Minty’s Roadster Diary Summer 2003
July 1, 2008
A LICKLE SMART DIARY
A lickle smart diary is a new regular feature in smartimes and will follow the life of my car and myself. In every issue I will cover various elements of smart life ranging from modifications I carry out on my car to meetings I attend, as well as various stories related to owning and driving a smart car.
This issue I will bring you up to date with the story so far, but first let me introduce myself. Many of the users of the UK smart message boards should know me by now, I am currently known as “humbug smoothie” because my car is black and white and features a smooth rear panel. In the past I have posted under the user names, “humbug”, “lickle”, and “s2smooth”. I regularly post messages on thesmartclub, s2crew, funkysmart, and “Sussex smart owners” (Despite living 200+ miles from Sussex!)
The Story So Far . . .
[pay]I first fell in love with the smart when I was on holiday in Gran Canaria in March 2000. I saw a white and silver smart parked outside a hotel and all I said was “Wow!” I had a good look inside and from that point on I knew I wanted one, but would I be able to get one in the UK? At the time I had recently given away my 1977 Triumph Dolomite, which was on its last legs (wheels), and I was looking into buying a Renault Clio, Ford KA, or Fiat Seicento. Over the next few months I started looking on the Internet and in the Auto Trader and I found two companies who imported smarts, J & P Rose in Macclesfield and thesmartpartcompany in Retford. So I had now found some UK suppliers of smart cars, the next problem was that I had a maximum of £5000 to spend, which meant that I had to find a used smart car, and at that time a used UK smart was as rare as rocking horse poo!
I phoned thesmartpartcompany up and they had a used yellow and black pure for sale, although I was very tempted I really wanted a pulse because of the glass roof, I decided I would buy this if I could not find a pulse within my price range. I phoned up J & P Rose and although they did not have any for sale for this price they said they would consider selling their demo car, I arranged a test drive, although I had decided to buy the car before I had stepped inside it. During the test drive all I could do was grin! I knew that I wanted it and I was just happy that I had managed to find one in my price range. In the end I had to pay £5300, and decided on lite white panels. I paid my deposit and travelled back to Macclesfield on the 27th September 2000 to pick up my car. Since then I have carried out various modifications, details of which can be found in the ‘lickle smart’ section of my website at www.ukcult.co.uk.
Since the last issue . . .
Modifications
Michalak side skirts – I have been looking at side skirts for just over a year now and I was going to buy a set of MS Design skirts from Top One in Kingston, London last summer. When I saw the Hofele design skirts on www.smartsrus.com, however, I decided to buy these, as they looked a lot chunkier than the MS design skirts. I ordered a set of Hofele skirts from smarts-R-us in mid-February but due to their body shop being busy I had to wait longer than I hoped. Impatience got the better of me and I decided to drive to Nottingham and buy a set in black to get painted in lite white by my local body shop. I timed thing just right, smarts-R-us had just received 2 sets of the brand new Michalak side skirts and I decided to buy these as they feature a protrusion to cover the rear arch panel bolt. I think the straight edge suits the side of the smart very well and echo the line in the door panel and the window line. I dropped them off at my local body shop the next day, picked them up three days later and fitted them the same evening. I’m very pleased with the look of the side of my car now, so much in fact that I keep looking at the reflection of my car as I drive past bus stops, which can be quite dangerous! The only slight downfalls with these skirts are that you have to remove them when the rear panel needs to be removed and that spacers need to be fitted behind the front panels on pre-mk6 cars so that they line up correctly.
Mercedes badge - I bought this during April from Gerard Mann Mercedes in Birmingham for £4, it is the badge that is fitted to the bonnet of a Mercedes Vito van. I got this sprayed along with my skirts and I have stuck this over the tailgate lock using number plate sticky pads. I think this finishes off the clean look of my smooth tailgate nicely.
Colour-coded tow-hole covers – Again these were sprayed along with the skirts, and finish off the clean look of the rear of my car. For some reason the majority of people with custom sprayed smarts do not spray the tow-hole covers which I think slightly spoils the look, especially of lighter coloured cars.
Meetings
Since the last issue I have attended several of our regular meetings at the ‘Bowling Green pub’ in Lichfield, Staffordshire including John Freeman’s 50th birthday do. This was our biggest Midlands meet so far with a total of 20 smarts attending with quite a few owners travelling quite a distance. I also attended the officially unofficially official London to Brighton rally on the 1st June that was excellently organised by a group of smartclub members based in Sussex and Kent. Of course by the time you read this I will have attended what looks like will be the biggest smart event this year – The Smart extravaganza organized by www.funkysmart.co.uk
Don’t miss the next issue of smartimes for the next update of a LICKLE smart diary.
Money Spent
£237 on side skirts and paintwork
£60.50 on 6 months road tax
On the clock = 69165 km
STOP THE PRESS !
What you have just read would have been the summer edition, that was it finished, done, and complete. I e-mailed the text to Stephen at the start of June thinking that not much more was going to happen until the deadline for this issue and I could start planning the diary for the following issue. That was until an event happened which was going to change my smart-owning future forever. I will summarise the mad few days else I will end up filling the whole magazine!
Wednesday 04.06.03
Three quarters into a long journey from Birmingham to Newcastle with a work colleague my glass roof exploded! My emotions went from shock, panic, fear, to laughter in minutes! I was angry about having to get the roof repaired, but I was also lucky, very lucky because of the following reasons –
- The glass went out, instead of in.
- There were no cars behind.
- I made it to the hard shoulder without crashing.
- The sun was shining.
- I say the sun ‘was’ shining because as we entered Newcastle an hour later the rain started to fall, it started to fall heavily. All we could do was laugh – what else can you do?
Thursday 05.06.03
I phoned smart Birmingham to get a price on a replacement roof. They had one in stock and it cost £131 odd including VAT. The roof needs to be fitted by a car glass company and the chap at smart estimated this to be about £80. I phoned Direct Line to find out if my roof was covered by my glass policy with a £50 excess, after checking with various people a helpful girl confirmed that my roof was indeed covered and gave me the telephone number for Autoglass. I could now relax and forget about the whole incident.
Friday 06.06.03
As I left Newcastle I decided to phone Autoglass to book my car in, unfortunately when Autoglass phoned Direct Line they were told that I was not covered by my glass policy because the roof is structural!??! After several phone calls to Direct Line to confirm the situation I reluctantly accepted that I had to pay to repair the roof myself. Loads of things were streaming through my mind on the way home, what if it happens again and I’m not as lucky? How much would it cost to get an electric sunroof fitted to my car? Should I buy a cabrio? I enjoyed the topless ride home so much that I decided to look into buying a cabrio and the used prices; a few on-line loan calculations later and I had decided to buy a £9995 roadster. (If there were any left)
Saturday 07.06.03
I Phoned Auto Windscreens in Walsall to book my car in, quoted a price of £50 + VAT but I had to transport the glass myself from smart Birmingham. I phoned smart Birmingham to inform them that I was going to collect the glass in an hour or so. I phoned the smart national sales line and spoke to a chap called Simon who said that there were 3 roadsters unallocated and told me to speak to smart Birmingham when I collected my roof. I went to smart Birmingham to pick up the roof, thanks to the folks who helped squeeze the roof into the back of Carla’s Ford Ka. While at smart Birmingham I spoke to Ian in the sales department who said that all of the £9995 roadsters destined for the UK had been sold but I could buy one of the higher spec models. (I refused) I then drove back to Walsall and dropped my car and the glass at Auto Windscreens to be fitted on the Monday. I phoned smart Tamworth, smarts-r-us, and the smart national sales line again in a desperate attempt to find a roadster still available. Simon from the national sales line phoned around various branches and found the last one available at smart Chiswick. I phoned Clare Ackerman and put a deposit on my credit card there and then.
Sunday 08.06.03
I advertised my smart for sale on the smart message boards as well as on AutoTrader.
Monday 09.06.03
Picked my smart up from Auto Windscreens to find that there was pieces of glass rattling around the inside of the roof lining and they had removed the mercedes badge from my boot to open the tailgate and stuck it back on upside down!
Tuesday 10.06.03
A chap turned up and paid the asking price in cash despite the fact that the rattling glass was still in the roof, I had lost my tax disc, the oil was running low, and I had put the basic smart radio back in. This left me without a smart and catching the bus to work for the first time in 32 months.
Friday 13.06.03
Received a phone call from smart Chiswick to say my car had arrived!
Thursday 19.06.03
Received a phone call from smart Chiswick to say my insurance cover note had the wrong registration number on, I quickly phoned Direct Line back to tell them to send a new note to smart, hoping that they would receive it in time for the following morning.
Friday 20.06.03
Picked up my new baby, a brand new shine yellow/black roadster, having a slight problem with the trust light and ABS light coming on, may be a problem with the steering wheel. I hope I haven’t got a Friday afternoon car!
So there you have it, a mad 16 days that I could never have imagined a couple of weeks ago. I have a small stone and a smashed glass roof to thank for having a brand new car. Now the fun can start all over again! I can’t begin to predict what will be in the next issue of my diary but whatever it is, it’s bound to be eventful. There is only one problem, having sold my number plate I need to think of a new name for this column, please e-mail suggestions to the smartimes e-mail address with the subject title “Diary Title”
Money Spent
£190 on glass roof and fitment
£9995 on a new roadster
On the clock = 267 miles
Submitted By:
Philip Egan
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