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 ....

They just don't get it....

So, we should pick up the Smart tomorrow. Can't wait.

I've been reviewing the YouTube videos again and laughing at all the ignorant comments people make. Sadly they are mostly Americans with foul mouths and a complete lack of understanding about how the rest of humanity lives. I feel sorry for the rest of America (USA), because they have to live with these people every day!

They seem to think if a car (Pickup / SUV) isn't 4ltr+ V8 and can't do 0-60 in 4 seconds while carrying two dirt bikes down a farm track, or doesn't have a 8'x4' flatbed to carry their groceries home, it can't be a real car. They seem truly convinced that every Smart it going to get 'T-Boned' by a 'Semi' or a large 'SUV'.

No wonder that the USA (4% of the world's population) produces 25% of the world's pollution !

A new order...

My Wife and I have been teasing each other about buying a Smart ForTwo for a few years now. We love them, and often point them out to each other. My first urge to buy a Smart was in around 2002, but some how it's taken this long!

We test drove a petrol version about 6 years ago, and it was a major disappointment, not so much because of the car itself, but because we each had to go out separately, accompanied by the salesman. We didn’t really get chance to talk to each other about it while we were ‘in’ the car, and we came home again without buying anything. Some how time went by and it got put on the back burner.

Earlier this year Smart FINALLY brought the CDI to the UK (Yay!), and given it's also a very slightly larger model it also has a little more space too! For some reason Smart originally thought the UK would not want the CDI. I can’t imagine who had given them that thought. Crazy! I’ve had three diesel vehicles before and I love diesel.

After serious amounts of reading about the new ForTwo CDI, including visiting the smart web site many times and watching several (almost all!) of the Smart ForTwo videos on YouTube (especially the CDI videos), journalist reports etc, we went for another test drive - but this time in the CDI.

The salesman put us on the Daimler Insurance and allowed us to take the car out unaccompanied. Fantastic! In my opinion this was the best move he could have made, and certainly made a big difference to us. We were out for about 40-45 mins, and even drove home to try some luggage - I’ll talk more about this in another blog.

Long Delivery Time... Err no Thanks!

When we got back to the dealership we talked a little about the car, the options, the prices and then got the delivery timescale bombshell. We expected them to have stock, or maybe a week or so delivery time, assuming we weren’t going to be too picky about an exact specification. They had some white cars with a black Tridion cell available immediately, but I don’t like the white, and if I’m going to buy a Passion, I want the silver Tridion cell! So, how soon could we get one we wanted? Err.... Hmmm...... end of November Sir! Wow! From the beginning of August to the end of November! That’s enough time for me to change my mind, and besides, I would be moaning about the extra fuel I could be saving every time I drove my current car right up until the Smart was delivered.

So..... I asked about the demonstrator, and if we could buy that!

Demonstrator Available ?

My Wife’s BMW Z3 was a demonstrator, and we have been very happy with it - so it was worth a try in order to skip the queue. Besides, the demonstrator had lots of goodies added like the leather heated seats, iPod connector and stereo upgrade. To my surprise they said yes they would sell it, and gave a price below what I had expected.

We decided to go home and think about it for a short time, get an insurance quote etc, then phoned the dealer back and told them we would take it!

So now we are waiting for delivery - hopefully on Monday!