i-Car

Fun alternative to a boring shopping hatch

We originally bought this car purely to fit in a very restricted width garage - the only alternative was parking the other side of a busy ring road and trying to cross with 2 small children every time. Being one of the narrowest cars available, this and the Fiat Panda plus a couple of awful Korean models were the only real option.

The Fiat was nice enough, but to get the same sort of equipment level as the i meant the Fiat would be quite pricey - and yet it still felt like a cheap car. The auto box with the i sealed it, and a test drive left both of us with a huge grin on our face.

The i has proven to be extremely easy to drive (light steering, easy to get in/out of and auto box), practical (for a young family of 4; we even took it to France for our summer holiday) and gets as much attention as most sports cars. Now we have moved, my wife has a bigger car and I use this for commuting. It's perfect - exactly what the 4 seater Smart SHOULD have been but wasn't.

My only disappointment is not getting close to the claimed fuel consumption - 40-45mpg is normal. But it's good fun to drive, and has so far been faultless. Over nearly 30k miles it has barely cost a penny - the £150 TLC package has covered all the servicing so far, and apart from that the only cost has been a wiper blade for the last MoT. Tyres (which will be approx. £75 each) and brakes I'm sure will need doing soon, but not quite yet.

Finally, the dealer has been great (Mantles in Biggleswade), with free pick up and drop off for service and MoT days.

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