Smart Car Cruise Control

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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