So Yesterday I was able to finally catch up to the SMART Road Show that Ron posted about a few months back that he attended.
![Image]()
The very fitting part about this event. The whole thing was based out of one long aluminum trailer sitting in a shopping mall parking lot. Literally must have taken max a total of 20 parking spaces.
![Image]()
Convertible SMART ForTwo:
![Image]()
Display car and tear away car showing off the tridion safety cell:
![Image]()
I was blown away at how interested everybody at this event was, people seemed to just be blown away by the car.
![Image]()
Not bad Hatch space, pretty similar to the hatch space in the MINI with the rear seats up..... but the MINI does have rear seats that can be folded down and nearly triple the rear cargo area.
![Image]()
Cool shot of the engine under the rear hatch floor, for display purposes only of course.....
![Image]()
Interior was nice but not as nice as I thought it would be. Again, great for this price range and very customizable. But I thought there would be more painted surfaces. Now remember these cars are literally being driven across the country and over 6-7 months they've been driven 13-15k miles. Purposeful, useful and to the point.
![Image]()
These cars were said to be Euro and Canadian spec, the American cars will have D-N-P and a button for Manumatic mode. No true manual is offered anymore, its a slow sequential....
![Image]()
Clock and Tach will be Options
![Image]()
This Speedo pod with the Digital gauges underneath actually was perfect, had all the info you needed and none of the stuff you didn't.
![Image]()
Then off to the test drives
![Image]()
![Image]()
So... now if you remember Ron's post about this event I don't think he ever got around to posting his impressions on the car or his test drive. And after reaching about 10-15 mph and the first shift I think I understood why. The employee's kept repeating how these are preproduction cars and the shifting in the final US spec cars will be MUCH faster.
The reason they say this is because it literally takes a second, to a second and a half for each shift. Its like sitting in the passenger seat of a stickshift car with someone who's learning how to drive stick, problem is your driving.
Now the first car I drove didn't have the shift paddles on the steering wheel to shift the car myself. The SMART representative told me that I should drive one of the other cars in the fleet which all had the paddles to see if it helped.
So I got back in line and waited to drive another one of the cars. I eventually ended up in the blue convertible that has its top up in the picture above. I had the SMART Rep put it into manual mode and started doing all the shifting on my own. MUCH better, what a difference. I knew when the shifts were coming so I would give the throttle a slight lift hit the shift up and get back on the throttle. Silky smooth from there on.
Now I was able to test what the car felt like through out the rev range.....except for one little thing. Now this model I jumped in didn't have a Tach... ARGH. I know by the sound of the engine I had it up in the upper revs sometimes but I never did hit the limiter. I also never did get to test if the car would shift for you if you did hit the limiter.
Once you got the revs up the car moved pretty well for 71hp, yes thats 71HP. But the car only weighs 1700lbs, so that more than makes up for it. Sadly our test drive was only about 7 minutes driving the surface streets around the shopping mall so I never did get to merge onto a highway or anything but I've driven slower cars.
Enough typing for now, I'll add more review later if anybody wants.
More info on the cars www.SMARTUSA.com
The very fitting part about this event. The whole thing was based out of one long aluminum trailer sitting in a shopping mall parking lot. Literally must have taken max a total of 20 parking spaces.
Convertible SMART ForTwo:
Display car and tear away car showing off the tridion safety cell:
I was blown away at how interested everybody at this event was, people seemed to just be blown away by the car.
Not bad Hatch space, pretty similar to the hatch space in the MINI with the rear seats up..... but the MINI does have rear seats that can be folded down and nearly triple the rear cargo area.
Cool shot of the engine under the rear hatch floor, for display purposes only of course.....
Interior was nice but not as nice as I thought it would be. Again, great for this price range and very customizable. But I thought there would be more painted surfaces. Now remember these cars are literally being driven across the country and over 6-7 months they've been driven 13-15k miles. Purposeful, useful and to the point.
These cars were said to be Euro and Canadian spec, the American cars will have D-N-P and a button for Manumatic mode. No true manual is offered anymore, its a slow sequential....
Clock and Tach will be Options
This Speedo pod with the Digital gauges underneath actually was perfect, had all the info you needed and none of the stuff you didn't.
Then off to the test drives
So... now if you remember Ron's post about this event I don't think he ever got around to posting his impressions on the car or his test drive. And after reaching about 10-15 mph and the first shift I think I understood why. The employee's kept repeating how these are preproduction cars and the shifting in the final US spec cars will be MUCH faster.
The reason they say this is because it literally takes a second, to a second and a half for each shift. Its like sitting in the passenger seat of a stickshift car with someone who's learning how to drive stick, problem is your driving.
Now the first car I drove didn't have the shift paddles on the steering wheel to shift the car myself. The SMART representative told me that I should drive one of the other cars in the fleet which all had the paddles to see if it helped.
So I got back in line and waited to drive another one of the cars. I eventually ended up in the blue convertible that has its top up in the picture above. I had the SMART Rep put it into manual mode and started doing all the shifting on my own. MUCH better, what a difference. I knew when the shifts were coming so I would give the throttle a slight lift hit the shift up and get back on the throttle. Silky smooth from there on.
Now I was able to test what the car felt like through out the rev range.....except for one little thing. Now this model I jumped in didn't have a Tach... ARGH. I know by the sound of the engine I had it up in the upper revs sometimes but I never did hit the limiter. I also never did get to test if the car would shift for you if you did hit the limiter.
Once you got the revs up the car moved pretty well for 71hp, yes thats 71HP. But the car only weighs 1700lbs, so that more than makes up for it. Sadly our test drive was only about 7 minutes driving the surface streets around the shopping mall so I never did get to merge onto a highway or anything but I've driven slower cars.
Enough typing for now, I'll add more review later if anybody wants.
More info on the cars www.SMARTUSA.com
