Who says you can never be too smart! :-)

I owned two smarts for a short while. I picked up a 2006 pure cabriolet with a black tridion, metallic blue panels, softouch, floor mats, luggage cover and underseat storage…

I’ve had A LOT of calls and e-mails on the coupe as of recent. Word must be out that the diesels are gone. I did receive a solid offer for everything, and so NRG SVR went to a new home last night in Maple Ridge, BC, with everything except the bike rack.

I did save my stock size Jetline alloy wheels in exchange for a few extra maintenance items… and so the new owners will get their (new) snow tires on my pure steelies.

This means I have Jetlines with snows on them, a set of Bridgestone tires, a set of Conti tires, and one spare front steelie with a conti - which is destined for my spare tire carrier that I bought from smartieparts. So, I’m kinda short some summer wheels.

Getting to ‘re-do’ everything again means having a chance to try a few different ideas out. First up, a can of Scotchguard for the scodic grey interior!! Actually, that, and I already have the smartieparts oil filter adaptor kit ready to go on at the first oil change. I’ll probably try out a few different wheel ideas, and yes, I will be trying to emulate another 100 mpg run in this car.

I broke the car in by taking it on a 10 day trip to Jasper, Edmonton, Prince Albert, Birch Hills, Saskatoon, Drumheller, Canmore, Banff and Kelowna, although none of this was for fuel economy trials. I just love the convertible part of the car! It needs a good cleaning now after all them bugs.

Oh, and here’s something more… I was in Seattle with the current and past Presidents of Club smart Car to test drive the new 451 model gasoline smart fortwo on Wednesday. The Penske Road Show was in Seattle for just two days to offer test drives, and here’s what I thought of it…

The hobby-horse movements during shifting seem to have vanished. The car seems to shift smoother, but I am very reluctant to say quicker. It doesn’t seems especially quick off the line for all that ‘extra’ horse power. (The torque is missing compared to the cdi.)

I personally would want a turbo gasser over this non-turbo variant. Meaning essentially, I would choose the cdi over the non-turbo gasser, as I didn’t find the performance to be a lot quicker. I had a tach on one test drive, and matted the pedal in auto - it got up to 5200 RPM before going to 2nd, but really didn’t feel sportier than the cdi.

The paddle shifter wheel is very nice. I like the interior, although there isn’t ‘more’ storage per se… the door pockets are smaller and there is a sub-woofer under the driver seat… so I don’t know, can you get underseat storage under the passenger side or not? If not, there is arguably less storage in the front. The dual cup holder is great, well, a good thing at least. The controls are no better or worse than the 450, just different. It’s not as quirky to be sure, but it is ‘nice’. Given the horrible interiors in some cars today (like the exceptionally bad 2008 Subaru Impreza), smart is on par with the average, and ahead of many.

The colours were alright. The red is similar to ‘phat red’ or tomatoe as some refer to it. I like the blue on the black tridion. The white on silver also looks good. The car needs a cherry red in the line-up.

The access to the front innards and rear taillights from inside is much appreciated. The seat adjustments are far superior to the 450, and should be a welcome relief to those in Canada cursed with the uni-positional passenger pad.

One very obvious complaint I’ll make is the frisbee sized gas tank filler cover, which totally looks out of place on the car, and is awful more so because of it’s cheap looking finish and total bland appearance and lack of detail. The 450 has it beat hands down, and this is something they need to rectify. Here’s a major opportunity for tuners to design something better to cover it up.

Being that I am on my second smart cdi (a pure cabrio this time), I will be at least a year or two away from considering this model for myself. Hopefully then some more engine choices will be introduced into North America, because frankly, the 71 hp gasser doesn’t do it for me at all. I’ve been spoiled with the cdi, and am glad to have a new one. And then there’s the issue of whether this base engine will run on 87, or require 91+ premium. (I think there will be loud complaints if owners are told to run premium.)

That said, I like the 451 overall, and I think it is an improvement in so many different ways. smart has taken cues from aftermarket parts world, especially on the front end, namely the grille.

For US people getting their first smart it will be just fine, and for those awaiting a Brabus or preparing to mod the car themselves, it’ll be even better. I think the tuners have their work cut out for them, but in some ways, there are more opportunities with this car.

My prediction on sales for the first two ‘calendar’ years, assuming a full launch in January at the latest:

USA yr 1: 40,000
USA yr 2: 40,000

Canada yr 1: 2000
Canada yr 2: 2000

If a cdi is offered, sales will go up 25-50%