I’ve previously bought spare parts for my old Smart Fortwo coupe, from the garage smartcars.dk, but this is the first time I have used their garage.
Actually I tried to contact them, back when I had issues with my Lambda sensor, but I couldn’t get hold of them by email.
This time I had better luck,
It was fun seeing their workshop. It is not the largest workshop, but with tiny Smart’s everywhere, the garage would have needed to be several times larger to accommodate as many regular sedans or station wagons.
The reason I visited them was that I needed a new rear wheel bearing, and I have been experiencing starting issues lately.
There has also been a few engine warning light issues, and a rise in “Limp mode” activations.
The Smartcars loaner car
I was pleasantly surprised today, when I handed over the keys to my own fortwo to smartcars.dk’s owner, and he gave me the keys to an undefined “petrol Smart, older model than mine”. I walked outside to the long row of Smart cars, and pressed the unlock button on the key fob, expecting to se the oldest most warn car in the lot, flash it’s amber lights back at me…
Instead it turned out, that the flashing bulbs were from a cabriolet, with a recognisable dual central exhaust.
My first thought was that it must be a replica, with a look-a-like centre exhaust, but getting closer, I must admit that it looked the part, with Brabus written all the right places, full leather cabin and extra equipment.
Read my thoughts about the Smart Brabus loaner car here.
Picking up my Smart fortwo Cabrio
My fortwo was ready to be picked up, the next day as promised.
I have enjoyed my 24 hours with the Brabus, but I had no issues swapping the keys back to my own.
I must admit that of the two engines, I prefer the diesel. Especially when looking at the fuel bill 😳💸
The new bearing made the car almost silent again (almost as in it no longer deafened the noise from the engine and the soft-top), and the engine didn’t go into limp mode every time it ran in idle.
I got a very good feeling, from visiting them, and even though they are 50 km from home, I’m sure that I’ll continue to use them.
They seem fair, and far more knowledgeable on Smarts, compared to Sørby Autocenter, who I used the last time I had issues.
UPDATE:
Four days have passed (and quite a lot of kilometres), and there has been no sign of limp mode, or engine lights.
However the starting issues are still there.
I will try running it over the next week or two to see if it gets better, if not I’ll get send it back to Smartcars.
However I have not experienced it, not firing up on the first attempt. Before the visit it had a week where it sometimes didn’t start before the second attempt.
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