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Diesel smart Car titled in USA!

94K views 171 replies 25 participants last post by  Mike T 
#1 ·
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#2 · (Edited)
I would be interested, but last time the bidding went to $15 or 16k and reserve was still not met. At that price this car should be sold!

Actually just realized it does not have AC, not sure if it should even go for that much, not too many states where people can live without AC, I think they are selling in the wrong state.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Dunno if it is or not. I purchased mine indirectly from a Canadian citizen, so it wasn't neutered to US standards, plus it still met all state and local specs, so no problem getting it titled.

But as far as price, every Canadian CDI Cabrio I've seen on Ebay has brought high $$$, as the diesel engine is not available in the US. The $16k figures for a low-mileage cabrio cdi seem to be fairly normal.

I personally prefer the 450 to the 451, and purchased a 450 last year. It really *IS* possible to get very high mpg's, but not sure I've been able to squeeze much more than 70-some-odd mpg from mine unless I had one heck of a tail-wind.

Maybe we could add sails to increase fuel economy?? lmao!
 
#7 ·
We measure MPG in US Gallons, while many Canadians, in spite of being metric now, measure it in old Imperial Gallons, which are almost five quarts, instead of four to the US Gallon. You can't blame them; they're trying hard to sell you the car.
So, in US terms, the diesel smart gets about 70 MPG.
Of course, the rest of the world uses Liters per 100 Km.
 
#9 ·
I drive past this car every day - it's on the lot of a Mercedes repair shop/used car dealer on 7th Street & Missouri in Phoenix, AZ. It's been there for about three weeks or so. From the street, it looks to be in great shape.

There's another 450 in the neighborhood as well - it's silver with a silver tridion cell.
 
#14 ·
I have done the conversion from gas to diesel. You will need the engine and transmission ($3,000) plus the diesel wiring harness ($950)for the year of your car. The fuel pump will need to be replaced and matched ECU, SAM unit with the cluster unit ($250). You will need the fuel cooler ($350) and cut out the underlaying parts. The hardest part is replaceing the wiring harness.

Leroy
 
#20 ·
I am doing a comprehensive Registry for all Canadian market 450 cdi diesels, and it should be completed in a few months. This Registry will contain location information as of 2012, associated to VINs.

Right now I am only about 40% complete and 29 of these diesel powered Canadian market 450s are known to be in the USA, the vast majority with US titles. I suspect that the US total will be close to 70 cars when I am done, but it certainly will be over 50 cars.
 
#28 ·
They monitor this stuff alright, but this kind of talk doesn't trip any word triggers... so it just sits in a database somewhere rather than being brought to anyone's attention. Even if it were brought to someone's attention, they'd almost certainly discard it on the thinking that they've got better things to be doing.

They're just collecting so much data they can't process it all.
 
#24 ·
All anyone (including Uncle Sam) needs to do is get access to the Federally-run National Vehicle Database and all of this information is easily obtainable. That's what CarFax and others (like the one I am using) access. So monitoring this or any other enthusiast site is not going to be high on their priority list, if they are trying to enforce importation rules.
 
#31 ·
Very interesting, I got that one from the National Vehicle Database a few days ago and it was shown as being in Peterborough Ontario, last registered there as of 2011....so a lot has happened in the past few months if it's been flipped from there to NY and now to OH.
 
#33 ·
So, I have revised the US total downward because 5 of the cars that had been listed as being in the USA were only there for a temporary exhibition in New York City, and were later returned to Québec for sale. The total stands at 26 cars, with another 3800 to check up on. I will report the final US total when I have it, but I think now that it's well under 50.
 
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