Another car for her.... help please!

[gorrie]

Nice... I've been looking at these (Coupe) since around November (for when i sell the RX8).
Wife wants something economical to tax/insure/run as she's looking at going back to full time work and doesn't really like the RX8 PZ too much.
Road tax goes DOWN on these Smarts from April (£90 for the year).
Wouldn't pay extra for the Brabus... they aren't exactly rare & around ~£300 for chipping the standard (80bhp) gets you to a higher state of tune than the Brabus (& also quickens the gearchange).

Had a p/x on the cards but the other guys Mrs poo-poo'd it, so I'm back to selling the RX8 again... doh.

[Dominic]

Well put down a deposit on a Light gold (Champagne?) Smart Roadster Coupe today.

She drove it and loved it!

Saw 2 today and got offered very good money on the MX-5 at both! £600 more than we were willing to accept for it too! (with a little haggling!)

She is well chuffed - only downside is the after-market warranty is only 3 months but we'll have a look about and take a longer one out just in case. IT does have a full Smart service history.

Cheers
Rich

Nice one Rich!

Be very wary about what 'after market' warranty you go for. They can be notoriously difficult to get anything out of.

[Rich H]

If it's anything terminal in the first 3 months they can have the damn thing back to fix - they have a garage attached anyway

It'll be covered by AA P&L after that as I think they are a bit more transparent as to what is covered - unless anyone can suggest a decent 3rd party warranty?

Every time I have tried to find a review of them it's a sales pitch in disguise....

[smee]

Happy motoring then. I remember seeing the car in autoexpress when it was still a concept and thinking it was the coolest looking little thing ever, however I did nearly buy a suzuki cappuccino, twice, and still want one so maybe my opion should be disregarded on matters of automotive taste

[Rich H]

Bit of a problem...

Inside the car is a bar across the back of the seats, quite a flimsy looking thing and it was bent - thought nothing of it and they agreed to replace it - they sent it to a Smart specialist who has found 'slight' structural damage to the car due to a side impact - not been through insurance so HPi clear.

I assume that as it wasn't disclosed at the point of sale we can claim our deposit back and walk? Not our fault they didn't spot it? We had agreed the sale and paid a deposit

[Rich H]

Phew - panic over - they rolled over straight away, no argument.

On the hunt again...!

[j2 lot]

Result - well not really - you don't get the car you wanted but at least they did the decent thing and let you out of the deal, and I guess you know what you are looking for now.

[Shug]

I'd have been very worried if they'd not rolled over straight away - they sold you a bent car, the knowledge that it was bent or not surely had no impact (as I'm assuming the replacing of the crossbar was included in a condition of the sale, so they couldn't claim you did it.)

Still, shame, but I'm sure there's plenty out there.

[Rich H]

Cheers chaps.

Yes they were very open, phoned her straight away and told her the bad news. Offered a refund straight away (she didn't mention that until later!)

It's a shame as it's a great little car. Apparently it's been very well repaired but not via insurance, no sign on the outside but when they came to fit the bar it didn't go in!

Trouble is there really aren't that many of them about, but we are off to see another on Saturday!

[Doc883]

If it's anything terminal in the first 3 months they can have the damn thing back to fix - they have a garage attached anyway
It'll be covered by AA P&L after that as I think they are a bit more transparent as to what is covered - unless anyone can suggest a decent 3rd party warranty?
Every time I have tried to find a review of them it's a sales pitch in disguise....

I bought a 2003 Elise from Murray Motors last year and it came with 12months warranty from http://www.autoprotect.net/scat/mechani ... insurance/
Because it was a 2003 car Lotus themselves said they couldn't warranty their own product
Anyhow the autoprotect policy has been pretty good, already had a new radiator out of them within 2 months of collecting the car and now the starter motor is goosed so it's off to Ali @ SLS to have that replaced. The warranty expires in 10 days so I have already taken out AA P&L

[Rich H]

Nice one - I'll check them out.

I mostly worried about the expensive electric boxes in the car there are a coupe that randomly blow up and bit you in the wallet....

[ROSSGR]

http://www.snippersgate.co.uk/11530/showroom.htm

They have 2.....sold my Elise to them....................

[gorrie]

Snippersgate seem a bit optimistic !!
The Brabus from Snippersgate is in/around typical Brabus pricing (ie, over the top). However, Arnold Clark Vauxhall (Falkirk) just sold a black 55-plate Brabus (roadster though, in black) with 26K on the clock and the window price was £6998 by comparison. I'd imagine they took a couple of hundred less.

The Champagne one ... I can't see them shifting it anywhere near that price.... almost £2K overpriced for a standard car (it's a base model roadster rather than coupe, no leather, doesn't have sport-pack/flappy paddles).

[Matelotman]

Cheers chaps.

Yes they were very open, phoned her straight away and told her the bad news. Offered a refund straight away (she didn't mention that until later!)

Sounds like they did the decent thing, probably hard to find in a garage these days - what about asking them to source you another car - same spec, same money?

[tut]

Although I have never checked them out, I cannot see any aftermarket warranty matching AA P&L, and certainly not at anywhere near the price.

Plus I have never had them query or check out any of the claims that I have had to put in over many years.

tut