Any smart owners in the U.P.?

[E-SMART]

The reason this Chicagoan is asking is because I'll be taking a road trip next week to Houghton (MTU) through Iron Mountain, etc. as my son needs to get to the college a bit earlier to help with orientation. If you see a silver/black passion coupe with IL plates please give us a smart 'wave'.

This will be our first long trip with our smart and so far the only thing I'll miss is cruise control although we'll see how it handles the winds over the Green Bay bridge.

Full report when I return - my guess is that we may have the only smart that far north but would be nice to be surprised at seeing 'Yoopers' on our trip!

[JPaul]

Safe journey!

[bschool]

Hi:

I will get my smart on Monday. I have to travel in the Upper Peninsula every year for my job. They call us southerners trolls, as we live below the bridge. I visit every county in the U.P. and Northern Lower Michigan as well. I doubt very much if anyone in the U.P. would want to go that far for a dealer or brave a winter with a smart as their only vehicle until it proves itself. But I will be watching. When I test drove last year in Ann Arbor, I asked the attendant how the smart should do on a bridge like we have, and he said it should be fine. Later, I looked it up and the smart is twice the weight of a Yugo which you may know blew off the bridge one year. Then, a couple of months later I took my vacation in the U.P., and the minute I got over the bridge I saw a smart coming towards the bridge down highway 2, and it looked like one of the roadshow ones. I don't think any had been sold in summer 2007.

I talk with the people in the U.P. all the time. This would be agencies which provide services to the homeless or persons and families in crisis. No one I know has knowledge of a smart yet. Let me know if you see one, chances are though, it will be me or someone else traveling. The Yoopers are a hardy folk, not prone to jumping in on something this quickly.

[bschool]

Also:

Probably the first place I would expect to see a smart would be in Marquette as it currently seems to be the fastest growing area at this time, with the most development happening. They have a large college there as well.

[E-SMART]

Although did not see one other smart (other than a local car I've seen before) either coming or going. The smart drove well and both my son and I were amazed that it had passing power at 65 to 70 - the trans will kick down a gear or more when floored and we had it up to 80 -85 on some highway stretches (wind buffeting from tractor trailers was probably the most annoying - you have to hold on with both hands firmly when following them at highway speed, hence the passing manuever). Other things were minor, but again the 'mission' of this car isn't really long distance. First would be no cruise control - would be a welcome addition but only on long trips like this. Second is the very flat front (a BIG bug attraction, but a liberal spray of Rain-X pre-bug spray and Rain-X on the windshield made clean-up easy). Third are the seats - great for short trips but both our butts ached after the longest stints with no break. From our home in the NW 'burbs of Chicago to Houghton, MI (home of MTU) it's a 404 mile ride and unfortunately, that route has very few rest stops. Our overall mileage was about 43 mpg - not bad considering our average speed (according to my Garmin GPS) was 70. Round trip we used just under 19 gals (808 mile round trip) and half the trip with two people and a full load of college stuff (it actually does have room for quite a bit of stuff). Overall, we're pleased with it but it won't be our primary car for future trips like this - my Mazda3 GT 5-door is far more comfortable, carrys more stuff and gets 32 mpg on trips like this. As always, others have made comparisons with the likes of the Honda Fit, etc. and as long as the mission of the smart is understood, it's actually a great little car. Lastly, the reason for the higher average speed versus something slower was due to tight schedule (had to be at MTU by 4PM to pick-up his dorm key - found out later we could have picked it up elsewhere if we were late and on the return trip - - - well, I guess I was having too much fun going fast and of course the looks on other drivers being passed by such a small car was priceless!). As far as the harsh (snowy) U.P. winters - our smart won't contend with that but we'll see how it handles Chicago ones. With this trip we just passed 3K miles. Car has been flawless so far, no problems to report at all.

[curtis]

Ya dare hey, a FIB in da U.P.