GOT MY SMART, Heres my first observations

[evilbean42]

So I picked up the smart today. Passion, Black/Black with Red interior. Me and my wife put about 80 miles on it just tryin it out tonight. First I was happy with how it got up to speed, no trouble merging onto the LIE and Sunrise. Got it up to about 85mph on Sunrise. It feels great till 70, once you get around 80 it starts to feel a little unstable, but I think that was largely due to it being very windy out tonight. I plan to try out some vortex generators for high speed stability eventually. I allready really like the transmission. It is definately much better than I was expecting. I didn't find the lag to be a problem, I just work the gas as if it were a normal manual and it shifted great. Me and my wife both had nice smooth prompt shifts by the end of the night. The cabin looks awesome all lit up at night. I got power steering, I thought the road feel was fine, but if I had driven a non Power Steering model before I configured I probably wouldn't have spent the money on it. I'm a little nervous about all the people rubbernecking to get a better look at it. My biggest complaint is I wish the seats tilted back a little further. Its not a big problem while driving, but it would have been cool to tilt back, relax and look out the roof while i was in the passenger seat. Overall I couldn't be happier, I can't wait to drive it again.

[rrrucke]

Congrats on your delivery but aren't you suppose to keep the engine below 3,000 rpms until you hit 1,000 miles on the odometer? That's what my dealer said and that's what I did. I'm now just over 3,200 miles and I'm experiencing a smoother tranmission. Be careful you don't damage your engine! Thanks, Regina

[evilbean42]

I asked about break-in procedure. he said to "take it easy" for the first few hundred miles, but did not set an RPM limit. I kept it under 4 grand anyway. Also I won't let it use the kickdown, and I don't manually downshift when slowing down for engine breaking, untill it is a little worn in.

[NY Smartie]

congrats Evilbean! I picked mine up on Friday (same dealership as you). I have 100% favorable opinions of the car so far. only 88 miles though. I intend to follow the same break in procedure I've used on every car I've owned.

and that's taking it easy for the first 500 miles, and making sure to very driving speeds and such for as much as possible during that period (in other words, no 2 hours at constant 55 MPH, etc).

looks like Suffolk County is starting to represent!!