Deep Underground!

Zipping through the Bunker Road Tunnel just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a one-lane tunnel so you have to wait at a rather long light before your direction is allowed through. A cool, eery feeling. It leads to Rodeo Beach and other attractions of the Marin Headlands.

Suddenly, There's plenty of Parking

The Smart Car's extreme shortness has often been lauded by Europeans as a great benefit in parking. However in most of America, that shortness doesn't really help –  the majority of on-street parking in cities and towns have pre-partitioned, SUV-sized spaces. Even in densely built cities like San Francisco, the entire downtown is marked off with supersized parking spots.

But in the residential regions of the city where parking is even scarcer, the Smart car really shines. There are all sorts of tiny sections of sidewalk between driveways that have been way too short for parking – Until now. I was able to find parking in many different neighborhoods with no problem. Many of the spots were painted red or marked for motorcycles only – even though they are plenty big enough for the Smart. The city fathers will have to revise their thinking with this car on the scene.

Blowin' in the wind

One of the biggest drawbacks in driving a very light car at highway speeds is its susceptibility to wind. The Smart's relatively tall cross-section only enhances this spinnaker-like quality. And it's extreme shortness doesn't help - it adds to it's darty, direction-changing ways in a strong crosswind. The effect can be reduced somewhat by rolling down the Smart's extra large side windows, reducing it's effective side area and allowing the window to pass through. 

The wind factor is especially noticeable when crossing our many Bay Area bridges. I was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge this afternoon and a sudden, strong gust blew my cap off - a first for me in after many years of driving convertibles. The car itself hardly shifted though - I guess it's more of an effect you feel rather than a legitimate driving hazard.

Big and Small

The Lincoln Continental is an American institution, a standard bearer of the Ford lineup since the late Thirties. The Town Car iteration is the surviving, current day example of vehicle size typical to what most of America drove in the Sixties and Seventies. Drastic downsizing by the domestic car manufacturers and the proliferation of imports has made this kind of car less common in recent decades, it's market relegated to retirees and limousine companies. The Smart barley takes up half the parking length - quite a valuable resource in a city like San Francisco.

Running on Empty

The Smart car's LCD fuel gauge consists of eight segments that sequentially blanking out as you drive. Once all eight blocks are blank, the last gallon is depicted with a separate digital indicator counting down in tenths. The tank's capacity is 8.75 gallons, and I just filled up with 8.66 gallons — I guess I cut it pretty close!

1500 miles. Alone.

At some point during my Monday morning commute I passed the 1500 mile point. The Smart has been utterly and completely without any faults, mechanical or otherwise. (At a similar point in time, my 2001 Audi TT had been back to the dealer five times for a multitude of failures). The car is really getting into it's element - the gears are shifting smoother, the engine seems to rev easier, and the steering and general tractability is feeling completely in sync. A meld of man and machine!

But in all this time I have yet to see a single other Smart Car on the road. I think this makes it the rarest car in America - I've seen more Aston Martins in that time. I'm surprised that more Smarts haven't shown their face - especially in my eco-friendly Northern Californian town of Berkeley.

The Smart Sprouts Wings

The Smart's doors take up almost the full length of the car. When open they extend dramatic wingspan. Shot on the top floor of the Sutter-Stockton Garage in San Francisco, the Smart looks poised for flight. Eventually reconsidered the aerodynamic potential of the Smart car and drove down the 14 floors.

A Smart Alternative

The Ford KA is a familiar sight on European roads, but is completely unknown to Americans. It's been around for over a decade - even longer than the Smart. A very fresh, unusual design when it debuted, it's clean curving shapes made quite a statement for a mainstream manufacturer like Ford. In later years the model was updated with body-colored bumpers, which really unified the rounded shape of the car. It become a hit with customers and the automotive press alike, and is now on the cusp of being replaced with a brand new model, probably with aggressive angry headlights and creased side body panels. Here are a few shots of this unusual car from one of my European trips.

Paddling

I have to say I'm learning to love these things. Having driven only one paddle-shifting car previously - an Audi TT with the much celebrated dual-clutch DSG system - I have to admit I initially didn't get the hang of it. I'm a long-standing hater of automatic transmissions and I was reluctant to embrace this quasi-automatic contraption. But the Smart Car's standard shift points are so low and ponderous, I quickly switched over to paddleshift mode and haven't been happier. Now when I drive one of my other cars I instinctively slap the back of the steering wheel with my fingers expecting a shift - it's very easy to get addicted to.

The nice thing about this type of shifting over an automatic is that you can select the gear you want when you want it, force a downshift, stay in gear longer etc. - all the benefits of a manual, but without the hassle of a clutch pedal. And when you tap the accelerator all the way down it hits a switch which causes a downshift - a nice touch when your roaring down the freeway and need a little extra power.

I do have to quibble about one aspect of the paddles however. They are attached on each side of the steering wheel itself and thus move with the wheel as you turn. This sounds sensible - the paddles are always at your finger tips. But in practice you don't steer with your hands in a fixed position - you spin the wheel a few times around and then let it slide back through your fingers when straightening out. When you have to downshift in mid-corner you find yourself looking for and chasing the paddles around the wheel. Not ideal. That's why Aston Martin and Ferrari have their paddles attached to the steering column instead - you always know they are fixed at the three and nine o'clock positions.

A Sunday Drive in the Country

Went for a drive in the hills north of Tilden Park. Here in Berkeley we're lucky to have a large area of open space in the hills and valleys to the East. Set aside for public recreational use, these scenic parklands offer striking views and topology, and are ideal for hiking, biking, and picnicking. And most of all, driving. Here I'm exploring a smaller unpaved road, and made good use of the Smart's tight turning radius - fairly easy to turn around in a single lane . Within a month or so, all these green hillsides will turn golden brown, as the last of the spring rains give way to the heat of summer.

"Ohmigod! That's the cutest car!"

When driving a Smart Car you soon get used to enthusiastic responses from all sides. And on a drive down to Santa Cruz Saturday, the attention level reached a new high. This really is a car made for beach communities. In addition to having the canvas top down, we had removed those side roof rails for the first time which added to the fully open air experiance, and probably added to it's inherent cuteness. Shouts of "love your car" and "Ohmigod-Did you see that?" were heard from the sidewalks and cafes as we passed. Basking in the glow of all that attention soon gets old though, as you explain to curious passerbys that no, the car is not electric, it doesn't get 80 miles to the gallon, and yes, it can get up to highway speeds, and then some (I've had it up to an indicated 90 mph and felt totally confident).

Most enthusiasm seems to come from the extremes - kids, teenagers, and also surprisingly, the senior citizens. Old men seem to be particularly enthusiastic, peppering me with specific questions about operation and ownership. Driving through Rockridge the other day an old lady in the station wagon next me looked over and called out " I want it!" in a husky growl. I think she was talking about the car.

Dinner and a Parking Ticket

Friday night we went out for dinner at Henry's Hi Life on the edge of downtown San Jose. It's a wonderful, rundown old place, with a very casual dressed-down crowd, and easily the best ribs in the Bay Area. But when we left we were annoyed to find a parking ticket on the windshield. Annoyed because we were completely unaware of any parking restrictions on the street at 10pm. I guess the parking person hadn't seen a Smart Car before - on the ticket where it indicated Make of vehicle there was the entry: "unknown".

It's ironic to get a parking ticket for a car who's main advantage is its ability to park anywhere, and doubly ironic to get cited in a suburban city with acres of free parking. It wasn't a cheap ticket either. I'm thinking of contesting it, or at least paying only half - if for no other reason than the car takes up only half a space!

Four Dollars a Gallon!

Drove a friend and her luggage across the bay to Menlo Park today. Discovered that the car is very sensitive to wind! Driving across the SF Bay Bridge was no problem, but out by Candlestick things were a little hairy - you really have to grip that wheel tightly, and gusts were still blowing us off course by a couple of feet in abrupt bursts.  I guess the light weight of the Smart car combined with the relatively tall side area make the Smart Car an effective sail.

Because I'd been battling with the wind I hadn't noticed that we were low on fuel by the time we got over there - we were down to an indicated zero bars on the LCD fuel gauge. I didn't want to risk it by tooling around looking for cheaper gasoline so I filled up at the Chevron - notice the gas prices! I'm going by the book, at least for now, and filling up with top grade fuel - But I've never paid over $4/gallon before. Gasoline is now the highest it has ever been in America, even accounting for inflation. I guess I bought the Smart just in time. This was my second fill-up - looks like the real-world mileage is working out to just over 35 mpg with very aggressive driving. Of course I had expected more out of the tiny Smart, but then I have been driving like a maniac. I'm going to try and take it a little easier for a while and see what I can get that number up to.

Really Red

Here are a few of shots of the rather bright interior. I'm liking it a lot now but it was initially a little shocking - I'm used to sombre all-black interiors on my cars. The red is bright, and slightly on the orangey side, and works well with the other trim elements around the inside. Appears to be put together with a quality feel as well. You can see that I opted for the optional "pod" instruments atop the dash - they add to the general funkyness and that tachometer is very useful for gear changes. I have to say that the design of the actual instrument faces look rather cheap and uninspired - I would have preferred the more tried-and-true white on black background design. All-in-all though, it's very comfortable in there - air conditioning, a decent stereo, plenty of headroom - it's going to be a nice ride.