MCC Smart Cabrio

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: there's more to the MCC Smart than a life confined to city streets. Nine months down the line our Smart + Passion Cabrio has well and truly proved itself - and has even managed to transform most of the office sceptics into firm fans.

Auto Express Car Reviews

By Chris Thorp

November 2002

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: there's more to the MCC Smart than a life confined to city streets. Nine months down the line our Smart + Passion Cabrio has well and truly proved itself - and has even managed to transform most of the office sceptics into firm fans.
The drop-top two seater has now covered 8,787 miles (about 1,000 miles per month) and although by no means the biggest mile-muncher on the fleet, has often ventured far beyond the M25 ring road that surrounds our London office.
It's been called into duty as a holiday wagon, one member of staff using it to explore Cornwall, another heading to Wales. However, long trips have revealed a flaw - and not just the fact that even a moderate side wind tends to blow the teeny two-seater across all three lanes of the motorway. The Smart needs to be driven very hard to maintain its momentum, and that means fuel economy suffers. Our early expectations of achieving more than 50mpg have taken a dive and during the course of more than 50 refills we've recorded a distinctly average 38.4mpg.
That aside, the Cabrio's running costs have been minimal. Group three insurance poses no problems, nothing mechanical has gone wrong and the Smart doesn't even require a service until it reaches the 9,000 mile mark - which admittedly isn't very far off now. We've had to do nothing more than check the oil and water - although locating the dipstick is easier said than done thanks to the inaccessibility of the engine.
That's not to say KY51 XOV has never seen the inside of a garage, though. One minor scrape damaged the driver's door and another unfortunate incident happened when the handbrake wasn't pulled on properly. This allowed the unoccupied Smart to roll back and collide with a stationary car, cracking the rear bumper. However, the repair costs were easy to swallow due to the replaceable body panels. We know from previous experience that hammering metalwork back into shape can be costly, but the Smart landed us with a bill for only ΂£272.70 - hardly worth forfeiting your no claims bonus for.
But it's the roof that really captured the imagination of everyone who drove it over the summer. One stab of the button next to the gearlever and the hood slides right back - press it again and the top collapses on to the rear deck. To finish the convertible look off, you can drop the side windows and remove the roof bars, which slot into mouldings in the bootlid. But best of all for maximum posing value, the electric roof operation can be carried out from the keyfob - a trick it has in common with the Porsche 911. Of course it doesn't have such a well insulated roof, so long journeys become noisy and tiring affairs, the din all but drowning out the radio. There are other minor problems with the roof, too. The plastic rear screen is hard to see through even when clean, and some people have reported water dripping in around the window frame.
But with the roof back and the sun shining, the Smart Cabrio is a real feel-good car and, as you can see above, it even found favour as a photographer's wagon - although we did have to find smooth tarmac to counter the sharp ride. You never quite get used to the unpleasant motion on rough roads, which is exacerbated by the jerky sequential gearbox. The Smart is even fallible in town, speed humps proving problematic for the short wheelbase and stiff suspension. But that's not enough to dampen our enthusiasm for a beautifully designed and built convertible that's fun to drive and makes parking a joy.