Actually Cory1000's smart has found a new home. We drove up to Cleveland yesterday and picked it up - very painless as Cory took us to the local BMV offices to do tax, title, plates,etc.
Here we are transferring the keys -Cory on the left:
About a 220 mile trip back to Dayton; rough first impressions are 1) the car is certainly sensitive to the wind at highway speed, but it is
not dangerous. However, it is tiring; don't think a long cross country trip in the smart is in the cards. 2) Cory kept a gas log and the car has improved over the last four tanks of gas - got just over 39 mpg on the last tank with about half the miles on the Interstate. 3) transmission is OK. In Auto, it will do exactly what you tell it - easy on the throttle, it putt putts away from a start; hard on the throttle, it will take off pretty well and delay shifts until about 4K rpm. In Manual, it is just like a stick IMHO - just lift slightly as you upshift and it's fine. Since Cory had broken it in I've been running it up to around 5K rpm on manual shifts.
Thanks again to Cory for offering the car at a realistic price (BTW, USAA told me the factory alarm and DRLs [if it had them] would have no effect on insurance rates. The LoJack saves us a whopping $0.98!) and to everyone else who encouraged me to hang in and get the smart.
More to follow!
1976 Rover Mini
2003 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
2007 Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec (SOLD)
2009 smart Passion (Gone)
2011 smart Passion
Today
Linear Mode
