My first encounter with a smart was way back in the 90's when I was in Paris. Being a long-time car fanatic, I was pretty much taken with it when I first saw it. I stopped a man on the street and after asking if he spoke English (and him giving me the so-so hand wiggle), I pointed to the tiniest car I had ever seen and asked, Electric? He said, No, no, petrol. Of course, I went over and spent a good amount of time looking at it (anxiously awaiting some American hating Parisian to come and have me frog-walked to the nearest jail cell).
Being the car nut that I am, I then found my way to the Paris dealership and spent a great amount of time talking with the sales people (who did speak English) and walked away with several brochures in hand (still have 'em, too). At the time, they were roughly 14,000 French Francs.
Ever since then, every trip to Europe has me in a smart rental (Sixt is the only rental agency that rents the smart.) I travel a good amount for work so I have spent many a day in my favorite car.
Last time (couple of months ago), I was working in Germany, flew into Zurich and drove to see my cousin - about a seven hour drive from the airport I flew into. As I drove on the Autobahn, I loved how it just licked at the gas tank. I got almost all the way to my destination on one tank of gas (I was shy by about 15 miles, which I probably could have made, but gas stations are a bit few and far between when you're in the German countryside). Seven hour drive on one tank of gas! And I was not just doing a bit of a toodle, I was pushing the limits big time. (FYI, for those who might ask, the smart rocks at most speeds, but at about 83 mph, it looses its footing and doesn't feel quite as securely on the road as at lower speeds...but who's going to drive a SMART at 83 mph here in the US? Being someone whose background is first muscle cars and then BMW's, I hadda take the SMART to the limit. It handled beyond what I could or would have expected!)
I love driving the smart. Always have and always will. I play on buying one soon. Originally, I was going to have my cousin get a used one and then ship it to me. As I see the technology changing, I think I am going to get a new sometime next year.
It's such an amazing car. The MPG is outstanding (which makes my romps through whatever country I happen to be in that much cheaper), but damn if it's not the cutest little thing, and totally fun to drive to boot. It's absolutely enormous inside. The cabin most definitely belies its true size. If you didn't know it was so small outside you'd never believe you were in a car of its size from just being inside. I think the feel is that of a much larger vehicle (my day to day car is a BMW X3). It's nowhere near as big as an X3, but hey, it's mostly just me (or me and the pooch) and there's more than enough from for the two of us. If another human joins us, well, it might be a bit of a stretch for her, as she's 85 pounds of pooch. That's what the X3 is for...those few times I actually have other humans with me.
I will be amongst the owners who are on this board soonish.
Thought I would say HI and introduce myself.
Cheers one and all!
Joanne
Far northern Chicago suburbs
Today
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