With its high seating position, narrow body, turbocharged 698cc engine and a surprising amount of dry-weather grip, the Brabus can travel at a fair old lick - something that seemed to irritate a lot of people in 'proper' cars. They'd do stupid things to try to keep their pride intact once I'd overtaken them, such as trying to re-pass me. Irritating other drivers was part of the charm with this car; a pleasure that I never tired of.

I only took custody of the Smart as a runabout and didn't intend to cover 13,000 miles in it. With friends and family living several hundred miles away I reasoned this wasn't the ideal car for long motorway runs. But, surprisingly enough, long journeys weren't much of a hardship and could be completed in comfort. The only downside was that it did get blown about on motorways during windy weather.

Another downside was the lack of a rear wash-wipe. Although the electric canvas roof was great during last summer's heatwave, I wished I'd had the City-Coupe instead. The plastic screen on my City-Cabrio became impossible to see through thanks to the flat back of the car attracting the winter grime, making rear vision worse than if the car had a frosted glass window. The air-con didn't cope too well with winter either, taking an age to demist the windscreen.

The handling was fun once you'd gauged how much front-end grip there was, with plenty of feel through the unassisted steering. What was surprising was how little grip the fat rear tyres (205/45 R16) had in the wet. After a few heart-pounding third-gear moments I was glad of the electronic safety systems stepping in to keep the Brabus on the black stuff. Strangely, though, it always made me giggle and attempt the same thing on the next corner.

While the ESP and ABS systems worked well, there must have been a glitch in the electronics because virtually once a month the warning lights on the dashboard flickered on. Each time I simply pulled over and restarted the engine, which seemed to do the trick. I didn't bother to visit the dealer with this problem, but Jeremy and Sara Howitt emailed to say it's best to get it checked out. They had a similar problem with their non-Brabus Smart which led to a total loss of power. A new accelerator sensor cured the problem at a cost of ΂£250.
I didn't get the chance to experience the dealer network. Although I booked the car in at a local dealer for its 7500-mile service (they quoted ΂£140 for the work), I was told that the car had to be returned to DaimlerChrysler's press garage. This made me wonder if it has sorted out its less than brilliant reputation in terms of customer service.

Having the smallest and slowest (on paper) car at evo, I never felt short-changed with the Smart. The engine's mini-911 soundtrack and endless heel-and-toe braking to smooth out the jerky downshifts kept me entertained so much that I often chose the Smart over more exotic machines at weekends.

And that has nothing to do with me being a miser and the Smart returning 40mpg.