Between 2001 and 2004 I ran a Smart fourtwo coupe cdi, LHD . It wasn't available ( and still isn't ) in RHD . It was the most brilliant car at the time , reliable and of course very economical , giving 60 mpg in suburban London and 80 mpg plus on the open road .
I bought that car brand new in Belgium , and with the VAT it cost me £5600 , with A/C and other bits , Alloys, metallic etc . I sold it two and a half years later at £5350.
I would like to repeat the exercise , but now the equivalent car is quoted at £8600 ( allowing for VAT which of course is unavoidable ) from a Belgian dealer again . The issue is , Ist time round there was no UK dealership network at the time , so I had no hassle in personally importing it and getting SMART UK when it set up to register it for the warantee ( it needed warantee work once for dodgy electrics ). Now , Smarts are sold in the UK, but crucially, not the diesel which for us Londoners represent not only free VED but also free congestion charging on account of the sub 100 g / CO2 emissions .
Why has the car gone up by over a half ? Has anyone else bought one lately ?
Smarts seem to hold their value well - no wonder .
Subject line tweaked - for the second time !
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 17/11/2007 at 20:01
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Another ex smart owner here! I do know prices increased quite a lot when the fortwo was intriduced and the new models have seen another price hike. The interiors are now mini mercedes rather than smart with much better switchgear, audio etc etc. this may account for some of the cost.
I did read (but it was a while ago) that smart are to do with the new diesel what they did with the original petrol models. Manufacture some LHD diesels which are UK spec, see how these sell then consider a RHD diesel.
I think the smart club website is still up and running and they used to be up to speed on new developments. A quick read of their boards may be worthwhile.
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 17/11/2007 at 20:00
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I believe that under Eu Block Exemption regulations the 'factory' warranty would have to be honoured in the UK. Any additional 'importer' extra warranty (or extras such as free breakdown recovery would not). So basically your car would get fixed - there might be some delay getting parts though.
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I did read (but it was a while ago) that smart are to do with the new diesel what they did with the original petrol models. Manufacture some LHD diesels which are UK spec see how these sell then consider a RHD diesel.
MBUK are going to import a limited number of LHD drive fortwo diesels in 2008.
Re: Apilia's comment about the warranty. The 2 year warranty is a standard EU factory supllied one which MBUK will honour through their network. There is no additional 3rd year warranty on smarts so you wouldn't lose anything by importing one rather than buying a UK one.
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Hi chaps. So glad I have just come across this info. I am really interested in importing a fortwo diesel for myself and cut out the dealers here in the UK. Can anyone recommend any dealer in Belgium/Germany or advise me on how I go about it. Thanks
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