Dring down From Montreal to Charleston in wife's Smart

[UncleBenz]

Hi Guys,

I own an E320 1997 but my wife own a yellow 2008 Smart. I posted a thread in my forum section without realizing that we have a Smart section.

Here is the thread I posted:

http://www.benzworld.org/forums/w210...ton-smart.html

See you on the road!

Uncle Benz

PS. Wooups, sorry, I made a typo mistake on the title. I meant "driving" not "dring"...

[UncleBenz]

Hello folks,

We did 3 trips: One from Montréal to Charleston, then our cruise and then the return back home.

The Smart went VERY WELL !!! I would eat milage again!! May be one day we will do a trip to California in a Smart.

Boy we enjoyed our trip! The Smart is fun to drive. Still fun after driving more than 2,250 miles.

Here some facts:

Montréal - Charleston - Montréal = 2 253 miles. We took only 49.8 gallons for this milage.

This is around 45 miles per gallon. Not bad at all when considering that the Smart had to carry 2 adults with more than 150 lb of luggages.

The only "bad parts" (bad is too strong word but I could find the right word...) are:
- No cruise control. Hard on the feet after 2-1/2 hours on the road.
- React to side winds but not too much. When trucks where passing by,
we felt the wind but not as much as we thought it would be.
- Bumpy road on the south of South Carolina. We felt very well the concrete highway
during the 10 to 20 miles of the I-95. This was soo funny to feel the "puklung-puklung-
puklungs" but after 5 miles we were tired about this.


Concerning the cruise, it was fine. Temp was a bit chilly in the morning but at least we had sunshine all week and temp was fine during the day.

Here some pictures

Take care Smart guys,
Uncle Benz

[Mark08859]

Nice pics. Thanx for sharing. Did you have any rearward vision at all with the luggage fully loaded? Also, did the extra weight change the handling or ride feel as compared with day-to-day driving?

PS Hope you and your wife enjoyed the cruise!

[UncleBenz]

Originally Posted by Mark08859

Nice pics. Thanx for sharing. Did you have any rearward vision at all with the luggage fully loaded? Also, did the extra weight change the handling or ride feel as compared with day-to-day driving?

PS Hope you and your wife enjoyed the cruise!

Hi Mark,

Rearward vision was really partial but effective.

We had the following in the Smart's trunck:

2 large size heavy luggages
1 medium size luggage
1 packsac
1 hand bag (larger than a video camera's case). Was sitting between the passenger's feet
and the seat
2 pellows (one was very handy)
1 wife's fully loaded purse
1 blanket
2 winter coats

Mark, the handling was not that different from the day-to-day driving. You could "feel" that the Smart was heavier but not as much as we were expecting.

If one day we can affort to do another trip (money and time) we wished to do Montréal - California - Vancouver - Montréal. That would be awesome.

We really enjoyed doing long runs with it. I still need a 4 passenger car but one day, if I don't need one anymore, I will buy a second Smart for sure. My wifes love hers as much as day one more than a year ago !!!

Uncle Benz