My Smart Trip Across America

[munrokicker]

So I am in Vegas for the night and wanted to share my thoughts on my new Brabus Coupe. I have traveled just over 2300 miles in 3 days so I feel I know the car intimately now

I was all smiles when I picked up the car. I don't really know all of the options but I did have the kennwood nav. I immediately put in nicer speakers before I took off towards Reno, NV, since the stock ones are pathetic. Also had a sound shop add bluetooth phone/music and sirius so I wouldn't run out of tunes.

At the start of my trip I was a little worried because I thought the car might not keep up with traffic. But by Texas I was pinging the limiter happy as a bee. You would not believe the jaw-dropping from others as I passed- I would break out in laughter everytime. To them it was almost like I was defying physics. Parents would speed up to catch me so their kids could check the car out.

Was stopped many times at the gas station and the same two questions would be asked at nauseam: What kind of gas mileage and how safe. At first I would try to answer the best I could but then I just would say yes and good. You could tell it was either the type of person who REALLY wanted to know. OR the type of person who just wanted to justify their hummer.

The manual transmission was a little weird but now I think I actually prefer it to a standard. I realize now that everything about this car was done for a purpose- a standard automatic transmission is probably much heavily then the system currently. Once you learn the timing it's fun.

Today was a little tough. I was coming through NM and AZ and the wind was BAD. Had to apply quite a bit of force to keep on course. The car does jaunt a little behind the big trucks. I own a couple motorcycles so I just go with the flow as I know their is not an instability issue at all. My fiance however, would freak a little.

I will ad more of my comments later but wanted to write a little. Will ad pics after bath

[John_H]

My recent trip was roughly Portland, OR through Reno to Las Vegas, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Texas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida so your mentions are a bit reminiscent. My cabrio did a fine job - didn't experience high winds that I noticed. You'll continue to love your car!

[BigWarpGuy]

Perhaps one could start a BLOG or MySpace or Facebook site for updates and photos and videos? It would be neat to see; especially how well the Smart Fortwo holds up.

[Kermit]

Welcome to the wonderful world of smart ownership. Those long trips are a blast. Next you'll want/need cruise control and an armrest.

[Suze]

Welcome and post pics!

Where did you start from?


OK, how was your gas mileage on those super windy areas? I ask, because on my trip in June, it was pretty windy coming across Kansas and eastern Colorado and the road was very straight, with a steady incline heading west and my mpgs were the worst I've ever gotten in 24,000 miles!

[SubSlr88]

Originally Posted by Suze

OK, how was your gas mileage on those super windy areas? I ask, because on my trip in June, it was pretty windy coming across Kansas and eastern Colorado and the road was very straight, with a steady incline heading west and my mpgs were the worst I've ever gotten in 24,000 miles!

Suze, that's also attributed to the increasing elevation. While living in Denver I found that gas mileage tends to drop 10-12% at that altitude, even worse when the ethanol was added for winter driving (smog control). It was amazing to come back to the Flatlands and see a big increase in my mileages...

[saronian]

Sound like a very exciting trip, thanks for sharing! Please tell us more as the drive continues.

[BigWarpGuy]

Perhaps you can VLOG (video blogging) about the trip? It will be interesting to see hear more about the trip. Perhaps audio blog the trip?

[h20m0f0]

I wish I knew you were in Vegas,(bummer) I have the same deck I could of showed you all the tricks, it's very cool when you get to know how it works.....