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Compare any two cars and get our Virtual Adviser™ opinion

Car #1
Make
Model
Variant
Engine
Car #2
Make
Model
Variant
Engine

compare selected cars
2003. - 2006.
S - Sports car
cabriolet, 2 door
rear
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2005. - 2009.
S - Sports car
cabriolet, 2 door
rear

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

3427 mm
1615 mm
1192 mm
131 liters
145 liters
35 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
3995 mm
1720 mm
1255 mm
150 liters
150 liters
50 liters
2003 Smart Roadster
2005 Mazda MX-5

Engine

Smart / Mercedes Benz
0.7 Suprex 61
Petrol
3 - Inline, 2 valves per cylinder
Turbo
698 cc
61 hp
95 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
1798 cc
125 hp
169 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 6 gears
790 kg
15.5 s
160 km/h
6.2 l/100km
4.1 l/100km
4.9 l/100km
117 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
manual gearbox - 5 gears
1055 kg
9.4 s
196 km/h
9.9 l/100km
5.8 l/100km
7.3 l/100km
174 g/km

Performance (automatic gearbox)

automatic - 6 gears
790 kg
15.5 s
160 km/h
6.4 l/100km
4.4 l/100km
5.1 l/100km
122 g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km

Expenses

2000 EUR
Price from
5400 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the sports car segment and utilize the same 2-door cabriolet body style and the rear wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Smart-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 3-cylinder, 6-valves 61hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 125hp engine designed by Mazda.

Safety

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the sports car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, but that fact doesn't break the tie between the two cars. On the other hand, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, the Japanese car offers a potentially life-saving difference of 34% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that both brands display similar results in faults and breakdowns, at least on all of the models level. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Smart with an average rating of 3.9, and models under the Mazda badge with 4.4 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed Roadster as average reliability-wise, and MX-5 is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the German car rank it on average as 4.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.6 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

Mazda is way more agile, reaching 100km/h in 6.1 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 196 kilometers per hour, 36km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be the German car, averaging around 4.9 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (58 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 49% difference compared to the Japanese car!


Verdict

Mazda appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the Japanese car offers much better overall protection, which launches it ahead of the other contender. It all continues in the same direction, with Mazda outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... It's really tough to make a final decision here, but if I'd need to, I'd say Mazda. Nevertheless, let's not forget that people have different preferences and needs, so what really counts is your personal feel. I'm only here to help. I suggest you spend two more minutes in order to find out which car, based on your needs and budget, would be picked by the virtual adviser, out of 12.000+ vehicles we currently have in our database.

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