Has this car met or exceeded your expectations? In the city,on the hwy fit and finish quality. I know the attention is out of this world and a people magnet where ever you go. Thats got to be a blast.
Has this car met or exceeded your expectations? In the city,on the hwy fit and finish quality. I know the attention is out of this world and a people magnet where ever you go. Thats got to be a blast.
I have a total of 50 miles on my car and it continues to put a smile on my face whenever I drive it. My acid test was when the wife and I took a ride on the first nite after delivery that day and she drove. She loved it!!!!!!! I was afraid she would not like it at all as she is used to larger cars and has pretty much had a larger car for the last 15 years or more.
She went up the road passing alot of the traffic and the more she drove it the bigger her smile got on her face. She finally exclaimed....as I looked to her for some indication......I love this car!!!! She likes it! She likes it!!! We passed the acid test!!! Now there will be competition to see who gets in it first in the am ...thankfully, I leave earlier than she does so I have that advantage.....
After some shifting screwups, I have pretty much gotten down both the paddles and the slight lifting technique on the accelerator. I've figured out that the more throttle you have into it, the longer the delay is between shifts due to the fact that the EEC has to dampen the accel so the engine doesn't overspeed on the shift so it senses where the accelerator is and reacts accordingly to the length of time it takes to obtain the shift so as there is no engine overspeeding. Pretty good idea and good for clutch life.
I really have not found the shifting delay to be all that objectionable anyway. I do find, however, in automatic mode that the car shifts into the higher gears rather quickly and lugs the engine and that is a no no when breaking in the engine. So I have accelerated my learning curve of the manual shifting both with the paddles and the stick so that I can drive in manual for the most part quite comfortably. One thing I recently found when driving with in the manual mode while accelerating just after turning.....the paddle is NOT where you expect it to be!!! DUHHHH LOLOLOL!! The turned wheel has placed the paddle on the other side of the wheel...dummy .;).....and you have to be careful not to overspeed the engine due to *fnding* the paddle to upshift maybe alittle late.
These are just little things I've noticed in the relatively short time I have had to drive the car. I still need to get it out on the open road and do the high speed breakin...the one that counts in my book.....keeping the rpms's between 3 and 4K......but not holding it there for any more than 15 minutes at a time.......
for me, the car is everything i bought it for. it's not fast. it's not a sports car. it's a utility car, an urban commter. and it's awesome for that. i won't drive it to Vegas, but i do drive it to work and to run all of my errands. for me, the attention is getting a little old really. i'm not britney spears and don't desire people stalking me to ask about the car. that's not why i bought it. i'm hoping it wears off sooner than later really. the only thing i want really is a "real" transmission rather than this science project transmission...and bigger wheels.
Hate to repeat myself from other posts... (okay, I don't really mind)... but the smart FAR exceeds my expectations. Now I laugh at my doubts and concerns that I had following the Road Trip, and the bozo so-called car reporters. Every day I wake up eager to drive the smart, and every night after work I dream up reasons to take it out. It is, for me anyway, a joy on wheels. Fun, fun, and more fun! And I rate it as doing everything AMAZINGLY well for its size. It's roomy, comfortable, practical, safe, plenty of power, lots of amenities, great handling, precise, ROCK SOLID, and just plain well-thought-out. I LOVE IT, and my life is measured time-wise in terms of B.S. and A.S. (before smart and after smart).
Hate to repeat myself from other posts... (okay, I don't really mind)... but the smart FAR exceeds my expectations. Now I laugh at my doubts and concerns that I had following the Road Trip, and the bozo so-called car reporters. Every day I wake up eager to drive the smart, and every night after work I dream up reasons to take it out. It is, for me anyway, a joy on wheels. Fun, fun, and more fun! And I rate it as doing everything AMAZINGLY well for its size. It's roomy, comfortable, practical, safe, plenty of power, lots of amenities, great handling, precise, ROCK SOLID, and just plain well-thought-out. I LOVE IT, and my life is measured time-wise in terms of B.S. and A.S. (before smart and after smart).
I agree with all of that, Steve and actually find it as much fun to drive as the S-2000 which I only drive April thru Oct.. So now i will have fun driving all year around!!
I bought a loaded leather Cab. out of state yesterday and then I drove 1100 miles to my home. I was careful at first of my speed. I kept it at 65 or so the first hour. I couldn't believe how stable it was. I then ,over the next several hours ,increased my speed and the handling of corners and turns. I saw my speeds averaging 75 to 80 with bursts to 89.8(GPS). After 700 miles I got off the freeways and went into the mountains of New Mexico. I found tight curvy mountain roads and altitudes of up to 9100 feet. I was driving it at full tilt and have not have had as much fun EVER in a car. I have always owned sports cars,and with many of them, after the first hour, I started to tire of the experience. With the SMART, I felt as tho ,with each hour, I and the car became one.
I ran threw 4 tanks of gas . Mileage was 44.2, 37.4, 38.2 and 48.2 MPG.
I had not ordered this car , I had simply called 30 dealers around the country and asked if they had any unspoken for cars. I found 5 cars to chose from , and decided on the fully loaded Cab. This process took 5 days from the first call to having a new SMART with 8 miles on the odo. The car was at sticker plus tint and LOJACK fee's.
The car seems as quiet at 80 as it is at 50. You barely hear the engine and the wind noise is quieter at 80 than my new Jeep Wrangler is at 50.
The car seems like it should be priced at $30K instead of $18 K. It is a GREAT VALUE , and I can believe most people will REALLY ENJOY and love the car.
Last edited by AlanTravis; 02-07-2008 at 09:53 PM.
It turns on a dime. It turns so sharp I think you could probably tip it over in a cul-du-sac going too fast (just kidding, it felt glued to the ground) You can actually feel the road for a change which is what I wanted because I am tired of driving SUV's and sedans. I got an orphan without power steering which worried me for about 2 seconds. I can't really tell much difference between this and the power steering except this reminds me of what cars used to feel like when driving. It drives fun. It parks fun. It is fun. I might go sleep in it tonight. Jump in the waters fine!
I've been looking at a more economical car to drive to work for the past year and when I first heard that SMART was coming over to the states I thought it'll be cool to get one and drive around town. Reason being that it'll be practical for me just to drive to and from work and get way better gas milage than the truck that I was driving. I justify this because I was spending over $400 in gas on the truck a month. So when I get the smart that $400 will cover for my car payment plus gas. Now that I've been driving the SMART to work for the last 2 weeks I got to say that I'm enjoying every minute of it. The car feels solid, fun to drive, has a great turning radius, good gas milage, and see many smiles on my 10 mile trip to work everyday. I say all-in-all it's met my expectation.
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