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

compare selected cars
2001. - 2004.
A - Micro car
hatchback, 3 door
front
Badges
Production
Vehicle class
Body style
Wheel drive
Safety
2002. - 2004.
A - Micro car
hatchback, 3 door
rear

Marketing

Dimensons & Outlines

3551 mm
1639 mm
1460 mm
130 liters
790 liters
35 liters
Length
Width
Height
Boot (min)
Boot (max)
Fuel tank
2500 mm
1515 mm
1549 mm
150 liters
479 liters
22 liters
2001 Seat Arosa
2002 Smart City-Coupe

Engine

Volkswagen
1.4 16V
Petrol
4 - Inline, 4 valves per cylinder
Nat. Asp.
1390 cc
100 hp
126 Nm
Engine
Fuel
Configuration
Aspiration
Displacement
Power
Torque
Smart / Mercedes Benz
0.7 Suprex 75
Petrol
3 - Inline, 2 valves per cylinder
Turbo
698 cc
75 hp
110 Nm

Performance (manual gearbox)

manual gearbox - 5 gears
921 kg
10.0 s
188 km/h
9.3 l/100km
5.1 l/100km
6.6 l/100km
158 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

Performance (automatic gearbox)

 
kg
s
km/h
l/100km
l/100km
l/100km
g/km
Gearbox type
Vehicle weight
Acc. 0-100
Top speed
Cons. (urban)
Cons. (highway)
Cons. (average)
CO2 emissions
automatic - 6 gears
730 kg
12.3 s
150 km/h
6.5 l/100km
4.6 l/100km
5.3 l/100km
g/km

Expenses

1600 EUR
Price from
1300 EUR

Virtual Adviser's™ opinion

Overview

Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by petrol engines and utilizing the 3-door hatchback body style within the same 'Micro car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (front for the Seat and rear in the case of the Smart). The first one has a Volkswagen-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 100hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 3-cylinder, 6-valves 75hp engine designed by Smart.

Safety

The fact that the Smart got tested by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP), while the other contender didn't, isn't really an advantage, taken the poor 3-star rating it received. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the micro car segment, which is generally a misfortune safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? Furthermore, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, the Spanish car offers a considerable difference of 26% more metal.

Reliability

Reliability is not the best thing to consider on the make level, but it is worth mentioning that Smart does have a slight advantage, when all the models are taken into account. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Seat with an average rating of 4.4, and models under the Smart badge with 3.9 out of 5. Unfortunatelly, I don't have enough insight that would allow me to comment in more details on the specific models level. We should definitely mention that owners of cars with the same powertrain as the Spanish car rank it on average as 2.7, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 3.0 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

Seat is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2.3 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 188 kilometers per hour, 38km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be the German car, averaging around 5.3 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (53 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 25% difference compared to the Spanish car.


Verdict

Smart 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 this case though, it seems that both cars show similar levels of passenger protection all together, so that won't break a tie. But one thing that actually could is the performance, with Seat being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... No mistake, whatever you decide here, but I'd still go for the Smart. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. 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, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.

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