Second Refuel + Weekly Shop

After another week of driving around in the Smart, I am still enjoying it.  In fact I haven't touched my other car all week!.

This week included trip around the North Yorkshire Moors, with steep (1 in 3) hills all over the place, and now it came time to do the weekly shopping.  We bought a little more than usual this week and I have to admit it was a little tight getting all the shopping in the back with the load cover in place.  We did it, but it took a little planning.

While at the supermarket I took the opportunity to refuel once again.  It didn't need refueling as such, there were still two bars on the fuel gauge, but since I was here and the fuel is 2p a litre cheaper than my local garage I thought I'd take advantage.

So, how did we do?  Remember all those 1-in-3 hills?   I was a little concerned that had taken it's toll.   However, there was a pleasant surprise in store.  Over this tank (or a little over three quarters of it) we averaged 68.5 MPG !!!

First Photo!

Just realised I have not yet posted a photo of this amazing little car..... so here it is :)

An awesome little engine!

Today we took a short (130 miles or so) trip in to the North Yorkshire Moors. The traffic was a little slow along the A64 between York and Malton but that gave me chance to reflect on a few more things about the car, some of which will be subjects of upcoming posts.

The reason for this post was really to say how wonderful this little 799cc diesel engine is. Once we got on to the moors we took some of the back roads down in to Gromont, then across to Goathland (where Heartbeat is filmed), then back towards Hutton-le-Hole and on to Helmsley.

If you follow this on a map it's quite a nice set of winding roads, but when you actually get there and experience it - Wow! We are talking seriously steep climbs and long steep drops. There were several 1-in-3 (33%) hill climbs and the little diesel never missed a beat. I was tremendously impressed by it's ability to pull up hills without needing to over-rev, and it easily kept up with any cars in front. In fact, a Renault Laguna was positively slow and in-the-way on one of the hills!.

I was also very impressed by the way the auto-gear box knows to change down to provide some engine breaking when descending at lower speeds. This is something I've definitely missed on my other cars with automatic gearboxes..

The short wheelbase does provide a mild aerobic workout on really bumpy sections of the road but equally excels in handling the tight bends..

After more than 500 miles in the Smart ForTwo CDI I can only wonder why we didn't buy one earlier. It's better than I ever expected it to be, and it's completely changed my perspective on driving. .

More to follow....

First Fill up

We may be taking a little trip tomorrow, so I decided to fill up with diesel at the supermarket where it's about a penny per litre cheaper than the local BP garage.

At this point it's impossible to know just how much fuel was in the car when we collected it from the dealership, but I doubt they would put as much fuel in the tank as I normally do, so this first reading may be a little unreliable.

After 303 miles of combined motorway (60-70mpg), country roads (some of which were very much up and down dale) and some town work, we averaged 61.68 mpg. Remembering that the tank may not have been as full when we got the car as it is now it's possible that the real mileage was even better than this.

The marketing material quotes 83mpg, so am I disappointed? Actually no. I doubt the government tests or the numbers used for marketing purposes are calculated over the same terrain as we were driving, nor will they be calculated when carrying two adults who perhaps enjoy their food a little too much. In addition, the air-con was on the entire time, which as we all know hurts mpg results significantly. So, on balance, I think the mileage we got was fairly realistic for the way we have driven the car.

I am sure I will have more to say on this next time I fill up!

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

We took a little trip yesterday to some shopping outlet my wife had heard about. Normally we would have gone in my BMW which has built in Sat-Nav, but of course we took the Smart instead. After some disagreements over navigation to the intended destination, I ended up buying a Garmin Sat-Nav while my wife browsed the other shops. So, hopefully that will put an end to the navigation problems :)

Given that we've had the car a couple of days now, some things are starting to emerge that you don't always realise on the test drive.

The Good : Still liking the paddle shift a lot! No problem keeping up with the 70 mph traffic.

The Bad : Wishing I had the glove box instead of the open shelf on the dashboard - so if you are ordering your Smart from the factory - I recommend the glove box!

The Ugly : We discovered that if you put your mobile phone on the dashboard too near the radio (when listening to the radio instead of CD or iPod) it causes interference! Solution is to put the drivers mobile phone on the shelf nearer the door and the passenger mobile phone in the door net! Never had this problem in my BMW though!

The Gear Box (Transmission)

We decided to take the Smart on a country drive last night so that my Wife could get her first drive away from the traffic around town. She is still not quite ready to use the manual paddle system (or even the stick) and preferred to keep it in automatic for the time being.

As I mentioned before, automatic mode does labour a little at the low end of each of the 4th and 5th gear ratios. As is the case with all automatics (my Beemer is automatic) it can't predict a corner, a hill or even a slight incline coming and change down early. This requires the use of the kick down here and there when driving in fully automatic mode. Clearly the automatic system is designed with maximum fuel economy in mind because (unless you have your foot down) it likes to change up in to 5th at around 45 mph. I would prefer it to wait until around 50-52 mph.

Paddle Shift Manual Mode

Once we arrived at the place we were turning around at to head home again we changed over and I drove home. This is the first time I have really driven in manual only mode using the paddles and I have to say I really enjoyed it! The car seems to come alive (as much as a tiny CDI can do) when you tap the down shift just entering a corner or about to hit a slight incline.

I've read many reviews on the web where people (mainly motoring journalists who should know better) talk about the sluggish unpredictable transmission (gear box to those in the UK !) but fail to realise that in manual mode this thing changes gear in about the same time a 'normal' person changes gear manually using a clutch. When I say 'normal' I am specifically excluding the times when you are in a real hurry, or boy racers trying to prove a point. What I am talking about is the clutch-in, change-gear, blend the clutch out again process.

Changing gear 'at the right time' seems to be 'almost' seamless, and certainly improves upon the automatic change that most people seem to hate. Clearly if you change gear at the 'wrong-time' the engine needs a little longer to adjust it's speed to match, but this is your fault, not the car.

Since most Americans (this is where most of the negative comments come from) are not very familiar with a stick shift , perhaps they are lacking this basic driving skill, and it's going to take a little time for them to be comfortable with it. It's not the car's fault, it's their driving style that simply needs adjusting. Being so easy to use, I absolutely recommend the paddle shift system to any one, and it can't take more than a few minutes to get used to.

When in stop-start traffic I will probably just stick it in automatic mode - because that is where automatic really shines.

Yay! Collected the CDI

Yay! Finally got to collect the Smart CDI and drive away :)

Dropped the other car at home and then went for a 35 mile drive. The only negative I have is that it can labour a little at around 45-50 mph if it already changed up to 5th and you hit a slight incline. No big deal, just use the kick down (Auto mode) or flick the '-' paddle and it's back in to 4th and a happy little car again.

It does move with the traffic very nicely, and had absolutely no problems keeping up with the 60 mph on normal A roads.

A big smile came over my face as I was driving, because I suddenly remembered that there was no road tax to pay (until the government get desperate at least!) and I was probably getting 3 or 4 more mpg than the guy in front :)

More to come ....