I've had my baby one whole week now
I thought I would share my experience so far.
I really didn't think people would still be staring as much as they are. I would have thought some of the novelty would have worn off by now. I find it a little distracting, but I've gotten good at blocking most of it out. The ones that were hard to block out were the lady next to me on I395 that rolled down her window (mine was down, too) and yelled over to me how much she liked my smart. I appreciated it, but she almost rear ended the car in front of her. And then there was the guy that pulled out in front of of a car from a parking lot to the street, then cut off the person behind me so he could break out his camera and snap a few pictures. At that same time there was a car full of teenage girls screaming/chearing hanging out the window of a car and waving at me. Wow.
Things that have scared me or made me nervous.
I was on my way back to my home town Friday afternoon and a huge black bear must have thought I was a drop of honey coming down the highway. Not really, but I have literally lived in that area my whole life except for the last 5 years and NEVER saw a bear before this. I was in shock so much that I didn't snap out of at to hit the breaks till the last second.
That would have been great. Run into a bear with my car having owned it less than a week.
Then there was the crazy guy at the gas station that kept following me around my car trying to talk to me. He asked me if it was worth it. WTF kind of a question is that? I'm not sure if he was a hater, a liker, or just crazy. My mom was in my smart with a really worried look on her face and I have no idea what the guy was talking about.
And I had my smart parked outside of a friend's bar for a while. When I got back to my smart the door man said people had been walking by taking pictures for hours. And the next day when having lunch I actually sat next to a window where I could see my baby and every last person that left the restaurant walked by and checked out my smart. That's cool, but it makes me a bit paranoid.
Things to brag about.
The neighbor upstairs (insert bad name here) nearly broke her neck when she drove in the parking lot and saw my smart for the first time. She was dropped jawed and almost dropped her cell. Then today when I got home she was out in the parking lot and told me that I had the most beautiful car in the world. HA!!! She wants my car.
The owner of my company came to the job site and had no reason to stop by my desk, but he did. He had to tell me he liked my car.
As for how my smart is driving.
The first couple of days I believe I was "babying" her a bit too much. She was lurching when shifting gears at the very beginning, but not any more. I can still feel/tell when the gears are shifting but it's much smoother now. So either I'm driving her better or the computer is learning me better.
I got 37.5 mpg on my first tank. It was almost all sitting in rush hour with the A/C on. I'm not going to complain that I wish I had done better. Everyone always wants better mpgs. I look at it this way; the first tank, not broken in, grid lock, A/C and 14 more miles to the gallon better than my last car.
All in all I'm VERY happy with my smart. I'm looking forward to my road trip in two weeks. And I wouldn't trade her for the world.
Today
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