scotslass said...

We have had the official letter from smart on our low mph and the last two lines state:
the figures published relate to eu fuel consumption tests. This published figure is not an indication of what every vehicle in the range will achieve.
Says it all really pure lottery after they have ticked a box. Will send this to trading standards and local mp as it does mean they can tell the customer anything. Good to see my dealer has removed the 88mph signs. Not being able to give an indication of what a car will achieve yet boasting it will do 88 mph is more than a slight contradiction!

Hi Scotslass,

Do you mean mph or mpg?
I am aware that you recently contacted the smart UK customer services team and they have responded back to you.
Please read our smart UK response to this ongoing issue (see pages 4 & 5 of this topic).
All European cars are tested in exactly the same way to get a consistent MPG figure. Yes these tests are run under strict control conditions, but this is the only way to ensure the car industry is operating on a level playing field.

Tom

Updated 06 July 2010 at 11:20 AM

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smarter than the average bear!

I have just returned from a trip to Scotland and got 49.6 at a stead 65. I have just accecpted that Smart give you the best figures they achieve and in many cases you simply can't achieve that in the real world. I do agree lots of people complain about other makes but in my experience all the cars I have had have never been so far off the mark and I have to say I do love the car but like most I bought based on what I could get out of it MPG wise I would be interested to see what trading standards come back with

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---- Andy ----

brookal said...

What sort of driving is that? We are over 2000 miles now and nowhere near 70mpg.

However, there is a lot of motorway driving at around 65mppg in there but I still wouldn't expect to be SO far below the specified 85mpg.

Mixed including many stints of 80mph or so.

I drove Nottingham to Edinburgh via lots of places last week, 860 miles and it averaged 68mpg... most of the time on the motorway I was indicating 70-80mph and had one or two "spirited" moments!
This includes time spent in huge jams in City centres also.

I am quite taken with this car... so much so that i am seriously considering a Smart Roadster too!

This weeks Sunday Mirror (I know they don't do joined up writing!) had an article on a number of cars that failed to meet the actual MPG (yes I made a mistake in my last reply). Smart was up there in the worst 10. The SmartTwo did 70.6mpg 12.5mpg below the stated. It was a Which independent lab test showing 15% less than the car is 'sold' as doing.
Smart was 3rd worst with the Mini Cooper being the 'winner'. It's time we consumers stood up and said no more to this false marketing!
The Which editor is taking this to the EU to ask for test that are far more representable. Good on them!

Well I have been enjoying realistic mpg figures in the mid 60s by driving my smart 451 cdi sensibly - ie. 60-65 mph max, gentle acceleration and so on. As I drive down the M1, or along a dual carriageway, every time I see a smart going in the same direction it zooms past me at what must be 75-85 mph. I don't think I have ever seen another smart car being driven economically. It is therefore not surprising that smart owners get poorer mpg figures than the official ones.

Someone I know who drives a large car asked me, when he discovered I had a smartie, if all smart car owners drive like a bat out of hell because that was his experience.

Interesting!

I am only on my second tank of diesel, the first one being what the dealer had filled up with pre-purchase. When I filled up I had averaged 58 mpg, which I thought was reasonable for a brand new car and a driver who took a while to adjust to the new driving style (I was revving it all over the place at first). It has definitely done better with the second tank, but will be the end of the week before I fill up.
My husband is a driving instructor and he says his cars NEVER do the mpg they are supposed to, even when he is on holiday and driving normally. Unless you drive the car in controlled conditions while doing everything necessary to conserve fuel you won't get the headline mpg.
I LOVE MY SMART CAR
And today it was the talk of the staff car park because it fitted beautifully into a space that is normally only the domain of motor bikes. From what I can tell the smokers (the only people to regularly inhabit the car park) inspected it in detail and decided it would indeed take the weekly shop.
It has definitely got the thumbs up from my colleagues.

Hi Jools. I'm so glad you're pleased with your smart. I'm well pleased with my cdi, too The best mpg my car has returned is nearly 70 on a mix of London city traffic and a trip to the west midlands. I'm now averaging around 60 mpg. It's not the advertised 85 mpg but I'm not too disappointed with it

The second tank of diesel delivered about 63 mpg. I am hoping it keeps heading in this direction.

first tank on my new 451 achieved approx 55 MPG, more than happy with that, bearing in mind I had a C3 and was getting 30 MPG if i was lucky.

The car is about more than MPG.

The car is about more than MPG.
[/quote]

That is very true but many people like me were drawn by the lure of high MPG. I love my Smart but feel let down as it doesn't achieve what I was led to believe it would, I could accept a few miles difference but many of these are a long way out. As a side note my friends smart does 43 she took it back to the dealer and they stated they could do nothing till it had done 6K miles, anyone else been told this?

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---- Andy ----

My Brabus Roadster Xclusive (in my picture) gets about 53mpg...and I don't drive it sensibly! My fortwo 450 Passion (54 plate) gets about 58mpg and that is modified with a remap and a Brabus turbo and exhaust.

I am not surprised that the Mitsubishi engines don't achieve the mpg that is stated. Let's see what the Renault ones do...

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smartsparky

My CDi is now at the 6k mark and has just given me 460 miles on 28 litres which I think is very reasonable.

However on the way to this figure over the months since purchase it has proved beyond doubt its ability to reflect my driving style given its fickleness at repeating the same MPG figures per blob on the fuel guage,it does however achieve over 100 miles on the first blob every time which is up from a relatively steady 70 to 80 miles on the first blob for about the first 5000 miles.

On a technical note,if each blob represents a different amount of fuel used (i.e. the first blob gives over 100 miles but the second rarely more than 25!!!!) then why is it not possible to just use a digital readout as occurs once the fuel is down to 5 litres left?

Still love the car though.

Latest works out to 61.6 mpg.
Mixed driving, daily commute and Dales roads at weekends.

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http://www.youtube.com/upclosevideo

Does anybody have any mpg figures for the mhd version?

Alan

petrol 1 litre 71 bhp smart mhd getting 38 mpg done 3000 miles had first service garage said tyre pressure was too low we shall see ????

Nobody has responded to my post (9 in this thread) where I commented on my very real observation that every smart car I have ever seen on the road has zoomed past me at great speed. I live in the East Midlands and often travel around Leicester and up and down the M1.

Updated 16 August 2010 at 8:37 PM

Peregrine said...

My CDi is now at the 6k mark and has just given me 460 miles on 28 litres which I think is very reasonable.

However on the way to this figure over the months since purchase it has proved beyond doubt its ability to reflect my driving style given its fickleness at repeating the same MPG figures per blob on the fuel guage,it does however achieve over 100 miles on the first blob every time which is up from a relatively steady 70 to 80 miles on the first blob for about the first 5000 miles.

On a technical note,if each blob represents a different amount of fuel used (i.e. the first blob gives over 100 miles but the second rarely more than 25!!!!) then why is it not possible to just use a digital readout as occurs once the fuel is down to 5 litres left?

Still love the car though.

I am so glad you said this. I thought it was just my fuel gauge the seemed to take forever to drop the first section, but then zoom down the next one in double quick time.

And Yes, I do seem to zoom about in my gorgeous car. I am sure I would get better consumption figures if my right foot wasn't quite so hefty. But what can I say; it just feels so good!
Can't wait for the Festival. A veritable orgy of Smarties.

Peregrine said...

My CDi is now at the 6k mark and has just given me 460 miles on 28 litres which I think is very reasonable.

However on the way to this figure over the months since purchase it has proved beyond doubt its ability to reflect my driving style given its fickleness at repeating the same MPG figures per blob on the fuel guage,it does however achieve over 100 miles on the first blob every time which is up from a relatively steady 70 to 80 miles on the first blob for about the first 5000 miles.

On a technical note,if each blob represents a different amount of fuel used (i.e. the first blob gives over 100 miles but the second rarely more than 25!!!!) then why is it not possible to just use a digital readout as occurs once the fuel is down to 5 litres left?

Still love the car though.

I am still not getting 400 miles out of a tank so I was wondering whether you could provide some ball park estimates for the different miles on the different blobs. I do get about 110 miles on the first blob and then not many on the second but I was wondering what the other blob give you as a comparison.

Flip I don't think I can remember them all with a great degree of accuracy but when I got the 460 miles the fuel guage was telling me I had 3 litres left. As I stated,upon filling the car took 28 litres to fill to the top just before overflow.

As for the "blobs", on that 460 figure I managed 140 miles on the first "blob".

The second gave me its standard 25 ish miles.

By the time the 4th goes out I would usually be over 200 miles.

It seems the "blobs" that give the most miles are the 1st,5th and 7th,the 8th gives virtually nothing.

I regret calling them blobs now!!!!

Peregrine said...

Flip I don't think I can remember them all with a great degree of accuracy but when I got the 460 miles the fuel guage was telling me I had 3 litres left. As I stated,upon filling the car took 28 litres to fill to the top just before overflow.

As for the "blobs", on that 460 figure I managed 140 miles on the first "blob".

The second gave me its standard 25 ish miles.

By the time the 4th goes out I would usually be over 200 miles.

It seems the "blobs" that give the most miles are the 1st,5th and 7th,the 8th gives virtually nothing.

I regret calling them blobs now!!!!

thanks for this information. It is very useful so I can benchmark our car against someone who gets a lot more miles than me.