Ok Ive been pestered for ages now the Mrs wants a Smart, so what do I look for never so much as looked at one previously.

There is a 53 plate one for sale just down road from us thats she's after, can be had for well under £2k good buy, bad buy, whats the things I should be looking at ?

regular oil changes, gearbox smooth, no chuffing from ehaust manifold area (they crack on the wastegate area) and good tyres.... worthwhile if you are going to service it yourself, to get a sump pan with a drain plug, easier to drain oil at home (or you need to pump it out!) and put correct plugs in it (6 of them!) always worthwhile a decent remap, makes driving them a little more fun! Andy Shipp at Sussex Cars always worth chatting to, I built my Hyabusa Smart with him after tuning a 600cc Smart...

[Edited on 19/9/10 by tombstone]

You should look for a 'busa engine in the back

SWMBO had one for six months and once you get used to the performance (or lack of it) you can zip around quite quickly. It used oil at an alarming rate and as it didn't have a drain plug I bought a vacuum pump which sucked it out of the dipstick hole! I ended up giving it monthly oil changes (yes monthly) as the oil was always totally knackered after a few thousand miles.
Suspension is rock hard and my dodgy back didn't like it much. The wheelbase is so short you feel every bump twice as bad as any normal car. These little things hate potholes and one rainy night time encounter cost me a new shock, spring, wheel and steering rack -Smart = Mercedes = damn expensive parts.

Try and talk her into a little hot hatch - much easier for all concerned.

make sure the service history is either with a specialist or mercades. Three plugs are easy to get too, three aren't. If the three difficult ones aren't done its supposed to cause all sorts of problems long term.

(i like them and often lust after one as an inner city run around - except i don't have the space, money or live in the city)

Great cars for the city and they arnt that bad performance wise. People say that they are slow but its a car for the city look at the site http://www.evilution.co.uk/.

They are a run around and a tool for shopping and short hops.
Great fun .

Tyres and exhausts are expensive.

Oh and I can sell you the plug tool and the oil vacuum....