Miss HubNut road test! How will she find THAT gearbox? 

I am one of those bizarre people who finds automatics a lot harder to drive smoothly than manuals. At very low speed, it's because you only have one control - the accelerator - to control the power, whereas in a manual, especially with a diese that has bags of torque at low revs, I tend to let the engine idle and control the speed by letting the clutch up and down as need be. That's when inching forwards/backwards when parking or when crawling along at low speed in a traffic jam. At normal driving speed, the problem is that the damn thing changes gear when I don't want to - accelerating smoothly our of a roundabout is a problem because I either get a highr gear with little accelerator pressure or else with fractionally more throttle the thing changes down into a stupidly low gear and the engine, which suddenly finds its load reduces, speeds up and makes the car surge forward. I want to stay in the same gear and apply a bit more power, staying in the same gear during the whole period of acceleration. Maybe I'm too set in my ways of driving a manual. If I had a semi-auto or a DSG, I imagine I'd use it in manual mode so *I* get to choose when/if I change gear but the gearbox handles the grunt work of achieving a smooth rev-matched gearchange. I suppose the best DSG is one which has automatic clutches for normal gear changes but still has a clutch pedal that is only used for very low speed crawling when you want finer control than can be achieved only by moving the throttle pedal.

My first automatic experience in a car was a mk1 Mondeo 1.8 which had a double width brake pedal. First time I came to a stop, I went for the clutch pedal...

@@Teribus13 And caught the over-sized brake pedal and nearly shot through the window? ;-)

@@Mortimer50145 absolutely correct 😂

So much fun!

A Smart Roadster is even better for that! Had the pleasure to drive one for a day. That thing is fun!

I agree, I have loved watching all the smart car videos. I myself have a 451 2010 CDI and a Roadster and they are both sooooo much fun 👍

I did that at a roundabout about 10 min after getting the car, it stopped quicker than I was expecting, I did feel stupid but it was funny afterwards.

Nah. Full manual life for Little Miss HubNut. Smart now sold.

its been sold

@@davidjack825 That was quick, but needs must, I suppose.

@@ThreeCoos yes plus she cannot see past that horrible charade

Oh yes. Elly will be a challenge for sure. She's quite stroppy...

I'm a little lady too, but I'm 5ft4, Ms hubnut must be a little shorter than myself? I've a 451 in orange as my daily. 3mth on, I absolutely adore my Basil! ❤🎉

Normally that woudl be fine, but how does it handle the job of slowing down to a junction in the gear in which you approach (eg 6th) and then changing directly from that gear to the one you find that you need for accelerating away again? Do you have to very rapidly change down through the gears as you are braking? Maybe I'd need to forget what I was taught for my IAM test (direct top-to-second/third changes) and go back to the sequential way that I had to learn to pass my original test in 1981 and which has since been deprecated ;-)

BIG difference in ride quality for sure.

Having driven both back to back, I can't say I felt much difference in ride comfort. Noise, yes. 451 definitely more peaceful.

@@HubNut maybe the one I drove had collapsed suspension then haha. It was absolutely rock solid, while the newer model handled the bumps respectably.

I just hold my foot in place. Unless you're really flooring it, it's quite smooth.

Would highly recommend Smart ownership

It leaves the fleet this week...

I like the smart car to ps i miss the Reliant you certainly put alot into the van