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.
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