Sadly, that's our new car price in Canada lol. $18,250 for passion coupé. You should've seen that Cdn$40k orange Brabus edition of the old smart. There was also the Cdn$26k Nightrun edition (fuzzy steering wheel but no turbo... all cosmetics).
Hmm... did I mention how much I love the heated seats? I hope the new Prius has it. It's something I missed from our old Camry. On the smart, it does the bum and lower back like the Camry but goes a step further by providing heat all the way up to the shoulders and heats up surprisingly quick. If it is offered in the Prius, PLEASE make it multi-stage. It's embarrassing that the new 2007 Camry has a single stage seat heater when the Accord has had dual-stage for at least a generation prior. (2003-07)
Yeah that's a lot of money for a Smart I agree about the seat heaters. The 2007 Subaru Outback a co-worker drives, has *very* nice and easily adjustible seat heaters
February brings yet another issue with the smart. It has 10,500kms on it and the fan blower motor has gone. It's working intermittently. The part was ordered from Germany, took a week and got it replaced under warranty. So far, all the issues have been common teething problems (multiple people on the forums asking about the same issues) so it's reassuring (that it's common and not just limited to a few iterations) yet not so reassuring since I've never had a Toyota with that many teething problems (if any!) It's still a great car to drive and brings a smile to my face whenever I take it out (it's almost like taking out that prized roadster for a Sunday drive...)
Took the smart in for its first service. The service also included a transmission update for the sequential manual gearbox. It now shifts much smoother AND has a feature found in the 2009 models. You can now enter manual mode while in D without having to nudge the shifter to the +/- side. This is useful if you're in D and suddenly need to pass someone. It's easier to downshift on your own than wait for the car to do it for you. I also got a 10th Anniversary gift box (from smart Canada) and a Mercedes keychain as a token of thanks from the dealer.
Yeah it's a fun little car but very susceptible to winds (might be partly because my tyre pressures are a little higher than spec'd). Motor is doing well as from the secondary valve intake pump replaced at 800kms. It's a Mitsu engine so it's going to be the least of my worries.
Oh right, I thought it was the turbodiesel. They don't offer the turbodiesel anymore. Any hassles with getting service eg how often do you have to change the oil? Every 6 months or just once a year?
Yeah no more turbodiesels for a while. Not really. The service interval is 1 year or 15,000km on synthetic oil.
Nope cause the UK G2 Prius interval is 12/16,000 IIRC and they're using synthetic. Not that I know of. I didn't do the oil change. The dipstick read at a normal level when I last checked it in Aug after the cross-country trip.
Truly amazing how when we mention our oil change routines, folks are so scared of using a synthetic and "pushing it" to 12 months or 16,000 km.
<shrug> Some are still stuck in the 3,000km interval! Actually I'm certain there are a whole bunch of folks still using the 6,000km interval on the newer vehicles because the older techs are so used to putting 6,000km intervals that they forget that the 2000MY and newer vehicles have 8,000km intervals (at least at the two dealers I go to). I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.
*Update* Not much to report. Getting 500km/tank for the last 4 tanks (quite consistent), averaging about 6L/100km (39mpg) mixed city/hwy driving with a good dose of enthusiastic driving in there. Here are some pics from the latest photo shoot
I will no longer update this blog as the vehicle has been sold. I hope you enjoyed the short journey. I will keep the photos up for future reference.
