Smart Car Cruise Control
January 30, 2009
Smartimes Reviews Area 451’s Smart Car Cruise Control
For our product review in this edition of smartimes magazine we decided to contact the guys over at Area 451 Parts to find out more about them, their company and specifically their custom smart 451 cruise control unit.
There has been a great deal of buzz revolving around this product in recent times so we thought it was about time we put it to the test. At the time of writing this review the Area 451 Cruise Control is only available from SmartieParts.com and retails for $479 USD.
I have to say that Steven from Area 451 was fully onboard from the moment we contacted him and agreed to ship us a sample unit post haste for installation and review.
As we started to delve a little deeper into the history of Area 451 we found out that Steven was also the owner of Smartieparts.com, a well-established Canadian based retailer for all things smart. Steven had recently acquired Area 451 and when asked to give a little feed back on the company he had this to say:
“Area 451 Parts Ltd. is a new company born to satisfy a particular need in a particular market. When it was determined that smart was not including a cruise control system in it’s smart car as an option or otherwise, it was clear there would be a window of opportunity. We knew that acting quickly and making a 100% custom designed product would give us an edge over any competition that may exist.
The cruise control: Unlike previous attempts at it in Europe, our product was designed from scratch to work specifically with the new model smart sold in the US. Feedback from the initial 200 units sold has been decidedly positive with many customers calling it the best cruise control they’ve ever used in any car, and many more echoing that it is the best addition for their new smart car.
The installation is not trivial, but not particularly difficult either and the step-by-step instructions have helped ensure there have been no significant problems reported to date. The unit comes with a 2 year warranty against defects.”
Feeling confident that we were in good hands, we patiently awaited the arrival of our unit.
Rather than having a trained technician attempt the installation of the cruise control, we decided to simulate the installation based on an average smart car owner with a modest ability to finding his or her way around a car.
Keeping this in mind on the day our unit arrived we unpacked all components and examined them thoroughly; with only a small number of components every thing was concise, well presented and superbly constructed.
Once everything was laid out, we decided to find and download the needed installation instructions from the Area 451 website. The only snag that our installation had hit was that the current Area 451 website, while being entertaining, was far from “user friendly” with regards to locating the needed instructions.
After several minutes of browsing, our instructions had been located, printed out and ready to go.
From this point on, the installation was a breeze. The instructions were well illustrated and very detailed insuring that nothing was over looked. Progressing at a steady methodic pace our install was completed in just less than two hours.
Not too bad we thought for a first attempt, but how will it work?
With this in mind we hit the road for our first test run. A quick 10 minute lap revealed that not only was this a well presented product that is simple to install but that it actually worked! No need for difficult calibrations or fancy controls, just push the button and you’re good to go.
Feeling confident in both our install and initial test run, we set out for our final test. this was to be a round trip of approximately 150 miles to really see how well the cruise control would hold up in real world situations.
The results of this test-drive not only revealed that, yes, the cruise control does exactly what it sets out to do, but also in our opinion made our journey far more enjoyable. By engaging the cruise control it actually eliminated the feeling that we were driving a small car. Our smart sat firmly on the highway cruising along at a comfortable 75MPH.
So, in conclusion, our test was a great success. Would we recommend that you buy the Area 451 Cruise Control?
Well, that depends on you as a driver. If you never take your smart on the highway or do so but very sparingly then this product is probably not for you and the price is a little steep but if you’re like us and maximize your driving time with your smart for both city and highway then this is a product that will certainly make your life easier and leave you smiling from ear to ear.
We would like to thank Steven and Area 451 for agreeing to take part in our review and for more information regarding this product visit www.area451parts.com.
The Smartimes Tech Team
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Smart Car Wheel Bolt Covers
December 16, 2008
It’s time for another Smartimes Magazine review.
Our tech team loves performing products reviews both big and small and this one was no exception.
The Smartimes Magazine was recently contacted to perform an independent review by one of our readers who has invented a small smart accessory.
Don had asked us to review his smart wheel bolt covers, a simple dress up accessory to mask your wheel bolts from view.
Catering to the complete smart vehicle spectrum from the smart fortwo to the forfour these wheel bolt covers are available in six different colors and in quantities of 12 and 16.
The concept is simple, you own a smart car, you don’t like the look of those boring ugly wheel bolts so why not buy a set of covers to match the color of your wheels or body panels? Sounds simple enough!
So down to the review.
Don was nice enough to send over a set of each of the available covers for our tech team to examine and try out.
The color choices are perfect matching a set to every available body panel color choice allowing each owner to personalize as they wish. The concept behind the product is simple and to the point and they do exactly as you would except, no need for any technical knowledge just position over the wheel bolt, press firmly in place and your good to go.
Created from a flexible, pre-colored vinyl these caps seem robust enough to hold up to time, cleaning and mother nature.
Now the one observation every member of our team did make after firmly placing their first cap on a wheel bolt was this “What happens if we need to remove these caps?” this was a good point. We found that after installation it wasn’t possible to simply remove the caps by hand, although using a cloth and small flat headed screw driver did the job just fine.
That being said we reached a unanimous discussion that this is a good product, simple, effective and affordable at $20 (including free shipping) allowing the enthusiastic smart owner one more option when it comes to personalizing their cars. After all not every great product has to be a complex and costly one.
This wraps up another Smartimes Product review, for question regarding this product or to buy a set for your car visit our supporting vendor section:
http://www.smartimesmagazine.com/smart-car-advertisers/smart-bolt-covers/
If you would like Smartimes Magazine to perform a feature or review on your company and it’s products click here to complete our contact form: Contact Us
Thanks,
The Smartimes Team
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July 8, 2008
Improved power, fuel saving and better for the environment.
“She’s finally lost her mind!” I muttered to myself, as she raved on about this ‘magnet – thingy’ that you put on your car and it makes it go faster. I think I made the appropriate grunt in the right places to keep her thinking I was following her, and believed what she was saying. Well, she certainly believed it. Can it be true that I only married her in February, and here we are just a few months later, and she has already lost her marbles? “No-one warned me that this would happen,” I mumbled. ...
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July 8, 2008
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July 1, 2008
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My Mk6 Pulse was just 4 months old and it was about to have major surgery. What was going to be done to my pride and joy ?
Well it was quite simple really. Liam pulled his bag of tricks from the boot of his smart, laptop, leads and connecter. We opened the passenger door on my smart and he bent down leads in hand. In just a few seconds the connection was made and the laptop booted and a system check ran to ensure car and laptop were communicating. ...
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Watch This Space!
June 24, 2008
The all new Smartimes review section is on it’s way.
Over the next few weeks we will be updating our online database with reviews for everything from Products, Companies, Website and more.
All reviews will be based off of independent customer experiences, in-depth investigation and real world experiences.
So watch this space and if you have something to say wether it be good, bad or indifferent let us know because the smart community needs your feedback.
Regards,
The Smartimes Team
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