[gewitzt]

I will freely admit that I am more of a dilettante than many who post here. I won't drag out the details but will simply say that I acquired my 2015 ED used, mostly out of curiosity, due to the fact that my new home had charging equipment!

Every time I get behind the wheel of my 2014 Mercedes-Benz E350 Coupe 4Matic, I know why I chose it. Yet, my ED has become my primary driver, mostly because most of my travel is six miles away, or less. I rarely modify or customize items, but I have found a Bluetooth dongle much to my liking, and the addition of all-weather mats is a plus. Everything else is stock, and will remain that way.

Driving two completely different vehicles has changed the way I drive, and the way I view other drivers. Comfort? Power? Prestige? No contest, the Mercedes wins every time. Convenience, economy and quirkiness? ED owns the day! My 2015 isn't equipped with all the bells and whistles I've read others enjoying (but it does have heated seats). I find the eco gauge interesting, and my MB driving has me now more focused on MPG than I used to. But the smart's eco display is a joke. Whether it's registering a (record) low 14% or a (record) high 98%, I find my mileage the same, the performance the same and my power consumption the same.

I've been doing a lot of travel by air lately, and I like the storage area for my suitcase and laptop bag handy, and parking at the airport for days on end has not resulted in any loss of battery power that I can tell.

Overall, my ED experience (experiment?) has been quite positive. However, I'm still unsure as to whether I would consider buying another electric vehicle or not. I hope I won't have to make a decision like this any time soon, as both my cars have less than 25,000 miles on them, apiece. So, I should be go for the next few years unless something remarkable occurs. And even then, I should be set.

 

[Johannesl]

What Bluetooth dongle did you buy? That is the one thing I miss between my gas and ED smart, the Bluetooth audio. The ones I found require you to turn them on each time. I’m looking for one that will turn on when it gets power from the USB.


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[gewitzt]

What Bluetooth dongle did you buy? That is the one thing I miss between my gas and ED smart, the Bluetooth audio. The ones I found require you to turn them on each time. I’m looking for one that will turn on when it gets power from the USB.

I bought this Bluetooth dongle from Amazon for $14US. For the price, I'm willing to open my glove box and press a button for six seconds to turn it on (it will turn itself off after not getting a signal for 8 minutes, I think). Getting something that will turn on when you turn the key will require some wiring and possibly fusebox manipulation. The slight inconvenience is worth it, in my opinion.

 

[Johannesl]

I bought this Bluetooth dongle from Amazon for $14US. For the price, I'm willing to open my glove box and press a button for six seconds to turn it on (it will turn itself off after not getting a signal for 8 minutes, I think). Getting something that will turn on when you turn the key will require some wiring and possibly fusebox manipulation. The slight inconvenience is worth it, in my opinion.

Thanks. Yeah. Not looking to hardware one in, but I have the USB port in glove box beside the aux input that powers on when car powers on. I just need to find a non battery powered Bluetooth dongle that powers on when power is connected and uses a micro-usb to be powered.

 

[InjuredAgain]

We are five months into our 2015 ED ownership, and it is also our first electric car. The boss and I are now both retired and we find that we drive the ED for probably 90% of our trips that are all within about a 20 mile radius of where we live. My wife daily drove a Rav4 while she was working and for a couple of years, I've been working on her to replace it with a Porsche Macan. I almost got her to give up her beloved Rav, but now that we drive it so little, she's put the nix to that idea. We fill it up about once every three weeks, if that, and we only now use it for the occasional times when we need hauling capacity (people or stuff), or for road trips.

We've only used the supplied EVSE and it has been fine. Charging up overnight has been totally convenient for us. Our intention of using this as an introduction to an electric car has convinced us that more electric cars are in our future, and outside of the next car we buy, probably every one after that will be fully electric.

I traded in a 1995 Miata to buy our new 2015 ED, and considering the discount we got for it being a two-year old but never-titled vehicle and the federal tax incentive, it cost us $2k above what I got for the Miata to get into our smart. The ED doesn't drive with nearly the involvement nor driving pleasure of a Miata, but it is quirky and fun in its own way. Probably more fun than anything else is surprising other drives with how quickly we can scoot around in it - it seems no one expects that. And the ability to park it anywhere, even in the tightest of parking lots, and still have more than enough room to swing the doors wide open. Cargo capacity hasn't been a problem - it swallows way more stuff than it looks like it should.

We don't have a smart ED dealership any more in Washington state, and service at the previous smart ED center may be more complicated now, but we're still totally happy with buying it.

 

[Anonymouse]

This one is now discontinued, but is a great bluetooth adapter that automatically turns on and connects without having to push a button - it was only about $20 when it was in stock.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AHXTXCK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Ken Roach]

I just got back from the dealership, where I wrote them a check for a Silver/White 2014 Smart ED with right on 11,000 miles on the clock. Leather seats because they came with it, and the nav system / better radio because my wife likes those, but mostly because it has a year's warranty left and reported the best battery condition of the four that were in stock.

The registration fees will be $600 ! This is one of the few Smart EDs that was registered in Washington, so I pay the $150 surcharge for renewal. And, the State chooses to charge their fees based on the depreciation of gasoline Smarts, and you can't talk them out of it, so there's $230 worth of fees. On top of the 10.4% sales tax, that made me grit my teeth and made the check a lot larger than the $6495 selling price. Dealer wouldn't budge on price, and I do get tired of them telling me how little profit they make on cheap used cars, even if it's true. I'm a true Scotsman, in that way.

They did let me plug in my BMSDiag module and run battery tests on three of their cars, including one that was almost out of warranty and was selling for under $5000. That one warned me that the battery was "degraded" but none of them had a high confidence factor in the capacity calculation because they had not been driven for a few weeks or months.

But the one I bought did report a mean CAP value of 51.2 Ah, and reported "OK" for the overall status and no very-low cells.

So I figure I saved myself a few hundred bucks in MB dealership inspection costs to be confident in the battery, at the cost of $45 or so in Arduino/CANbus parts and cables that I can use in the future.

And probably the best part was that the salesman had an adorable bulldog puppy who came up and sat in my lap while I wrote checks and signed agreements. Good choice.

I have been taking the bus, riding bikes, and borrowing my wife's car for a few months since turning in my Focus Electric, and I hate, hate, hate buying gasoline. I hate the smell, I hate the cost, I hate the inconvenience.

I would have kept going car-lite until Tesla got around to my Model 3, but I just got a promotion that requires me to be able to drive to customer sites in the region quickly, and I can't rely on being able to grab a Company pickup or flat-bed.

I plan to drive the heck out of this little ED, and enjoy even kilowatt-hour of it.

 

[InjuredAgain]

Ken, congrats! And of course we need pictures! And should probably plan a meet of some sort.

This was from Mercedes of Seattle?

 

[Ken Roach]

I bought mine from Paramount Motors, on 6th Ave and Spokane Street in the gritty SODO district of Seattle. Paramount specializes in used electric cars.

Autoquest in Georgetown has a couple as well, but Mercedes of Seattle does not appear to deal in used or new Smart ED vehicles.

I'm going to do some more experimentation with the BMS diagnostic software once I get the car in my hands (had to leave it there and get back to work !). If anyone on the forum wants to borrow the Arduino/CANBus rig to test their own car, let me know and I'll loan it out for the price of postage.

 

[InjuredAgain]

Ken, we'd been looking at a blue ED that's been at Paramount motors for some time. My wife really loves that color, and we love the ED so much for our running around that we've seriously considered getting a second one so we could each have our own runabout. Just today, we drove the ED a total of seven times between the two of us, while our two other cars sat unused. And I would be out and about now too except my wife is at a cake decorating class and she took the smart. But seeing that my trip would only be four miles for both ways, that's just not that kind to a gas engine so I've just stayed put.

Then, during the summer, we take the ED cause it doesn't heat up the garage after returning home. When we've driven both of our other cars and have returned at about the same time, the garage gets up to about 110 degrees from the heat of both engines. The smart basically doesn't heat up the garage, at all. We kind of find all sorts of reasons to drive it in place of our other cars.

I'd love to try that BMS tool. I've noticed some oddities in the battery performance that are at least different from the summer. Since this is my first fall/winter with it, I'm not sure if those are just artifacts from the cooler temps, or if there's something going on. One of these days when you have some free time, I'd love to try it.

 

[sokoloff]

Read over the battery test prep recommendations before you take a reading. It goes something like discharge to the battery to under 40%. Let it be there for at least two hours. Charge to 100%. Let it be there for two hours. Then do your test. That's off the top of my head and not guaranteed. A search will bring up several threads with the details.

Congrats on the new vehicle.

Len
2014 EV Coupe 13,000 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 2,300 miles

 

[InjuredAgain]

Read over the battery test prep recommendations before you take a reading. It goes something like discharge to the battery to under 40%. Let it be there for at least two hours. Charge to 100%. Let it be there for two hours. Then do your test. That's off the top of my head and not guaranteed. A search will bring up several threads with the details.

Congrats on the new vehicle.

Len
2014 EV Coupe 13,000 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 2,300 miles

Len,

Thanks for that reminder. We seem to get it under 40% most days since we both drive the smart at every opportunity. The detail that I need to look up is how many days prior to the test can I do this. If one week prior too long? Two weeks prior? Or does it have to be immediately before the test?

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[jimtesla]

This is a great thread
I enjoyed my 2013 smart ED till I turned it in. 13k residual or I would have kept it.
Enjoy my Model S and how I can go anywhere without worry.
But I missed that Smart ED. So Saturday I pick up my new used 2016 Smart ED.
It will fill the void and give me back some space in the garage
I didn't think I would miss the car that much till it was gone.
Watching people stare as i put my giant cart of supplies form Costco in the car, can hardly wait.
Best of both worlds.

 

[asalazar]

We've had our Smart ED for just over two months and I can say with certainty that as long as we are a two car household one of the vehicles will always be an electric car.

 

[sokoloff]

Len,

Thanks for that reminder. We seem to get it under 40% most days since we both drive the smart at every opportunity. The detail that I need to look up is how many days prior to the test can I do this. If one week prior too long? Two weeks prior? Or does it have to be immediately before the test?

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It is my understanding that the battery does a self test each time those conditions are met. The computer stores the results until the next time the conditions are met. It just stays there waiting for you to pull the data.

Len
2014 EV Coupe 13,000 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 2,300 miles

 

[jimtesla]

Just got my new used 2016 Smart ED home yesterday
did not do a battery test
I asked they charge it up to 100% before I attempted to drive home
When I went to pick up car it was at 100 but that was from the day before.
I had a 68 mile drive and all freeway to get home.
Car said I had 57 mile range. I was assuming I would have to stop and charge at least once.
With my luck there was traffic on the 405 so I had to slow to a crawl several times.
But to my surprise I made it the whole way, and had some to stop at Lowe's for paint and stop for a bite to eat.
72 miles total and just at 20% or 18 miles left of charge.
So for my first test with this car under Highway conditions i was pleasantly surprised
I did not need my AC. So that will be next to see how far I can go during real Hot months.
The car had Cruise control and that worked great.
So 1 day in and all looks good.
Have a couple minor issues with some plastic parts and a missing emblem that i will address at my next Service appointment.
But i am glad i made the decision to come back.
And thats coming from a Tesla owner as well.
Once you go electric you dont go back.
PS heated seats are amazing

 

[Ken Roach]

Once you go electric you dont go back.

Well, you can try. I certainly see a lot of folks on Tesla forums who talk about their affection for their other luxury or performance cars.

But when "going back" means getting into a 15-year-old Toyota with its rattles and squeaks and the little puff of smoke when you start it on a cold day, it's less fun. I'd forgotten how creepy gas stations can be in the middle of the night.

More importantly, I realized how significantly my thinking about cars was affected by driving an EV.

I would try to coast to a stop at lights, and feather the brakes going down hills, realizing with regret that these cars use friction to dissipate energy as heat to slow them down. All that energy, literally blowing away in the wind.

And talk about being at a stop... the engine just keeps on running, for minutes at a time ! In stop-and-go traffic, the engine output is the same whether you're stopped or going.

Sure, I've read other people's more-clever examples of the differences between ICE and EV, but it really gets in your head after a while when you think about how stunningly inefficient a heat-powered vehicle is. The negative feelings associated with driving a gasoline-powered car are why I got the Smart ED, just so I could commute in a way that made sense from an engineering perspective.

 

[emailchrishall]

Ken,
Thanks for sharing that. These are some of my same thoughts. I know it’s not popular to speak about the philosophical approach to transportation but I think it’s a good conversation to have.

When I went to buy a car about a year and a half ago, I had a vehicle in mind that I wanted. It was a Jeep Wrangler 4 Door. What I wanted and what I needed were two different things. I test drive a Jeep and didn’t feel right about it. I didn’t want the monthly payments and I wasn’t convinced it was the right move for our family at the time. I ended up with a Smart ED instead. Talk about going in a totally different direction.

So I appreciate your words here.


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