Smart #3 Review: A good car with an increasingly common problem
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- The Smart #3 is the latest electric car to emerge from the brand that brought us innovative and fun city cars such as the ForTwo, Crossblade and Roadster. This is no city car, however. Instead Smart would like buyers to think of it is an SUV-coupe crossover, although in reality it could just as easily be described as a hatchback.
In this CarGurus UK review, Vicky Parrott tests the new Smart #3 to see how it fares for practicality, technology, performance, quality, charging times and more. And in doing so Vicky uncovers an increasingly common frustration with the interface for the Smart's active safety systems. Would this be enough to put you off considering a Smart #3?
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#cargurusUK #smart3
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
As a Smart #1 owner, I'm a little disappointed at the overall negativity; the "flappy door handles are annoying"...really..?. These cars are thoughtfully designed, extremely well built, and give fantastic value relative to their natural competitors. The UI, while possibly a little unusual at first, is actually extremely helpful; and contrary to what Vicky says, a lot of the everyday settings are only 1 or 2 clicks away, accessible from a special quick access menu. The thing is, modern cars, and particularly EVs, are so sophisticated that you do need to spend a little bit of time to get used to them and the way to work; once you invest the time - and this is the difference between an owner and a reviewer - you can leverage all of their capabilities. Anyway, apart from that gripe, it's good to see the new Smart given a bit of airtime...
I wanted one, test drove one and noticed every interior panel you touch creaks. Dealer said they know and unfortunately they all do. I have to disagree on the build quality, so does the smart dealership
@@Spaxxistlmao what? I sat in multiple and all were very well put together
As an #3 owner, albeit left hand drive (Spain), I agree with your comments regarding the reviewer. I own one since the beginning of may and have had 2 OTA updates which among the improvements and fixes added an additional regen setting, which is indeed a lighter mode, and vehicle to load capability. I too find the car to be very well built with quality components am up to now very happy with the car.
@@elmojito I am interested in the #3, I liked the test drive, but I was turned down by all the driving alerts. What is the quickest way to disable all alerts when I start the car with the current software?
@@Vilmir Before giving you an answer I wanted to check first how quickly the alerts can be disabled and unfortunately there is no magic one step solution. It is hidden somewhat and requires a few steps. It is not hard but I wished they were not somewhat buried in one of the menus. That said, I had to check because I don't even bother to stop them as the volume is quite low and with music, although not played loud, I hardly hear them. But I do wish governments did not force manufacturers to insert all these alerts by law, they are a PIA. But again, I really do enjoy the car and have absolutely no regrets.
Latest update 1.4.1, adds low regen mode and V2L. You can access regen from quick settings button on the main screen. Far left button at the bottom of the screen.
Saw one on the road in France. Liked it, especially the rear
So you'd say it had a smart arse!
@@Amanda-o9w 🤣
Really? It looks so boring!
Maybe it looks better in real life.
Another great video Vicky. 😊👍
saw one the other day, looks great. smooth polished design. definitely will consider.
Thank you Vicki for ranting about the assistance systems. We got a new (US) Honda HR-V and as a car it is not bad, but the assistance systems cause grief - figuring out how to disable them when the worst offender isn't even under the Assistance system menus... horrible. Thank you for your good reviews!
Since the latest version 1.5 update you can now preset & save the vehicle’s assistance systems to your preference, so you can either disable them all or just some. Once set it is then just a swipe down from the top of the screen and pressing the Activate tab, easy. Only downside is that it has to be activated every time you start a new journey, but that’s not a fault of the manufacturer, blame the lovely EU for this
Ive been driving a #1 for about 9 months now. The biggest annoyance for me are the rattles and squeaks from the dashboard and rear doors. The beeps & bongs too but I can still accept those. They can be turn off but they all come back again the next time you start the car. Why can’t smart let us set them as we wish? The lane assist too can be quite dangerous say you going around a bend and cross the line a little, the steering would pull you back and you have to fight that. That too can be turn off until the next time you get in the car. Thankfully the lane assist and regen strength can be set with just one click without going into the menus. Regen is now on 3 levels - low, medium and high. Other than that, I love the car
Seconding the driver-assist point. Here’s the issues I have had with features meant to ‘help’ in some way: 1 - start-stop was meant to help save petrol/gas. In my wife’s clio, it turns out I have a habit of knocking the gears into neutral and coasting, if I see the lights ahead are red, and near. IE not remaining in second until actually de-clutching and stopping. The Clio responds by killing the engine using start-stop. Then, the lights change on me before I reach standstill or even have let the clutch up…now in that situation, the engine will not restart! I first have to let the clutch fully up, then disengage it again, I can engage a gear. The actual practical result is, every 15 minutes of urban driving, i am blocked and delay vehicles behind me, fighting to restart the engine. It’s not at all obvious why Renault didn;t make a check for actually being at a halt. Next…
…2 - the stupid handbrake-assist. I was on a steep hill to lights near us. I await green, there’s a queue of cars behind. The vehicle behind me, is nowhere near a metre away, let alone half a car length, I noted. The car seems willing to halt on the hill - it’s not my car remember - so I think ‘oh that’s nifty’ and settle down to await the light change, not using the actual handbrake…then without warning, the car starts rolling backward at a rate down the hill. I bang on the footbrake. My spouse tells me ‘oh that’s just for thirty seconds or so, the brake assist’. My two questions are firstly, why is there no countdown or ten-second warning given, the auto-brake is about to disengage? Secondly, what a useless facility. For there not even to be a buzzer to alert you the brakes are about to ‘let off’ makes me think lawsuit.
Lastly, 3 - Never mind all the clever cr@p, why no instrument stalk illumination? The first time I drove that car, was in the dark. I opened the door, the courtesy light came on, i got my seat belt on and closed the door - absolutely pitch-black greeted me. I don’t give a monkey’s for start-stop, or steering takeover/lane assist, or handbrake accident-on-a-hill-waiting-to-happen assist, I’d just like everything inside the cabin to be as visible at night as in day, and that necessitates stalk illumination. This is OLD. When the idea came out in the 1980’s of having a needle of clear plastic on the speedo, a single small bulb sent light down, thus making it show up at night, it was smart.
It went on to be used inside indicator stalks etc, making it possible to see all controls at night, just as in day. This car, is a death trap. Blacked-out interior, bereft of any indication of where controls are or what way to turn them, night-time driving in bad weather is plain dangerous. Add in the nutty start-stop losing you engine power, and the nuttier auto-brake choosing when to silently quit on you, I genuinely would happily hear if bad news had befallen the car parked on St. Malo for example! So, I commend you mentioning this stuff. Any car forcing this to be accepted by me, I cannot choose, if there’s an equal alternative permitting easy and permanent, dormancy of assists.
Thanks for ranting about turning driver 'assists' off Vicky. I'm so grateful I have a modern sports car without any of them. I will never buy a car that makes them difficult to turn off.
They are mandatory now
@@MaticTheProto Your correct however other car makers make it easier to switch off, Renault for one. is on one button.
@MaticTheProto as Vicky said in the video, they are dangerous at times (in my opinion all the time) as they take control away from the driver. A prime example is 100 yards from my house, the road merges from 2 lanes to 1, and lane keep erratically steers you to the right as soon as the centre dashed line disappears. I've driven a few hire cars where it's multiple sub menus to turn them off. I'll literally NEVER buy a car that I can't easily turn them off with a single button press.
How they call them "safety features" but then hide essential driving settings within sub menus on touch screens blows my mind. It safer to send a text while driving than to use these screens most of the time.
@@jameschapman4824 fair.
@@jameschapman4824 not quite one button, but firmware ver 1.5 has a setting where the user can configure certain things including the speed alert to stay off. Once done it is swipe down from top of the screen and click the activate tab
Beautiful car ❤
I find this "smart is not what it used to be"-argument so strange. Yes, people who liked those tiny cars (me among them) loved them. And we were always a group much too tiny to make it worthwhile for Mercedes. They tried. Tried again, then even cooperated with Renault for the last attempt, and it kept failing for decades. People just don't want tiny two-seaters. So the new smart (Geely/Mercedes) is going a completely different route. This is not only understandable, but perfectly fine. So if a whole video starts with bashing the brand, it's just not much fun to watch for me. I'm perfectly okay with talking about actual pros and cons of a car, but if you want the car to replicate decades of failure and fault if for fixing those problems, I'd say the failure in this case is on the reporter, mainly.
Well said
You got that right man
She literally said that she's over expecting them to do small cars and that that's not the case anymore. Her point was that Smart was known for being brave with it's designs in the past and I agree with her in that I think it is lacking. It's a perfectly fine car but to be honest it could be a Mercedes or any number of Chinese EVs. I don't think that's brand bashing - it's just a comment on the design which while subjective is still talking pros and cons.
Latest update Ota 1.5 adds driver profiles where you can really set everything up the way you like and it's two clicks to enable it when you start the car so they really listened.
Now we wait for Brabus to launch the mental Brabus #3!
It's different and interesting from all the other vehicles available.
Seems like a splendid little car, little here in America anyway. I don’t thing we’ll get it here but it would be a bit more exotic here as we don’t have quite the selection you have. Perhaps we have more extra large EVs but not so many interesting and smallish ones.
It is definately not a small car. Appearance is bigger than it actually is. Almost like a Model Y. (It is shorter though)
@@SerialKoE I stand corrected, at 173 inches it fits into what we’d call the compact SUV. It’s on the small size for the category, but definitely not a subcompact. I drive a 2021 Rav4 Prime and it still feels large to me but most of my neighbors have larger vehicles. Pickups and Midsize SUV, so I’m guessing they’d find the #3 to be small if it ever made it to the US. What’s up with the “#” in the name of the car?
@@Molishious Sure, in the US you guys are used to much bigger cars. The #, no idea. They just love to call their whole fleet hashtag 1, 2 ,3 ,4 for no obvious reason ;)
To people complaining that it's not like the Smart cars of the past ... well, that's why they ultimately died. So I don't think Geely would want to continue in the small overpriced car.
As the new owner of a #3, I'm so in love with it.
I only use "one-pedal", so I can't speak about regen.
"security" features that need to be deactivated each time is like all new cars from 2024. EU made those mandatory so you can't blame Smart for that. Hopefully they will make it possible to deactivate them in a single click (at least they are all on the same screen so once you're use to it's quick to deactivate).
But I remember when I tested the car in march that the UI scared me (so many parameters and stuff). Owning the car and I feel that it's quite good even-though not perfect.
Fully agree as a #3 owner. For the time being we can still turn the Beats Audio System volume up to cover the assistant beeps. :) I even stopped turning them off all the time. In the end they work very well.
@@SerialKoE Unfortunately for me, it quite often thinks that it's limited to 30 when in fact it's 50 or even 80 (it somehow read a sign somewhere). So I need to deactivate them. At least it doesn't beep straight away, which is a good thing.
@@johngonon1507 My old Mercedes did much worse. It could be better but I am ok with it so far. I think there will be an update in the future to further improve the sign detection.
I love the Maybach/Bentley style massive disc wheels.
The alloys below these plastic disc covers are looking good as well. But I have to admit that the Bentley stile with the covers is growing on me as well.
Visually from the front, it reminds me of my childhood, watching Popeye as a kid, only there's no pipe!
It's an SUV-Coupe Mercedes and people say EVs are the problem?
... 💀
So the car's really quite good, as stated at the end: Tell that to your tone and face next time before you tell the camera man to hit "record". ;)
Seen numerous reviewers of the new Smart EVs trying their hardest to sh*t on the cars. Even down to criticism of the name hashtag one. Even if Smart just called it the Smart 3 they will no doubt find some way to criticise.
Is that a comfy central arm rest? Looks a bit the opposite...
Smart #1 has similar armrest, very comfy for me.
Entry level costs £18k here in China. I'm considering it 😎 But I'm spoiled for choice... If I get a Chinese brand. Some of them are offering lifetime warranty now, insane!
There are high quality, energy dense LFP batteries available from CATL and BYD, no need to use NMC batteries any more. This will make the car even more sustainable and should be cheaper too.
Sadly I do not think we will ever see these in North America. Too bad, for someone who hates the SUV trend we are all supposed to love.
Ah I used to love Smart. Admittedly I never bought one but I always liked their character. The modern ones seem a little bland to me
central console Reminds me of Alien film architecture !
Yes I was about to write that it's rather reptilian, but your simile is better
Have you seen the interior of the Cupra Tavascan, thats Aliens mothership.
Hello Vicky
I thought the #3 was pretty impressive. I like the exterior, interior, features and quality level. But the software scared me away. Why is there a home screen instead of opening with the navigation front and center like any decent car? Didn't mind the illustrations that much but horrendous use of whitespace, icons that look like a website from the 1990s and terrible UI design. Such a shame, it would likely have been my next car if it wasn't for those software issues.
I really don't like the styling of the #1 but weirdly I think it works quite well here and it's a decent looking car, if a little anonymous. However it feels like it's just trying too hard. The really stupid name (#), the puerile UI, slightly Dolly Partonesque buttons on the seats etc etc. All smacks of something desperately trying to be cool and hip and ending up slightly embarrassing. I also can't unsee Beaker from the Muppets when I look at the centre console. That coupled with the low res animal haunting the centre screen and I'll pass thanks.
Not a patch on the upcoming Kia EV3, certainly in terms of looks.
Smart car?...I prefer Clever girl 👧!
Can you be smart and bland at the same time? Yes, one of teachers was like that … dressed in beige, no character whatsoever.
Losing the essence of Smart, but I do like the interior.
I really don’t understand why people are sh*tting on the new Smart cars. I suppose car reviewers like this stuck up woman doesn’t do any favours. Back in 2023 I pre ordered a Volvo EX30 which I promptly cancelled after seeing the Smart #1. Other than the front passenger door handle not retracting fully which was promptly fixed under warranty, it has been absolutely reliable. No creaks or rattles developed in over a year of ownership and As my car was registered before the EU law regarding the assistance systems was brought in, all I had to do was disable any or all the assistance bings and bongs and it would stay off. However with the newest 1.5 update it has added the function to disable the cars assistance functions to your liking, activated by a simple swipe down and pressing a button on the display. Also V2L amongst a raft of other refinements was added.
I have since sold the #1 Brabus to a friend who is equally impressed with it as I was and now have a #3 Brabus on order which should be with me by the end of this month.
The colour and wheels aren’t doing this car any justice
Forgettable is being too kind😂.
Given that Geely is not at all a stranger to small and even quadricyle EVs such as the Geely Panda, there should be no excuse for supposed Smart #2 ForTwo successor to be made available yesterday.
But crossover SUVs are way more profitable...
Lol. Completely different car format.
"You can't really complain at that with a car starting at 32,000 pounds..."
ARE YOU FUCKIN' kidding us lady?!! Since when are 32k CHEAP??? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It’s not a Smart car, it’s another two ton Chinese washing machine. Since when was starting at £37,000 “reasonably priced’? It’s annoying that journalists have swallowed this whole EV con without question and try to tell us they’re good value. An old Smart was a different concept completely.
If this was a Geely branded car, fair enough, but it doesn’t deserve a Smart badge.
The Goddess has spoken. Bow dow, behold and take heed!
This brand died long ago. Long live the CityCoupe and ForTwo, and the Roadster.
To bad that Geely didn't keep Smart as Smart was small city car, but decided to make another EV SUV.
Great review 😊❤
Bad? The fortwo was losing Mercedes money
Nobody wanted these small 2 seated city cars. Mercedes tried hard but failed multiple times with that concept. There was no sufficient market for such cars to make it a profitable niche.
It’s the gaps in the panels how wide
I test drove one, the whole interior creaks. Every single panel, when you drop into the seat the dash creaks. I mentioned this to the sales guy “everything creaks” and he replied “yeah… they all do that unfortunately”
It's a Chinese car, what would you expect?
Don't care about looks, get on with specs!
Wheels are awesome. Cameraman is clueless
Bottom line, ignore this one and wait for the gremlins to be fixed in the facelift/upgrade before buying one. Couldn't agree more about the driver aids comments. It's insane that such controls which need to be adjusted in real time aren't on easily accessible, preferably physical, designated buttons. Yes use IT on cars but the current crop of designers need to remember these are cars, heavy, dangerous chunks of metal that need the full attention of the driver not video games that can be re-set when a crash happens.
Nah. I can‘t remember the last time I needed to change them. And if you use your indicator it isn’t actually stopping you from switching lanes (crazy right?).
Also the Smart OS is updated every 2 months or so
Looks like it was styled by Playmobil
Is it hash tag? It looks like just a hash to me
Those rims @ £40k! 🤮🤮🤮
Burying important control settings down in a multi-layer menu system is fundamentally unsafe and bad design. This car is completely unacceptable to me for that reason
Most of the assist systems, together with brake regen and s-pedal braking can be accessed in one menu from the far left hand menu button. In addition, latest OTA update gives low regen.
Lol. Almost all cars do that, except that most settings here are quite easy to reach
# is as naf as the ! on the up. Embarrassing.
that interior is grim...couldn't live with it
My Little Tykes had a better interior than this!!
This is one of the blandest and more generic looking designs ever.
To make.yhings worse, they made 3 that look exactly the same.
To add insult to injury, they didn't even bother with getting a cool name.
Hard pass.
🤠♾️💜☀️👍🏻🌞
😮better than anything produced in bitten 😂
No, nope, niet, never.
Off brand bland Mercedes 😂old smart might have been niche but were different and offers small and quirk looking cars.
So you need to forget the name smart like people complain about the new ford capri not been a capri
Wtf is that😂😂😂 just plain awful.
Way too expensive, don't like the design.
Expensive yes but I can tell you that most people love the design. I have a #3 Premium and man this car steals the show to literally everything else on the road.
😂😂😂
Thank you Vicky for taking your time for reviewing this piece of shit, so we don't buy it.
😂😂😂 wtf.... awful machine