Hello to all...my first post. I attended the "Smart" road show event recently in Phila. area and had noticed many items on thr cars .that I have questions about. The road show people really didn't know the answers (they reminded me of the large car show events which have "rented" models for the events).
My question(s) are as follows:
1. The cars were all the "european" versions, not what is planned for the U.S.A. for introduction in early 2008. Some of the noted differences were the KM speedometers and minor other body differences. What I asked was is this the MITSUBISHI engine in these cars, or the Mercedes-Benz engines? They thought they were the Mercedes engines... well from what I have been reading (and on the forums) is that the Mercedes engine is a lower horsepower and torque. Also I have been seeing quite a difference in the "U.S.A." spec Mitsubishi engine... Smart is stating 71 hp, Autoweek is stating 84 hp, and Motor Trend is stating 70 hp. Anyone know what it really is??? Has anyone ever even driven a Mitsubishi equipt car yet? Are we all going to be "surprised" by the difference between the road show test cars and what we are going to actually get? What is in the Canadian cars. Are they the same as the European cars?
2. Wheels.... according to all "U.S." spec's it appears that we are going to get the 9-spoke wheels, even though there is information indicating 6-spoke wheels, and I have even seen pictures with 12-spoke wheels. What are we going to get?
3. At the road show, I was told that all of the cars had NO POWER STEERING. Has anyone ever driven a Power Steering equipt car yet? Do the cars in Europe or Canada offer power steering as an option? If so, if you have a power steering car, could you offer to us your opinion of how it operates?
Thanks for your help.
There is a big range of after market wheels for SMART so you can change the wheels after buying. Maybee to buy some bigger ones. I saw 451 smart with 17" rims on it. I have a picture somewhere on my HDD. Also car was re-mapped on 115 PS/155 NM by german tuner CS TUNING.
...oh, one other question: is the U.S. Smart Car going to have "DRL" (daytime running lights)?? As small as the car is, I would think it would make sense to have as much protection as possible....especially since the U.S.A. is loaded with large SUV's, etc. I think Canada Smarts have them as "standard" from the factory...if the one's in Canada do have them, can you turn them off? Thanks.
...oh, one other question: is the U.S. Smart Car going to have "DRL" (daytime running lights)?? As small as the car is, I would think it would make sense to have as much protection as possible....especially since the U.S.A. is loaded with large SUV's, etc. I think Canada Smarts have them as "standard" from the factory...if the one's in Canada do have them, can you turn them off? Thanks.
The sales manager at our local dealer believed that the DRL will be programmable by the dealer. That's the way it is on the MINI.
I think DRLs will be there, dealer-programable or not or whatever, as with all cars sold in Canada. What MINI does is what MINI does; MINI has nothing to do with smart.
Maybe not, but dealer programmable features is the current state of technology. You are right that based on the apparent standardization of the North American model, the US cars will have the DRL feature as the Canadian models must have.
The sales manager at our local dealer believed that the DRL will be programmable by the dealer. That's the way it is on the MINI.
Hopefully, the SMARTs will have DRL on. I'm actually quite surprised how many MINIs out on the road do NOT have their DRL's activated. Don't know why the reason is - whether the owner didn't want them on, or whether they were never aware of the choice.
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