Sadly the Mazda 323f has to go

I'm looking at my options at the moment. The way I use the car has changed recently, I only use it a couple of times a week for going to the shops etc... So I don't need a big car anymore. It need to be good round town, cheap to run and cheap to buy.

I've sat in a Smart Car City-coupe today, I'm taking it for a spin tommorow. It's quite big inside, all I have to do is check if I can fit the model helicopter and the tick sheet is almost complete.

Just one thing left, can I fit the Empeg in??? It looks as if there are 2 Din slots in the Dash already to go, I was wondering if anyone has ever fitted an Empeg to a Smart before, and if so did it go well???

Also does anyone have a Smart? I'd love to know what you think if it.

One last thing...

Do you think it's OK for a 25 year old hetro male to drive around in a Smart???"
Yes, go for it
No, you'll stay single forever if you do
Don't know, never seen a bloke driving one

Cheers

Cris.

I think they look pretty cool. I wouldn't want it for my only car though. Not that I have to worry about it I bet they won't sell them in the USA ever . Can you put the empeg in there or does it have some strange shaped custom head unit ?

Just one thing left, can I fit the Empeg in???

I'm sure you could, but you'd probably have to pedal the Smart Car twice as hard to satisfy the player's power requirements.

I think you can fit any head unit you like with a facia adapter. It looks as if there are 2 DIN slots too, so I can just move my existing setup straight into the Smart. They do a factory upgrade of the speakers for £85, which improves the sounds no end.

It's pretty level on the poll so far, I find most people laugh when I say I'm thinking of getting one. I'm trying to put that at the back of my mind as it makes very good financial sense to buy one for the type of driving I do.

Basically, it's going to cost me £150 a month for 3 years using my car as the deposit, it does 60 to the gallon and only costs £88 to tax. It's the cheapest of my current options. They also hold their value very well, 3 year old ones are going for about £5k at the moment, thats loosing under a grand a year, the Corsa I'm looking at will loose about 2 every year.

I'll let you know how the test drive goes.

Cheers

Cris.

Ha Ha Ha!!! I suppose I would get used to that sort of "humour" if I got one

It looks pretty neat with a head unit in, here is picture of one with the same headunit as I would put in, see the extra DIN slot for the Empeg below



This one has a blue dash, they come in normal dash type colurs now (fhew!). And this is an older LHD model, the headunit looks like it would be half hidden in that picture, but in real life its fine (if a little low).

Cheers

Cris.

The only think I'd say is I wouldn't want to be in one during an accident, but other than that I don't think we'd disown you!

What about those roadsters? They look really cool

The only think I'd say is I wouldn't want to be in one during an accident, but other than that I don't think we'd disown you!

They are actually supposed to be pretty good in an accident, much better than the old Mini, Beetle or small Jap car.

Here in Amsterdam they even the fire department has some smarts, red color, bells and whistles and all. Great for the fire chief to get to the fire quickly in. Oh yes, and the "Smart Taxis".

It won't be the first, but I'm sure it will have good sound!

The roadster is definately cool. Get one of those Chris!

Yea they are cool, but I had one hell of a job getting my big fat arse in and out of the one in the show room!!! They're tiny! And expensive, £15k almost.

The test drive went OK, I think I'm going to get one, black I think. I can even fit the helicopter in the back with room to spare.

They do drive abit funny, the gear box is weird, not a manual or an auto but somewhere in between. It's bumpy and noisy but thats all part of the fun. The upgraded sound system sounds ok, it'll sound even better with an empeg in.

Lots of people are saying I shouldn't get one, but when you look at it closly it is very tempting, nothing else comes close to the value it offers, that is if you don't want to carry much stuff around with you.

Cheers

Cris.

Would you be doing many motorway miles in it? I'd be a little on-edge driving one over saddleworth moor in bad weather.

I was a little on edge with a slight cross wind on the M621 this afternoon, let alone Saddleworth Moor!!! It must be its auto lane chaging circuit it seems to have built in

I do that trip (to see the olds in Shrewsbury) about 4 times a year, now I've got the Karma I can go on the train no probs, used to do allot of motorway driving as my girlfriend used to live 260 miles away, but thats finished so it's mostly nipping to the shops. If fact I'm even wondering if it's even worth putting the empeg in at all, as I never take it on short trips. They do a lockable under seat draw thing, that looks to be empeg size, so maybe it could live in that if I do put it in.

I hate making my mind up, and hate spending money even more!!!!

Cheers

Cris.

Does that mean you'll need a lift to Amersfoort this year?

Maybe

I think I've made my mind up, gunna put the order in. I've done the sums it's £1k cheaper over 3 years than any of my other options and will hold its value better too!

I'll have to see how it goes on the motorway, some reviews says its ok as long as you're not bothered when you get there and its not windy

I've worked out that I probably spend about 5-10% of the time in my car on the motorway, so it doesn't make sense to me to buy a car just for that, and 90% of the time it'll be parked up outside the house because I walk to work now.

Cheers

Cris.

because I walk to work now

Making use of the Karma then? With the empeg I find having to drag a car battery around seriously impedes its portability.

Yea the Karma is going great. It's made me loose half a stone so far

I think this is the second or third week I've been using it (about 1 hour per day) with out a charge

Cheers

Cris.

I'm a little late here, so only a few comments:

empeg install is NO problem, if you put it in the upper slot. I don't know, if the lower one is full DIN-size. Just put an amp under the passenger-seat. The battery is just in front under the passengers feet.

If you buy the Factory speaker upgrade, you'll need a seperate crossover, cause it's normally in the factory head-unit.

You DON'T NEED a tuning-chip to power the empeg, but be prepared for jokes of all kinds...

You can get rid of the side-wind problem by mounting wider wheels.

You'll get used to the gearbox after a couple of days.

You can go on the motorway, if you don't care to be one of the slower cars.

And thanks Mark for linking the photo...

P.S.: most of the girls just love smarts...

P.S.: most of the girls just love smarts...

Now, why do I think that that last remark is the clincher! - Oh, yes, because I know Cris!!!
Look forward to you buzzing round in the Smart car!
Of course, if you're really stuck for a bigger car, or a longer journey, you can hire very cheaply over weekends.

Put the order in this morning, I get it on the 5th It was a purely a financial choice

I took it for a longer spin this time, I got a good solid 70 on the uphill strech of the M621 on the way to Ikea, so I was happy with that.

Didn't like the full auto gear box so I've gone for the standard option, in Black with a few little extras on the inside. I'm looking forward to getting it now!

I figured it's pretty cheap to hire car these days anyway, like boxer said.

Cheers

Cris.

...I got a good solid 70 on the uphill strech of the M621...

Just for clarification, is that in MPH or KPH?

Ikea

What's the point of blasting along at 70 (M.P.H.), only to fight your way through dithering families and a queue like Dunkirk, besides, how much flat pack furniture can you get in a smart?

Ah, but it is not the destination that matters, it is the journey that is important!!!

Ah, but it is not the destination that matters, it is the journey that is important!!!

I think it's thinforth's Lotus 7 thread you're after, I don't think Cris is going to support a case for Smart car rallying, but there's probably some nut somewhere!

Just for clarification, is that in MPH or KPH?

If a Brit gives you a speed, it's generally in MPH.

but there's probably some nut somewhere!

You were right.

You were a cat's cock hair ahead of me. Always google first, before making presumptive statements!

Yea, that was Mph, sorry should have been more clear, I got it up to 78 at one point (uphill!) Not bad for a 700cc with two grat big blokes in it. I'm not sure if it had Hph on the dial, I think it must have and I didn't notice, must be some Euro law about that ???

We didn't stop at Ikea!!! God no (Although they do great meat balls mmm).

There is quite a bit of engine noise, not a surprise as it's about 2 inch from your backside, but its a nice sound no a whine or anything annoying.

Cheers

Cris.

Although they do great meat balls mmm

Not a patch on the ones at Casa Mia in Chapel Allerton!

you want to go faster hand me the spanners http://www.pistonheads.com/doc.asp?c=61&i=7802

Somebody stuck a Hyabusa (sp?) engine in a stripped out clio. Quite impressive...

Thanks, but no thanks

I think 84Mph in a car that small will be fast enough for me. Although 0-60 time could do with chopping half!!! It will be 15.5 seconds when I get it!

Cheers

Cris.

The 0 - 60 time explains why Smart Cars were the second most photographed car by speed cameras around London in a study last year. Only beaten by Porsche drivers.

Good choice though, I nearly bought one last year. Ruled it out as I travel to France quite regularly.

Before I vote on your Poll I have a few questions

1. Where do you put the key to wind that thing up? Or is that the deluxe model that needs 1 9-volt and 4 AA battery to run.

If you want a personalized license plate I have a few suggestions for you

MTCHBX
RLRSKT
SHOEBX
DTHTRP
SPDBMP
TINCAN

Dang that is with out a doubt the smallest car I have every seen. I am not a big person but I wouldn’t feel safe driving that thing around at all.

So I suppose you have a big gas guzzling inefficient SUV so you can feel safe?

HA HA!!!

Now let me try and guess your personalized plate...

FLMEUP
GASGUZ1
PNSEXTN
BIGTSSR



The NCAP tests prove it's as safe, if not safer than allot of small cars on the roads.

Cheers

Cris.

I wish, I don't have the Big SUV anymore and I miss it everyday.

Every time someone is riding my butt going up a hill and I think about hitting the brakes I miss it

Every time someone cuts me off in traffic I miss it

Every time some 18 wheeler just about runs me off the road cause the Little POS I am in can't be seen in the mirror I miss it.

Every time I have to drive more then about 400 miles and my back turns into a pretzel I miss it.

Every time I think I could get out and Push my current car up the hill faster I miss it.

Every time I spend 10 minutes trying to shoe horn my monthly groceries in to my current car I miss it.

Every time I hear the Roar of a Big Block passing me on the high way (kind of sounds like stepping wolf) my current car sounds like Berry Manallow I miss it.

I don’t think I have a single photo of my current car but my web site is plastered with photos of my old beat up SUV’s so dam right I miss it.

FYI my Oregon Personalized plate was AWSM-TK that was on my 1989 ¾ Ton 4x4 with a built 454 Suburban. 9 miles to the gallon up hill down hill over a line of compact cars it didn’t matter.

As for feeling safe check this out.

I had a Guy in a 1995 Honda Accord 4Door hit my rear driver’s side tire on my Suburban and total his car (he swore he didn’t see me)
The engine on his car was pushed back enough to bow in the dash, total damage to my car 1.19 for a bottle of armor all to get the scuff of my tire.

I had a guy run a red light and I t-boned him in an intersection with my 1979 GMC Jimmy (not that little POS jimmy they make now, the Real one) From my drivers seat I could see BOTH of his bumpers I wrapped him around my front bumper like a “U”

Total Damage to my car ZERO.


I have a 1995 Chevy Blazer biggest POS on the planet and I have receipts to prove it. Last year I replaced the rack and pinion, AC compressor, Ball joints, Timing cover, alternator, windshield wiper pump, windshield wiper motor, windshield wiper Mulit function switch. The list goes on and on.
It has less then 70k miles on it.

My Jimmy had 550k and didn’t cost me as much to fix my Suburban had 190k and didn’t cost me 1/10 as much to fix as this has.

Heck you know how to change the spark plugs on my blazer?? You take the tires off (no joke it’s the only way to reach them)

I stopped driving my minivan daily because 22mpg seemed irresponsible.

I figured out all of them except
BIGTSSR

brain not working on that one.

As for the milage My life matters more to me then a few buck and I like to have the crumple zones be in someone elses car for me I want Nice thick steel, "dent resistent side inpack body moldings made out of recycled milk bottles doesn't make me feel safe.

BIGTSSR = BIG TOSSER and I'm only kidding

Your wife may be fine, but what about the poor child you mow down in your "tank". An SUV is only safe because it destroys what it hits, anyway I only have myself to worry about.

Cheers

Cris.

My life matters more to me then a few buck and I like to have the crumple zones be in someone elses car for me I want Nice thick steel, "dent resistent side inpack body moldings made out of recycled milk bottles doesn't make me feel safe.

Well think about it this way. Instead of 2 crumple zones absorbing all the energy, you now have one. Not only that, but the amount of energy is proportional to the mass of the vehicles involved.
You may feel safe. but what happens when you are involved in an accident with a like-minded driver or a large immovable object? No crumple zones.
Assuming that your rigid bodied vehicle doesn't self destruct in an accident, that means all the shock of the rapid deceleration is passed to your body via the seatbelt. What happens then is that your body frame decelerates quickly, but your internal organs don't. This causes nasty internal injuries, which are often life-threatening.

The irony here is that you state that "My life matters more to me then a few buck" (sic), yet every indication is that the opposite is true. You seem more concerned with lack of damage to your vehicle and the lack of costly repairs than having as many potentially life-saving crumple zones as possible.

been in three accidents in my life all three where in BIG cars, all three times nither the car or my self had any damage,

THird one was in a 1974 Ford Station wagon (With the wood siding I might add)

my mom was at a complete STOP at a red light

Drunk rear ended me doing 40 - 50 mph Totaled his buick dented my bumper and I lurched forward and knocked the rearview mirrior off the windshield,

No crumple zones no air bags no side inpact curtens just plain old american made steel and the seat belt did its job,

I was sitting in the middle on the front seat ,my two sisters were in the back seat and none of us got hurt more then a "SLIGHT" bruise.

I saw a Accident between a 1980's age Surburban and a u-haul truck sure the Surburban had damage but everyone in it got out and walked away.

I'll take plain old Thick Steel over polycarbonite and crumple zones any day of the week, (and all the tests in the world won't change my mind, you can drive what you all want to drive but as soon as I pay off this WHITE POS I get to drive my 1973 Surburban dream truck.

I'm just glad that I'm driving around on this side of the pond

Remember this is made on your side of the pond

www.maximog.com

Seeing I picked on your idea of a car its only fair you get to pick on mine,, a New Surburban costs about 50k I want to spend about 45k and build this one (price does not include most of the stereo gear but I have a bunch of that already that I can move over)


1973 Suburban 4x4
502 Crate Motor
Twin-turbo or supercharger (Still deciding on that one)
4-Inch Body Lift
Bushwhacker Fender flairs
Big Yellow Trick Tranny
Rear Axle: Dynatrac Pro Rock 60 with Detroit locker
Front Axle: Dynatrac Pro Rock 60 with ABR air Locker
Transfer Case: Advance Adapters Atlas II 4.3:1
Rear Drive Shaft: High Angle Driveline 1410 series
Front Drive Shaft: High Angle Driveline 1310 series CV
Steering: Avalanche Engineering full hydraulic, front and rear
Front Suspension: King Shocks coil-over shocks custom four-link
Rear Suspension: King coil-over shocks four-link
Brakes: Dynatrac disc brakes with ABS
Tires: BF Goodrich 39/14.50-18 Krawler TA
Wheels: Hutchinson military-style beadlocks
8 Point frame attached Roll cage
Frame Mounted dual 8dRv Batteries
Dual 260 Amp Alternators
Fully Boxed Frame trusses sub frame
60 Gallon fuel cell
11 Gallon Reserve cell with redundant pump.
(Yea go ahead and poke fun I know it will only get around 7 MPG)
Aluminum diamond plate on the inside from the back of the rear seat to the barn doors.
Powder coated Skid plates
Alternating strips of Black walnut and English walnut for a floor, attached with counter sunk brass hardware.
Dual AC units and Dual Heat
5 7-way Power adjust heated seats
Racing harnesses
Capacitor discharge headlights, fog lights and driving lights
LED Tail lights, brake lights, corner lights and marker lights.
Front and Rear 15000-pound PTO winch
9000-Pound Removable winch with mounts front and rear.
Dual Cats (don’t need them on a car this old but I am adding them anyways)
Dual SS exhaust

(Cool add on’s)
160 Gig Empeg with tuner and digital out
Alpine Digital 7.1 Decoder
Alpine IVA900 head unit
Alpine GPS
3 Alpine Remote displays
10.4 LCD touch Screen
P4 ITX system with wi-fi, and a copy of the free-cdb database incase I want to rip a new cd while I am in the car not while driving)
3 12” Diamond audio tdx 12d2 Subs
3 Phoenix Gold Titanium 1200.1 Amps
4 Phoenix Gold Titanium 1000.2 amps
7 Phoenix Gold PLD1 Line drivers
4 Pairs Diamond Audio Hex S600

I've been involved in 3 accidents of any note, 2 where the car I was driving was a total, and in no case did I not walk away.

I prefer the Colin Chapman idea of smaller and lighter

You make the car lighter, you need smaller brakes, smaller tyres, smaller gearbox which makes it even lighter which means a smaller engine which makes it lighter and eventually you end up with a lovely small car.

You cannot imagine how slothful unfoucused and lardy a 7 makes even my old car which was a sporty BMW feel.

SUVs have there place but not on the road if you want my opinion cars are getting too heavy. the futre is smaller and lighter with clever materials. Look at the new top of the range jag made off alloy it is lighter then the X series which is bottom of the range.

When the argument is safety, I don't think your 7 is an appropriate counterpoint.

If you don't want to install the empeg and want to keep the stock stereo in order to make use of the sound upgrade package, you can get a cable to connect your Karma to the CD-changer input from here:

http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr?doit=done&urltext=http://www.misterdotcom.de/smart/Shop/Shop/kleinteile/kleinteile.html&lp=de_en&x=34&y=9

I've been using the second one on the page with a Riot and it works very well.

Cheers David!!!

I see they do cables to handle the lack of a cross over on another headunits. I think they are trying to say "Tweeters are wired to the rear outputs of a normal headunit, this cable stops the tweeters from blowing up" I think. I was wondering about this, so I think I'll place an order ASAP!.

I have a plan for adding the Karma to the system I've already got a Sony CD Changer switch with an AUX in, so the Empeg will go on one Aux, and a have a couple of RCA's ( mounted in the telephone console I have on order) in the second input for the Karma. This will mean no loose wires when I'm all done, I'll post some pictures when its finished.

Thanks again for the pointer!

Cheers

Cris.

if the SUV is big enough i could just duck

I can recommend Mr. Dotcom for Smart-Stuff.
If you have problems to read something german, send me the link, i will try to translate it.

It was a sad day today.

The empeg/headunit came out of the Mazda, and the factory set went back in. I liked the setup, I just hope it works as well in the Smart.

The facia adaptors are on backorder, hopefully won't be a long wait for them, I also have a crossover thing on its way from Germany, hopefully it will all be here so I can re-install next weekend.

Fingers crossed.

Cris.

go buy this weeks autocar magazine

test of a 170bhp smart car

Hi Paul,

could you scan the article and post it or mail me speedy67 at gmx dot de??
Would love to read it, but can't get british mags here...
Must be the subframe with yamaha 1100ccm motor in it thing. It has been discussed in a german smart-forum for a while.
I have a video of it (3,6MB) here
Turn up the volume, if it's save...

same car once i read the mag i shall stic it in an envlope and send it your way.

Would be great, thanks...
PM with adress following.
Some more beers to drink for you in Amersfoort.