a2jack

http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/forums/sh...4454&page=3 A2Jack.

Hey gang, come on up. CsC is one fine forum. In fact, they are selling the 2008 451s and there are a couple of reports here already. A2Jack.

We have 21,000 miles on our NA451, and during that time we have learned a number of parking tricks. Thought we'd pass them along here.1. Align your back bumper with the car parked next to you, even when It's a long truck. If you pull up in the slot people will park shopping carts behind you, or use the space to back up into, or as above, park behind you. 2. If you parallel park, park dead in the middle of the space. 3. In a pinch you can safely park at the closed end of shopping cart corrals. A space way too short for most cars. A2Jack.

CsC is one of the established big 3 of NA Smart forums. There is SCOA, Smart insiders, and CsC. (Yes, Yahoo is in there too) We are #3. What can we NOW do to regain our once held #1 position? #1 Take this site back to a Canadian site, but cater to the Canadian NA451s. Think Canadian, Pitch Canadian.This site is beholden to no one and is the only independent Smart forum among the big three. CsC will win in the end.#2 Back away from the 450 until a new CDI comes out, then, again you will be the keepers of the knowledge. #3 Get out some business card size, club hand outs.#3 Make appointments, and call on each of the Canadian Smart dealer GMs, and Service Managers. Spend some time and talk to everybody, hand out cards. Try to get the GM to let you leave some cards for his new Smart customers. (At same time be a reporter and post every thing you hear right here. #4 Cut back the social forums and build the best Nuts and bolts forums on the net. and Create a Smart drivers forum. #5 The top priority here should be NEWCOMERS. Welcome them and answer their questions, above all engage themin posting on CsC.#6 Shout to the rooftops CSC is independent...That's your Hold Card. There. Just my thoughts. I'm sure all the old 450 guys will disagree.

Kitty. I didn't say SCOA is growing. I said Insiders is growing "like wildfire". Take a look!As for my comment on women posters. Insiders is getting more than most car sites, and their participation is very active on many subjects. In short, "Smart USA Insiders" is doing something right.Consider, the purchase decision on a Smart car is very much driven by women. In fact, when driving around most of the attention paid to our unique little cars is coming from women. Young and old. A2Jack.

Quoting Kitty:"I'm also not sure what you mean by moving a thread destroying content, as usually threads are moved whole, rather than being split up. Misplaced threads clutter up a forum and prevent people from finding what they need. For example, if a person wanted to find a certain thread about gas mileage, they'll look in the "enviro-mileage" forum, but if the thread was originally mistakenly post in the Dealer Showcase for example, they'll never find it! Putting threads where they belong, rather than leaving them in inappropriate forums is usually considered part of running a good community."A2Jack replys: Kitty. I agree with a lot of what you say. But one point we might all talk about some more is new comers first read. One of the most frequently used threads by Nu-Com''s (New-comer's) on other forums is. "What is your gas mileage" ? followed by, "can it be driven on the freeway"? then "what problems are you having"? and of course the topper, "What did you name your car". All different questions and probably unasked.Many people are too shy to post on strange forums, and just will stumble around trying to find something of interest. They will not find much here unless they sort through many category's of forums. We need to make it easy for them. Nu-Com's should be hit in the face with answers the instant they come up on site. We need to give them pictures and a non-threatening place to come for answers to unasked questions ,and IMO, it should be in one place,one forum. Photos should be scattered through out the posts, as they add color and interest. We need a new approach. Throw out old ideas of what was once considered "running a good community".Be daring and different. The new Insiders site has been running without forum Mods and is now growing like wildfire. Take a look up there.More points of interest... Many woman are now active posters on the Insiders site. SCOA has greatly decreased Moderating and rarely moves posts. Change is coming to other Smart boards. Let's help change come here too. BTW.You are right. It's past time for these "Site improvement threads to end on General Dis, Perhaps we can talk more on another place on the forum after we digest all this. Best Regards. A2Jack

To garner dealer co-operation in promoting CsC a formal sales call may be best.1.Go out for a volunteer in each dealer area who will phone the GM, make an appointment, and call on her/him in person. (Let the screener, if there is one, know you are not calling to solicit anything, but want to post a short piece on their dealership). Then pitch, and ask to meet Service Manager. But see the GM first. 2. Bring your Camera, take lots of pix, and post here. A2Jack.

For our site to gather more posts we must look to Newcomers. The old guard seems incapable of generating new ideas, other than moving around the deck chairs.IMO. Newcomers to our site are put off by a wall of uninteresting text. The first page is usually press articles (many as old as the hills) most negative. Next they come to the Forums. Another sea of text with too many choices. All very boring.Our new comers, have either just ordered a car or are thinking about it. They want to know about their soon to be Smart 4-2. They have lots of questions, but they can't even form them as yet, let alone enter into a discussion in a specific forum.I advocate a more open General Discussion forum with a little of everything of interest to the new, and old Smart fan. Make that forum #1 on list. Eliminate having to wade through rows and rows of text before they come to what they want to read about, ( but don't know what that is yet until they see it). Stop trying to "Salt The Mine" with posts by insiders trying to generate action. Look at News and Entertainment, that forum is a joke. Stop this nonsense of moving posts. Unless the thread users request it. Moving a thread destroys content. For example: I now very carefully choose the words for my post headings to avoid getting dumped in one of bottom basement forums and my post never seen by the main stream smart fans.In short there is work to do here. I still predict as the NA market grows CsC can grow back to it's former glory. There have been over 10'000 Na451s delivered in the US and 4,000 in Canada. How can we miss ? A2Jack

SZ. I disagree. IMO an open forum is the best place to discuss "Nut and Bolts" issues. Although, you may, or may not be interested in this aspect of Smart car ownership, it deserves a prominent place on this board. It should never be "Farmed Out",or to use the modern term "outsourced". Many of us, myself included. want to now what makes our cars run. Even though we may not want to do our own work we want to know what's going on when we take our car to the dealer. It's not that we don't trust our dealer to fix only what's broken, but lets just say they have been known to fudge a little. Nuts and bolts discussion is our only source for "real time" failures and fixes on our cars. Remember there are no how to books on the NA451s. A2Jack.

Has any one with a Canadian purchased car sought warranty service in the US? What was the outcome? The same question applies in reverse for US cars in Canada. Are the dealers honoring the warranty's ?Wife was in Ontario for our annual family reunion (yes, we really do have cousins in Canada ) and the car shifter locked up numerous times. She got it back home this time, but what would we have seen had she needed to take it in for repair in Canada? I will dig around at Smart HQ ,Bloomfield, for an answer as to how they plan to treat Canadians needing service, and would like to know what we can expect from your MB dealers. Any experiences from either side off the bridge to report so far? A2Jack.

You were splitting hairs calling me down on that post. The title clearly stated this was "the get home fix for you stuck shifter".I think a person clicking my link could reasonably expect to find information about a fix to get home with a stuck shifter. No plot to steal business from CsC. So I did comply with rules 1. and 2. This is fun but let's end it. Peace... A2Jack

Gent, let's end this. Some of the original thread went missing when it was transfered from "How To" to "Site Feedback" so we will never really know what happened here. I was left with the impression you guys were erecting a wall around CsC, and asked the Admn to clarify the rules.Here is the reply. "No, we don't have a policy regarding linking to other forums, but in my mind if the sole purpose of the link is to take someone elsewhere, rather than being a compliment to our members, then it shouldn't be allowed."-" Steven"So now I ask the BOD to please post The CsC policy. And not bang posters for violating rules that are only in your mind. A2Jack.

1st off the link was a valid, how to topic on releasing stuck shifter boxes so that folks could drive home. The link was to my own post at SCOA. There were photos and text that took time to create. Yet you guys raised so much hell. I had to recreate the post, retrieve the photos from my camera and repost the whole thing on CsC. All because you did not want a direct link to SCOA to appear on your site. I had never heard of the CsC version of "netiquette" until you and others quoted it to me. Here's part of that thread. A2Jackhttp://clubsmartcar.com/index.php?showtopic=14406And here's the post that got me in trouble. Sure sounds like you were setting policy to me. )http://clubsmartcar.com/index.php?showtopic=14335

Smartzuuk. Yes you are stuck in the 450 rut. As fine a car that it was. it is no longer being sold. There will soon be lots of of 451s on Canadian roads and most will head to other sites for info if we don't guide them here.As you said, we need more new folks with fresh Ideas. The business as usual, don't make a wave, altitude of the good old 450 boys will not move us forward. Yet, you guys run the show here. What Now?I'll go no further, and even though I've hung around here at CsC for a little over year, I know I am considered, by some, to be an outsider. As a matter of fact when writing my posts here I never know whether to say "you guys or us. But this is still my favorite web site. Regards to all. A2Jack

Kheran. In a short time Insiders will be the top dog. I agree it is the worst car site to navigate of any I have been on,However, they are getting organized and their goal is that every Smart car buyer at their dealerships gets a pitch for the club.So far they have not censored negative reports on reliability or service, but many of us expect that to happen. CsC's independence can be the shining light, and IMO going back to being Canadian will enhance that Image. Bring back the .ca you used to have. It made the site standout. A2Jack

Mike T. Election time Signboard. One time only And you drive both the 451 and the 450. Yolanda, and Gent and Mike T. So I'm FOS on some point's. What can we do to stimulate our site? How about the dealer pitch Idea. We must have some strong sales types in our club. The pitch could be home grown Canada club. A2Jack

Garth, Strange. On the Canadian ID issue we said the same thing. But If CsC doesn't at least get more NA451 posters there will be no reason for people to come here. If you want to be a small 450 club only, then so be it. But as you see by what's happening now, you can't be all things to all people. Your club Admins were pushing for growth has that goal changed?Europe has a base of almost 1 million cars so their clubs can cast broadly. Take away the NA451s and how many cars do you have here in Canada?You've read my posts and know I love CsC and wish you well.We will soon be free of Bush and I hope you guys can rid yourselves of your guy too.Best Regards.A2Jack

LIsmart. Be very glad you missed it. It tends to call you up at 2am in the morning. (fixed now).The alarm works off a microwave motion sensor. I think it peeks out through that little hole below the air selector knob. A few have been in the shop already for replacement. A2Jack.

I became turned off to CsC when you started to restrict links to SCOA. Only a day or so ago that US site's Adm. posted a link here. I post often on other sites and because of your policy, I no longer link CsC.IMO, It's way past time to go after Canadian NA451 business. I encounter Canadian posters often now on other boards, where in the past they would have posted here. Kidding yourselves on how vast your membership is, is a joke. You now only have a handful of posters a day. More needs to be said on this issue, but the thread is getting too long. A2Jack.

Never again! (Well maybe one more time. ) 12k now on our loaded NA451 Passion. Ready for our #2 Smart and this one will be the Pure, with, Air, Pods, Heated cloth seats... And no solar heater for summer fun.Things we never use, or wish we never heard of... Alarm* ( used to go off at 2am), Rain Sensors (big cost item in the event of cracked windshield) , Panoramic roof. (Heat), Fogs (forget we have them). Radio is the worst I've ever had in a car. In spite of some lumps, we love our car more every time we drive it.

We just rolled up 10,300 miles on our "SMARTIE" (Michigan plate) and are over in Peterborough for the weekend. Here's the up date, re owner's satisfaction, with the car. Minor problems, as expected with all first run machines. This car is a work car and we run many 300+ mile days. We did the 10k miles check, and oil change early, as the oil changed to black around 8k miles. So far warranty replacement of shifter box, and microwave cabin sensor (alarm).We have owned over a 100 cars and we rate this Smart as a good, comfortable little car for all around use, both business, and especially pleasure. The car even makes work fun. If you spot us... Say Hi ! A2Jack

Nextour. Some of the new NA-451's were shipped with defective batteries and have been failing prematurely. Contact your dealer and have him load test, or replace the battery. This little car has lots of electrics and imposes tough work on the system. This may be your early warning of problems ahead. Catch it now. A2Jack.

The problem has come up before. The fix is a new Microwave sensor box. Mine was replaced last week. No charge, and now no more problem. See your dealer. A2Jack.

The poll showed most of our members voted around a #4 or a #5 on every thing, Yet our daily post numbers are down to a handful. Did everyone just please the "boss"? Where are all the new Canadian 451 owners posting? Why not here? There is a split of the US "postership" about to occur. I beta tested a site I shall call "Smart Lite", over the weekend. They are well financed and backed by smartusa. They plan to do a Face book type thing for the US market. Content will controlled to speak positively of their product. A few hours on SL should bring many of the serious 451 folks looking for another home. Why not here? A2Jack.

Any one having any problems with salt/crap getting in the DD tubes in winter? Do you block them up in the winter? Do you clean them ? Thanks A2Jack.