicer interior than the pure) and had paddle shifters on the steering wheel standard, the passion  was the luxury model with the nicest interior, but no paddle shifter as standard equipment.

All 05-06 models came with the 40 hp, 3 cylinder diesel that is capable of sub 3 lt per 100 km returns, it is also slightly underpowered and will test the patients of most people behind you at the light.

 

Alan

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