Taking a test drive tomorrow...

[Eurometal]

Hey all,

It looks like my wife and I are going to the Benz dealer tomorrow to take a test drive. I drove a diesel version in Germany in the summer, so we'll see how it comares to the gas model and take it from there.

This seems like a good community and I look forward to picking your guys' brains in the near future.

[mvaldes]

Welcome, we'll look forward to being picked! Hope you can sell your wife on it, the smart is lots of fun.

[Benjamin]

I'm pretty shure you will like it. However, beware of your wife...she will want a convertible...My wife fell in love with smart after about 2min behind the wheel (I like it too)...so now we have to get one as well.

[forestacademy]

You can pick our brains but you won't find much left. Maybe collectively we have one brain and now with yours we will have two. At least for now.

[Eurometal]

Originally Posted by mvaldes

Welcome, we'll look forward to being picked! Hope you can sell your wife on it, the smart is lots of fun.

My wife loves the concept of the Smart, but she's never driven it. I'm not completely sold on it yet...the one I drove in Germany was a base model diesel cabrio with no paddle shifters and no tachometer so I just left it in automatic mode and dealt with the massive lurching. But 300+km through the mountains on 11L of diesel was pretty impressive. And I'm confident that driving it in manual mode will make it much smoother and more fun.

Originally Posted by Benjamin

I'm pretty shure you will like it. However, beware of your wife...she will want a convertible...My wife fell in love with smart after about 2min behind the wheel (I like it too)...so now we have to get one as well.

No, she has skin like a vampire...I'm pretty sureshe can get a sunburn from a candle. No cabrio for us.

Originally Posted by forestacademy

You can pick our brains but you won't find much left. Maybe collectively we have one brain and now with yours we will have two. At least for now.

With mine it might be up to 1.00001.

Thanks for the welcome

[Eurometal]

Test drive done.... I've got to say it was much better than the base model diesel version I drove in Germany. The one we test drove today was an '09 Passion. The steering felt more responsive and it was much quiker with far less lurching when shifting. We were impressed.

We also tested a Honda Fit after that. It seemed kind of "meh" after driving the smart. The fit was a smoother ride, but just less...interesting. Also, paying more money for less features (no heated mirrors, no heated seats, no panoramic roof, no alloy wheels etc.) doesn't make a lot of sense. Keep in mind that I say this with my last 2 cars being Hondas.

So I have an appointment Wednesday to take my car to the Benz dealer to get it appraised for trade-in...hopefully they work some decent numbers for me.

[fpage77]

Yup the smart is a car few get and many regret. I hope you enjoy your smart.

[Eurometal]

Originally Posted by fpage77

Yup the smart is a car few get and many regret. I hope you enjoy your smart.

Well, it's not a done deal yet, but hopefully we hammer something out.

[Eurometal]

Yes, it is a done deal now...the deposit is down. We pick it up next Saturday at the latest.

Black/Black '09 Passion, "leather" seats, 3000km. I'll probably be trading in my car, but if it sells privately before then I'll be even better off.

[jimvw57]

good choice!!