D-Day!

Well, I went for it. Took delivery of my very own Smart Car in San Francisco today. It took me awhile to figure out that the Smart Center was part of the Mercedes Benz dealership - all contained on the second floor. I thought Mercedes Benz was trying to ditance themselves from the Smart brand and all that. Maybe their independent dealer network hasn't been setup quite yet.

The dealership showroom was bright, modern, and clean - seems consistent with the Smart ideology. They had several cars parked in amongst the furniture. I spotted my car and made a beeline to check it out. Initial impressions were a little mixed. As I had expected, the new second generation design didn't look as pure and resolved as the earlier model. The red cloth interior I had ordered a year earlier looked much brighter and girlier than I expected. And the car seemed surprisingly big - its tallness loomed large over the desks and other furniture in the upstairs showroom. The Smart's build quality however, looked much better than I had expected - there was a solidness in it's construction and a crispness in the design of the details that indicated this really was a quality product.

The Salesman and I set out for a short test drive - once on the street the Smart takes on it's usual diminutive appearance. We zoomed up a couple of very steep streets where the hill-hold feature was demonstrated. We buzzed around for a few blocks while I struggled with the sequential transmission. I didn't really get the hang of it to be honest - I've always driven manual shifters. 

From the inside the car is quite spacious. You forget that the vehicle ends a couple of feet behind you. It's not until you get out, turn around to close the door when you realize, with utter disbelief, the extreme shortness of the car . It's more than three feet shorter than a Mini Cooper! It's hard to imagine how the earlier model measured 8 inches less than this - it would seem to be phyically impossible to create a vehicle any smaller.

There were several other customers excitedly checking out the cars - glee that turned to  sulkiness when they found out that the first year is pretty much sold out. I was reassured that this was something special. It's time to get on the Smart bandwagon .