LKern

My buddy got the SGII and he loves it. And the information he's getting from it is "interesting", most notably it helps him get the best mileage with the constant mpg readout.Did you know the Smart gets ASTOUNDING highway mileage at a cruising speed of about 45-50? Yes, I guess you all did, but we sure didn't. :)My own computations after 3200 miles have surprised me. STILL averaging over 42, and that's mostly short hops and in-town trips. Are we both lucky dudes or are the EPA estimates a crock?

Or me? I've never seen one on the road and there are supposed to be 6 within 10 miles. Of course when I drive I pretty much ignore everything but the pavement right in front of me, zoned in on Air America or an iPod selection.

Is it simply that Canada has higher rates? Because that's one insane premium.I have full coverage on mine through Geico, 500,000 across the board, 500 deductible, pretty much everything for $181.00 every SIX MONTHS. It's WAY cheaper than my wife's van at 260.00 every six months, but even THAT'S way cheaper than what you're looking at. We're older at 50, but the cutoff date for low rates here is about 26 with a good record.Somethings way wrong with your quote.

Wow, and it sure needs it.For some crazy reason they re-designed IE like they re-designed Vista, and it goes back to the "why does a dog lick itself" question: they seemed to add things becasue they could, not because they should. When IE first came out it was pretty hard to get used to it since all the things everyone was familiar with were moved. Under the hood the engine isn't bad, but the GUI really kind of sucks. But it looks like webkit is gaining. Firefox is more extensible, and actually I have made that the default at work. Why? Becasue the way it handles mime types. We need that BAD. Besides, all the buttons are in the "right" place! And it's more "fun" too... things like PicLens are nice tools... useless, but nice.I'll give this a try though. I still use IE when required.

That's a good point. To change people the last thing on eneeds to do is rub it in... all that results is resentment and a battening down of the hatches.However, some bad news HAS to be talked about openly, and I alluded to it earlier, and that's Detroit's seemingly being asleep at the wheel, and those that are doing the sleeping. From Kos: <h3 class="byline">by Meteor Blades </h3><h4 class="date">Thu May 29, 2008 at 10:11:29 PM PDT</h4>General Motors lost $38 billion last year. And another $3.3 billion in the first quarter. By the end of this year, it’s going to lose a fourth of its U.S. workers. John D. Stoll at The Wall Street Journal writes: GM Sheds 19,000 Jobs Through Buyout Program General Motors Corp. said about 19,000 hourly workers have accepted buyout or early-retirement offers from the company and most will leave its payroll by July 1. The move will cut the auto maker's U.S. hourly work force by about 24%, and it comes as GM is preparing a number of additional cost-cutting moves to be announced next week at its annual shareholder meeting. The 19,000 acceptances met the company's expectations, a person familiar with the numbers said. The new round of buyouts and early retirements means about 53,000 workers -- roughly half its hourly work force -- have agreed to leave the company since the beginning of 2006. ... ... GM hopes this latest attrition plan will help it save as much as an additional $5 billion in costs by 2011. The plan helps GM cut costs not only by removing workers who take home about $78 an hour in total compensation but by opening the door for new workers who will earn about one-third of what the departing workers made. GM has earmarked about 16,000 of its factory jobs as eligible for this so-called second-tier wage rate. An endangered American species – the unionized worker with a high school diploma and middle-class income – takes yet another hit. It surely won’t be the last. Not all of GM’s woes can be chalked up to myopic company policies. Some can be laid squarely at the feet of consumers who until rather recently loved themselves the fuel-gulping Behemoths and Leviathans and Autosauruses turned out by GM and its brother companies Ford and Chrysler. And then, of course, there was Japan, Inc. in the shape of Toyota and Honda. GM’s predicament would certainly be less dramatic if the United States weren’t the only country in the developed world without health coverage for all. But when Bob Lutz – the vice chairman and product development chief hired in 2002 to spark some new life into GM and help dig it out of its hole – spouts lines such as global warming is a "total crock of shit," and, in 2005, declared that diesel autos were no good for the U.S. market and the hybrid vehicles being made by Toyota "make no economic sense," you gotta wonder how many of those second-tier workers are going to have a job in a decade. This is, you’ll remember, the company that killed the electric car, the EV1, with the help of a self-sabotaging marketing and leasing program. But there could be some hope. Lutz appears to be in love with the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid unveiled in January 2007. GM’s marketers don’t call it a hybrid, but rather an electric car with a "range extender," perhaps out of deference to Lutz’s previous trashing of the breed. But its engineers know that a hybrid is what the Volt is since its range is extended by an internal combustion engine. It runs 40 miles on a lithion-ion battery and another 600 on 12 gallons of gasoline. When the concept Volt was unwrapped in Detroit and four months later in Shanghai, the price tag was supposedly $30,000. Now it’s $48,000, or maybe, Lutz has said, $40,000. Originally, there were going to be 60,000 produced in the first year, slated for 2010. Now GM is talking 10,000. If GM is serious this time – and $38 billion in the hole can make you very serious – perhaps it won’t after a few years of sly gaming wind up crushing the Volt the way it did all the EV1s. Given GM’s record over the past couple of decades, however, it would be foolish to count on this. UPDATE: Some readers have assumed that GM workers are making $78 a hour. As the WSJ article notes, that is total compensation, which includes wages, health insurance, pension contributions and other items. Wages are well under half the total.

A "bit" suspect? :)I'm thinking more like "smokin''.I've had about a million cars and have had brakes seize if rust formed, but that bond is broken when moved. The Smart weighs little, so perhaps it can't break that bond easily? My Taurus sat for 4 months without even being looked at. The brakes were locked up, but a heavy foot solved it, and within a few miles all that rust went away. On the Smart, PERHAPS there isn't enough mass to break free? PERHAPS it needs a heavier than normal foot off the start? Bottom line for me, I really don't get this thread at all.Makes no sense.My humble opinion: That repair shop got 190 bucks for doing nothing more than cleaning some rust off.

It's a dream maybe... but I am not named Pollyanna. part of me is surely an idealist, but I also exhibit signs of being a card-carrying sceptic. But lately when I talk to people I see the wheels in their head turning. Sometimes they stare off at their OWN car when I answer a question they asked concerning gas mileage. One guy the other day CUSSED when I walked away after putting in a few gallons while he pumped his infinitely sized Dually tank. Not at me... at the pump that read almost 100 bucks.Maybe our 7.5 year nightmare is over in more ways than one. Maybe, just maybe we are seeing the turning point here. Some model SUV's are off 70%! Ford, in sitting on their hands for the last decade all the while developing crap, announced they were laying off thousands just this week. American driving is down 6%, the biggest drop in 20 years. (correct me if I got that recent news wrong)But, alas, as the gas goes up, the economy goes down. transportation touches EVERYTHING, from housing to the price of eggs.I wonder if it's too late?For now, call me Pollyanna.... I guess.

Thanks. And gas just hit $4.26 here today.Sheesh.

Here's his beauty that came by for a group hug. He's one happy guy.Also, every month in the summer hundreds of cars line main street during "Cruise Night". We're going.

Oh I don't know. They ain't dumb. Just show them this: And the Russians?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-5VNmaEGf4But maybe here's their answer. Check this out...

I want one.

Lives are sometimes full, and sometimes it takes a bit of time to hit critical mass. I find myself only occasionally visiting because I'm so darned busy. Tried a few other sites and wasn't pleased... so here I stay.If I had to make a suggestion, I couldn't... The site is what it is.

I live in a small town in central Illinois... not what one would consider Smart country.My buddy just picked up his orphan white over black Smart today. The next town over has two. One guy stopped me while I was pumping my 5 gallons of gas and said his comes in a few weeks. Another guy followed me to a restaurant and bragged HIS comes in a month. That's six Smarts in a 10 mile radius in rural America.Gas just his $4.19 a gallon (US) here.Methinks we are on to something.Been looking at other alternative cars for the future. Put my name down for the MDI Air car, and Volkswagon's 2-seater that gets over 300 miles to the gallon is a real possibility up ahead.My wife and I are DONE with any car that doesn't get at LEAST 40mpg, and we HOPE the Smart will one day be the family gas-guzzler.Long live Smart, and may America's appetite for wasteful vehicles change in my lifetime.

With 3,000 miles on the Smart I've had only ONE person give me any grief. I simply went slower and slower and slower, finally sitting at rest at a turn with my blinker on. They went NUTS. But other than that drivers here have been VERY respectful. Sure, I've had a few pull up close, they look at the name then back off. I don't mind that. And no "surging" at all after the light turns green.

That worked Gent. Thanks.lk