T255 JUG & It Looked Like A Little Jug Too!
June 30, 2008
Tucked away amongst the motorbikes this 1999 Pure was just asking to be mine. The usual trip to the bike store provided even greater interest this Saturday afternoon as I was given the opportunity to test ride it. The dealer did not really know the Smarts full potential, even unsure to its model. A deal was struck and unusually I with great assistance from husband, Kevin came away with four wheels instead of two.
Once home it was stripped clean, yellow body panels with a black tridion shell made it stand out well. However it had had a very hard life. 66,000miles on the clock following a quick mathematical conversion made me realise that this little one needed careful handling. The panels were a little tired and scuffed – but with some cleaning and polishing came up well. The tridion shell did not far so well after years of servicing Purston Car Centre it bore the imprint of advertising stickers. The back window also bore the signs of the Smarts early history. Prior to being imported into Britain by the owners of Purston Car Centre, the Smart had started life owned and registered by a Mr Wang in Germany who had used the little one as a taxi! The imprint of his advertising is still evident when the sun shines a certain way after a polish. ...
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Smartville: A Smart Place
June 30, 2008
Nestled in between an orchard and a cornfield on 168 acres, near the French town of Hambach, is an extraordinary factory known as ‘Smartville’. The full name for this particular factory is ‘Smartville Energy Centre’ and it is a very energy efficient car factory.
The Smart car was designed with the environment in mind and you can only make an environmentally friendly car from an environmentally friendly factory. Smartville is as globe friendly as a car factory can get- it even includes a nature reserve with rare species of plants and landscaping for hundreds of trees....
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Living With A Roadster
June 30, 2008
I collected our (mine & Tracy’s My wife) roadster from smart Coventry on the 25/06/2003. The colour was picked after much deliberation as I wanted yellow and Tracy wanted red so as we couldn’t talk the other one round we went for the black.
Upon collection I made a couple of mods, which consisted of the fitment of a JVC single C.D player in conjunction with a facia adaptor, which I purchased off Smarts r us along with a set of carbon fibre style mirror covers and a couple of the roadster key rings....
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What A Smart Idea, Smart People Hire Smart Cars
June 30, 2008
Hireasmart was born in October 2001 the brainchild of Gail Martin, one smart lady. The company opened with the first six right‑hand drive passion models to arrive in the UK and it wasn’t long before more cars were required ‑ the fleet, like Topsy, just grew and grew. There is now new excitement within the Hireasmart offices at the thought of its growing family when the new smart roadster becomes available followed by the smart forfour in 2004.
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My Affair With A Topless Model
June 30, 2008
I bought LV51 YOY (Delilah - what else?) last autumn. After the sad demise of the previous love of my life, a yellow Pulse cabrio, it wasn’t long before I began to feel lonely so began to put out feelers for her replacement. I had been quoted ridiculously long delivery times for the spec I was after. What really annoyed me was that items like front fogs and speaker upgrade (both standard on the RHD model) would be extra on the LHD. Also, I wanted proper UK-spec front and rear lights this time so the cost began to mount. Nevertheless, I was all set to order a car when I happened to pass Smart East Anglia, a small (non-official) dealer in rural Framlingham, Suffolk. And there she was sitting demurely on the forecourt. It was love at first sight. Delilah was a near-new Passion and had all the extras I wanted including heated leather seats and electric mirrors. She didn’t have the paddle gearshift, which I rather fancied, but she did have side airbags. The price was extremely tempting so Delilah and I became an item.
Any regrets? Well, Delilah and I get on just fine but no relationship is perfect so if I had to name one, it would have to be, er, the position we adopt when we are close. Yes, I always seem to sit on the right. I am ashamed to say I cannot help compare Delilah with her predecessor. Having owned both LHD and RHD versions, I have to say I prefer LHD though I think some people exaggerate the differences. Yes, the seating position is a little higher but the Smart has so much headroom as standard it can afford to lose an inch or two. Other people (or maybe the same people!) have complained about the wiper pattern but, again, the difference is slight. No, what does annoy me is that the accelerator pedal on RHD Smarts is not floor-hinged. This would not be a problem if it wasn’t for the square electronic box of tricks it hangs from which, depending which shoes I wear, can catch my toe. I also miss the ease of parking LHD offered but apart from that, who cares? They are both smarts. One thing I have noticed is that one is more likely to get flashed/waved at by a LHD Smart driver! In the early pioneering days of LHD-only, pretty well all smarts in the UK were enthusiast-owned but obviously this has changed with the advent of RHD (present company excepted!)...
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The Cat & Fiddle Run 26th January 2003
June 30, 2008
The day began at the Windmill Pub junction 19 of the M6 motorway, it was a day that was to start out wet and didn’t change much all day. Thankfully the weather conditions didn’t stop at least 17 Smart cars attending the event.
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Smart For Pizzas
June 30, 2008
Adrian and I moved to Torbay from Wilshire two and a half years ago and bought two pizza takeaway businesses, one in Torquay and one in Paignton. Both were up and running as mainly “take away” with a few deliveries being made in the owner’s car or when busy they employed a driver with his own car.
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The Bluecabby
June 30, 2008
My wife Sandra first mentioned about the Smart; she liked the look of it, well I have always been into performance cars and just said, “yes” in the right places, you know what I mean? One summer’s day Sandra found a dealer selling Smarts talked me into going and there they all were! Sandra had the first drive and came back all smiles. I had a go, just to show willing, and was impressed with the build and the way the little thing performed.
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I didn’t want a Smart
June 30, 2008
Unlike most people reading this I didn’t want a Smart. I thought they were weird, funky little cars but didn’t consider them to hold a candle to my motorbike. I mean look at it - you can’t take them seriously can you? Then I drove one. Okay, it wasn’t ‘quick’ but it was nippy, responsive and the engine feels un-burstable. Even in standard trim it’s faster 30-50mph than a BMW 323i - not a lot of people know that. That was two and a half years and 40 odd thousand kilometres ago now. I lived with it in standard trim just as a tool, something to use when it rained and I didn’t want to get the bike dirty. One day on the way home from work I caught site of Graham (I’m sorry I don’t know his surname) in his pre-B.I.G Performance days.
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A Team of Highly Trained Creative Mercenaries
June 30, 2008
jgr22 are a team of highly trained creative mercenaries operating in the North West of England.
jgr22 approaches all its design briefs with the same youthful, fresh and fun loving enthusiasm. So it was decided that if we were going to purchase a company car to extend our corporate ideology out onto the streets, there was only one choice, the smart car.
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