[spdickey]

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Complete report posting http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8723#post8723

 

[shack01]

Dang! Anyone know how to clean drool out of a keyboard?

Thanks for the great pics!

tm

 

[renah]

Red is great

Wow - this is the first time I have seen this great color of red on the Smart body panels. It looks very different than the color they showed on the European smarts. I love it!

 

[jwight]

Dude, totally *****in' photos!

Figured I'd start with something in native Californian [except the forum police won't let me spell out b*i*t*c*h*i*n]

Thanks for the photos and for spending the time to get them. Did the smart guys have any literature or any new info for you?

Comments:

Notice the wrinkles in the leather seat bottoms?

Not much foam in the seat; how soon will that have to be replaced?

Dorky looking brake pedal - what's up with that?

The front service area looks really easy to use; liked the strap to hold the cover while it's off.

The rear engine service area - not so good. If you don't have a bad back now you will have after leaning over that. Hopefully not too often.

Like the red; the blue looked very subdued

Seemed like a big crowd around the cars - good news!

Nice to know they have plenty of shirts, caps and cups. If they only had some cars...

Thanks again for the photos and setting up the slide show. On to Detroit!

 

[eqwalker]

HEY, the red actually looks....RED. Did it actually look that red in person??? I am having an attraction to the red all of a sudden.....

 

[askpat]

just want to be smart

Hello Thanks for the pics I think we met at the show yesterday, thanks for all the info, checked my # 1284 can't quite figure out when I might get ours,
Help Help

Having trouble sleeping, just to much anticipation

Pat

 

[spdickey]

Figured I'd start with something in native Californian [except the forum police won't let me spell out b*i*t*c*h*i*n]

Thanks for the photos and for spending the time to get them. Did the smart guys have any literature or any new info for you?

Comments:

Notice the wrinkles in the leather seat bottoms?

Not much foam in the seat; how soon will that have to be replaced?

Dorky looking brake pedal - what's up with that?

The front service area looks really easy to use; liked the strap to hold the cover while it's off.

The rear engine service area - not so good. If you don't have a bad back now you will have after leaning over that. Hopefully not too often.

Like the red; the blue looked very subdued

Seemed like a big crowd around the cars - good news!

Nice to know they have plenty of shirts, caps and cups. If they only had some cars...

Thanks again for the photos and setting up the slide show. On to Detroit!

You have questions, I have free answers. They are worth every penny!

The red is fire engine red. See some comments and pictures I posted in the Picture Forum.

I scanned he literature they passed out, link at the top. In answers to our top three questions WHEN, WHERE, WHEN? It was the same 1st quarter, and TBA soon, and first deliveries January 2008.

Seats felt fine, I'm buying leather and loved it. Center back section is the same mesh as on the cloth seating.

The front strap is to keep someone from walking off with your "hood." There are two pegs on it that fit into slots when you pull it off to check fluids.

The engine actually pops out in about 5 minutes and rests on screwed in pegs under the car. smart rep said he saw it happen and was amazed how easy to work on the engine. Only thing you really need to do is check oil under the trunk with the yellow dipstick you can see in my picture. First oil change at 10,000 miles.

The exhibit is the first thing you see when entering the Convention Center. Lots of traffic, but lots of reps around to answer questions. And I was there on opening day Friday afternoon, traffic got much worse Friday night.

Off to the smart house in Venice to let the wifey test drive it. More pics to come.

 

[Old smart]

The Fluids Access Cover

spdickey wrote:
“The front strap is to keep someone from walking off with your "hood."”

This situation has been noted on the UK smartmaniacs site (occurring mostly in France), with the torx fastener being removed. My input there as “Callsign_BULL” was:

"Re: 451 Reliability

Quote:
Originally Posted by RichG
You'd need a knife, or a torx set to nick the front panel, I'm sure someone will do a chain and security bolt style add-on
There you go Indies - first upgrade for the new 451, who'll be first to market with it?

(Callsign_BULL) I suppose that one could fill one or two of the torx slots with epoxy and file away a similar pattern on the torx driver and have something corresponding to the anti-theft wheel nuts."

 

[SmartCard]

HEY, the red actually looks....RED. Did it actually look that red in person??? I am having an attraction to the red all of a sudden.....

Indeed....hope they "reformulated" it!

 

[MicroNut]

HEY, the red actually looks....RED. Did it actually look that red in person??? I am having an attraction to the red all of a sudden.....

I wouldn't get too excited. Digital cameras have a heck of a job reproducing reds accurately, which is compounded in difficult lighting situations (like the show arena here) by problems with white balance. If you look at the close-up shots of the front valance and tailgate, the red looks quite different from the full car pictures (and much more like the "chinese red" we're used to).

 

[spdickey]

The close ups looked more "chinese red" because the flash went off, put some blue/white flash back in the picture. i got some more shots at the smart house today (check my posting there). Outdoors the car does go a bit more orange when compared to a deep red truck nearby. Its a brighter red IMHO.

 

[MicroNut]

It looks to me as though the lighting in the show area created a bit of a blue cast (perhaps because of the type of glass in the roof). That would tend to make reds look less orange, and would explain the observation that the car looks a little more orangey outdoors. The electronic flashes on most cameras these days have a color temperature close to natural daylight, which would explain why the close-up shots look more orange.

Obviously I'm hypothesizing, I wasn't there. But I do know that some paints can really change quite dramatically under differing lighting. I have a feeling that this red might be one of them...

 

[spdickey]

All I can say is that upon visualizing the car personally. The red was not cherry red, nor fire engine red. Its somewhere in between. I've seen them now in the wild under the sun, and under the glass of the convention center, and under artificial lighting. Shades vary. I was VERY close to the car when the flash went off, and the extra blue in the flash made the car appear a lighter red.

But its RED, not ORANGE!

Look in the photos at the red in the taillights. Compare the color to your car's lights. DOT makes them all the same.

The red seats and dash do have small flecks of orange in them, though.

 

[MicroNut]

...But its RED, not ORANGE!...

I totally agree. It might be SLIGHTLY more orangey than a pure fire-engine red, but I would never actually call it orange. I guess it's just a hard color to describe since it's a little different from the reds you typically see on cars.

 

[MrJandro]

all the smart red looks orange....

 

[mtndrew1]

Hey guys, first post here...

I went to the LA show yesterday and visited the Smart area twice. It was easily the most densely-packed part of the show besides the area with all the exotic cars (Lamborghini, Bentley, etc.). Lots of chatter and excitement with generally positive reactions.

As for the red...it's orange. I saw the exact same car that's shown in these photos and it totally looks orange to me. They didn't have a car with the red interior, but the swatch they had looked orange-ish too. I was a bit disappointed. The blue/silver was gorgeous though. If anyone wants to host my pic of the red Smart, I'd be happy to email it.

Just my $0.02

-Drew

 

[gamernotwatcher]

Did anyone ask the Desk, what % of visitors to the Desk were Insiders vs. how many were first timers?

 

[spdickey]

Did anyone ask the Desk, what % of visitors to the Desk were Insiders vs. how many were first timers?

From hanging around the booth on opening day, it was about 99% newbies and a few of us fan boys hanging around.

I ran into one who was posting here funny enough.

 

[SmartBob]

Hey guys, first post here...

I went to the LA show yesterday and visited the Smart area twice. It was easily the most densely-packed part of the show besides the area with all the exotic cars (Lamborghini, Bentley, etc.). Lots of chatter and excitement with generally positive reactions.

As for the red...it's orange. I saw the exact same car that's shown in these photos and it totally looks orange to me. They didn't have a car with the red interior, but the swatch they had looked orange-ish too. I was a bit disappointed. The blue/silver was gorgeous though. If anyone wants to host my pic of the red Smart, I'd be happy to email it.

Just my $0.02

-Drew

Here is the Red Smart Photo from MtnDrew1

 

[spdickey]

I notice that when sunlight hits the red car, it gets much brighter. How about "Tomato Red," or is that "Tomatoe Red?"