As others have said....THE WAIT IT OVER!!

[bigcritter]

I was finally able to get to smartcenter Seattle to pick up my new blue/silver Passion Coupe yesterday! So far I am absolutely loving the car!! I'd read a lot of stuff about how much smoother the transmission is on new cars as opposed to the ones being used for test drives, and it's totally TRUE!! It shifts just like a manual should. The only difference is that it feels like I've got someone else doing the shifting for me. Even though the traffic was stop & go on SB I-5 (it was Friday afternoon......duhhh! ;)), there were occasions where I was actually able to use the gas pedal. It's really 'kinda amazing how quickly you're looking at 70 mph without even knowing it! My wife was following me in our Chevy Aveo, and having a real tough time keeping up! I found this out later! It was also making her car sick, which I also found out later. Anyway, the only thing so far that I'm not crazy about, which I already knew about, is the base model stereo. I screwed up when I configured and forgot(?) to check that block. I've got the premium speakers on order, and I asked Ethan to put a rush on them! He did! (Thanks Ethan!) ;) I'm sure a lot of the problem was that I had the windows down, and there was a lot of noise on the freeway. Took it for a drive last night with the windows UP, and it sounded much, much better. Still anxious to get the upgrade, though. The OTHER thing I didn't like, which is only indirectly a problem of the car, were the BULLYS, for lack of a better term, on I-5. I had some blond in a big, huge, lifted Ford truck tailgating me to the MAX. At one point she was within 2 feet of my rear, and in fact ALMOST hit me when I slowed down for traffic in front of me. I actually almost stopped and got out of the car at one point to go and have a TALK with her. Instead, when traffic started flowing a little better, I stayed slow, until she finally threw up her arms and got the message. From then on, she followed at a more respectful distance. I can see that might become a problem. When I first got onto I-5, the road expansion joints felt really, really rough, and I'd checked with Ethan at pickup and he said they were doing the tires at 29/36 front/rear, so that wasn't the problem. A few minutes later, they went away, and the ride was fine the rest of the way home. I never FELT like I was in such a tiny little car, and being next to semis didn't bother me in the least. The seating is very comfortable for me, and I actually have a little more legroom than in my Aveo (I'm 6'3"), so that's nice. All-in-all, I'm really happy with it, and it's so much fun to drive, I can't wait to go somewhere else. I don't think it would be at all uncomfortable to take on a (reasonably) long trip. I don't think I'd be wanting to take off from here to Illinois in it anytime soon, but ............! ;) Looking forward to getting together next Saturday with PNW on the Mercer Island meet/run!!

[jwight]

There you go - worth the wait. Fill us in with photos, do the Members Map thing and the Official Delivery thread when you can. And enjoy the car!

[curtis]

speak for yourself, my wait isn't over it's been 406 days and counting....

but on the bright side I already have my:
1-Billet Grill set from SmartBillet
1-Billet Pedal covers from Smart Billet
1-Billet shifter box dressup kit from SmartBillet
1-Billet bumber plugs from SmartBillet
1-Silver shorty antenna

and this week I should be getting:
1 set- Stainless Polished Front & Rear bumber guards and side rails from SmartCarParts
1- set floor mats
and on the horizon is the Doug Thorley Exhaust...Now Just Give Me My Damn Car Penske!!!

[Dunerunner]

bigcritter - CONGRATS!!! Can't wait to see the pics!

[bigcritter]

Originally Posted by Dunerunner

bigcritter - CONGRATS!!! Can't wait to see the pics!

Tried to insert some photos, but not sure how to do it. I don't have a website, so no URL. Is there another way of uploading my pics??

[knutliott]

Congrats Marty!

I have the premium stereo, and it's nice. The sound still isn't as good as a bigger car, though, because all of the speakers are in front of you. But I crank it up to 11 (no, really) and blast away the road noise on my commute.

I haven't had any problem with tailgaters in the Seattle-Bellevue-Issaquah corridor, but having lived in Federal Way for several years and having relatives in Tacoma I can relate to your experience. I don't think it's the smart car, though... idiots like that used to tailgate my old Trans Am too.

Yes, you're going to notice rough spots on roads that you never knew existed. There's a section of I-90 headed east as you're coming off of Mercer Island that feels like a roller-coaster in the smart car! I also notice ruts far more now than I used to, which I think is due to how narrow the car is. It doesn't "fit" in the grooves that decades of larger cars have worn in the freeway, so it darts back and forth between them. It was a bit unnerving at first, but now that I've recognized what's going on it's no big deal.

I use photobucket.com for pic storage... it's trivially easy and gives you an easy place to store internet accessible photos for posting. But I believe you can upload pictures to a gallery on this site and then display them also.

Congrats again, and have fun!

[SmartCard]

Originally Posted by bigcritter

Tried to insert some photos, but not sure how to do it. I don't have a website, so no URL. Is there another way of uploading my pics??

You can use our forum's gallery to upload pics as well!

Congrats!

[docmwj]

Heading to smartcenter seattle RIGHT NOW!!! to pick up my bruiser!

[bigcritter]

Originally Posted by bigcritter

Tried to insert some photos, but not sure how to do it. I don't have a website, so no URL. Is there another way of uploading my pics??

Once I paid my dues to join, the option became available to post photos, so I posted them on the dealership/seattle smartcenter website, so you can see them there. When I get home from work this evening, I'll also post them here! Thanks for the response from everyone. This forum has really been a wonderful place to learn about the smart fortwo, and the support is great! I'm still loving the car. This morning I woke up early, and had to go for a drive in the country. I've noticed that in "D", the tranny does tend to upshift so high that it's lugging somewhat, but I don't have the optional tach, so I'm trying to be careful of overreving during my break-in period. I still ended up going to manual shifting and dropping to "4th" to keep from lugging the engine. I drove manual tranny cars years ago without a tach, so I'm not too concerned about overreving. I just listen to how much I'm winding it up. I drove to work later on I-5. Doing 70-75 mph in fairly windy conditions, and it wasn't bad at all. Moved around in the lane a LITTLE, but not a LOT! Can't wait to get off work at 7:30 pm, head home, grab the wife, and go for another drive somewhere!!!

[bigcritter]

Originally Posted by docmwj

Heading to smartcenter seattle RIGHT NOW!!! to pick up my bruiser!

Congratulations!! You'll have to give us a full report on how everything went.