Advise Looking to buy an iQ

[Ukjonathan]

Hi
    I’m a newbie member And I’m looking to buy an iQ and looking for some a dive which would be greatly excepted.

I fancy the auto box one but a little unsure as I will be buying roughly a 10 year old car with them not being made anymore.

Im looking for a lowing mileage  under 50 thousand And with all of the above I thought maybe a manual gearbox would be a better bet.

Ive had quite a few smart and loved driving them and was thinking of buying another but then I thought about the iQ. It will be a second car just for going for days out in. Any advice ?

Jonathan 

 

 

i 

[mick787]

We bought a MY 2013 to use as a 'second car'.  Really, it is the car in our household that is getting most use, (local runs.) We have a large diesel engined Volvo to do the heavy work or do longer runs. We have had the IQ for almost a year now and it has just run up 13,000 miles on the clock! Having owned one previously, it was a car my wife missed so much, so we got rid of a BMW i3REX and went back to the IQ. It is a little cracker. Zero VEL, (unlike the BMW), it is doing 49mpg around town. We found a low mileage manual box version. No bells and whistles, not much to go wrong. The price was slightly above the going rate, but it had all the paperwork with it so there was no concern about it being a dodgy car. The only thing I've found was that the tyres had perished along with wiper arm seals. The headlights had started to fog up because of the car not being garaged and the sun taking its toll on the plastic. We have since changed the auxiliary belts again because of time and removing the worry of them failing. There were a couple around in our area, I guess it depends on your budget. I did hear that they are starting to become a desired car and as such prices are starting to go up. Good luck.

[john p williams]

1 minute ago, mick787 said:

We bought a MY 2013 to use as a 'second car'.  Really, it is the car in our household that is getting most use, (local runs.) We have a large diesel engined Volvo to do the heavy work or do longer runs. We have had the IQ for almost a year now and it has just run up 13,000 miles on the clock! Having owned one previously, it was a car my wife missed so much, so we got rid of a BMW i3REX and went back to the IQ. It is a little cracker. Zero VEL, (unlike the BMW), it is doing 49mpg around town. We found a low mileage manual box version. No bells and whistles, not much to go wrong. The price was slightly above the going rate, but it had all the paperwork with it so there was no concern about it being a dodgy car. The only thing I've found was that the tyres had perished along with wiper arm seals. The headlights had started to fog up because of the car not being garaged and the sun taking its toll on the plastic. We have since changed the auxiliary belts again because of time and removing the worry of them failing. There were a couple around in our area, I guess it depends on your budget. I did hear that they are starting to become a desired car and as such prices are starting to go up. Good luck.

Ah, words from a wise motorist !

[mick787]

Thank you John P Williams. With age comes experience and when someone asks, I can only give them honest facts from personal experience.

One thing I did forget to mention to UKJonathan was that we have owned a Smart ForTwo, it had the original engine and it lasted 40,000miles before the engine blew up. That was despite full main dealer servicing from new. If you want advice....... steer well clear of Smart as a brand. An IQ beats them hands down in every aspect.

Just look around UKJonathan, they are out there and be prepared to travel, you won't regret it.

[herby the cls]

Hi, we have had 3 smart cars, 2 from new, both the new ones were ok for the first 2 years of ownership and the week after the warranty ran out { only 2 year

warranty with smarts } they started getting intermittent faults, engine management faults and going into limp mode which smart could not rectify!! first couple of

visits were FOC goodwill repair they called it, if the truth be known they probably plugged into the diagnostics and just put the light out, then the next time it

went back they decided it needed a new wiring loom at a cost to me of £1250, so part ex for a new diesel one, very similar story after 2 years the EML and limp

mode started, and surprise surprise they couldn't fix it, and again suggested a new wiring loom and to top it all the price had gone up to £1900 and they were not

100% sure that it would cure the fault, LOL Well I started looking round the service department for Jeremy Beadle to jump out on me and tell me it was all a prank, but no he was not there. 

I drove from there straight to Car Giant and part Ex'd it for a year old IQ auto with only 3800 miles on the clock, we bought this as a second car but to be honest

the Mercedes stays in the garage most of the time and like mick787 says only comes out for long journeys or when the Mrs has got the IQ, we love this car, in

the 8 years we have owned it it hasnt missed a beat and it has only cost us a new set of tyres and regular servicing, its a great little car to drive, comfortable,

enough room in the back for picking up the grandkids from school occasionally, and a fantastic turning circle, we would really miss this car if anything ever

happened to it and we would have to get another one, just a shame they have stopped making them.

So UKjonathon I would not hesitate getting one, you wont regret it

 

[tokillapigeon]

Based off lots of reading in this forum and my own experience:

Look for noisy but brief vibrations when the car is at 2000rpm, a very common issue with the manuals and more prevalent in the lower gears. This is only fixed with a new clutch

Look for signs of dampness or water damage in the footwells, a sign that the AC unit has been leaking into the cabin (many people mention this in the forums)

There are some EGR related issues on the very early models, normally denoted by a lack of power and fuel economy. If you test drive the car and it gets lower than 40mpg, I'd avoid

Other than that, I don't know of any other potential issues!

EDIT: 

Oh and the white paint has been known to peel, other colours seem fine

[flash22]

Late model IQ3 1.33 can fetch serious money 1.0 and 1.33 they will out last the car if looked after properly oil changes with a quality oil is a must, Autos are CVT, 5/6 speeds are usually reliable, but you need to keep on top of oil levels as they can throw 5th and 6th - the gearboxes are also specific to the IQ as the drive shafts are at the front of the engine rather than across the back as in a conventional FWD setup, as above Toyota and white paint have issues it's not just the IQ

re. Smart - they eat SAM modules, basically a poor design, 2 PCBs folded back to back via a stiff ribbon cable and minimal damping between them, oh and those semi auto gearboxes need i say more