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Shirl

Non Smart Car owner comments "priceless...

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Hi All, I just had to share this with everyone. My hubby and I are taking a trip from Hamilton Ontario to Nashville and now are in kentucky. We have not spoted any Smart Cars anywhere. My Little Titan has gotten a lot of attention pretty much every where we went. We did enjoy people wanting thier picture taken with Titan and meeting so many people.We got asked, where do we put our feet, where do you plug it in and by fsr my favorite has been, when my hubby stopped at at BP to fill the car. We stopped at pump and as my husband started to put the diesil in over a loud speak a womanbellowed, You al are putting the wrong stuff in your car. Please refrian from putting diesil in your car. To say that my husbands face was priceless...well. Hers was even more a few shades red when we had to walk in and tell her in front of other customers so she would turn the pump back on.Just had to share that with you all, my hubby and I are still having a good chuckle over it. We shall see what happens before our trip ends.

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Some sort of related remarks -I have a 2008 - so gas. Gas Jockey 1 - What kind of car is that? It almost looks like a Smart car but they are diesel. -- So I explain . . .then just this week . . . Gas Jockey 2 - I thought Smart cars were diesel. I explain and had to repeat the explanation (he did not understand the first time) and include this time -- that is the reason that I just filled my own car. I was on my way in to pay. Well, he did not hear or still didn't understand, I find out.I go inside the cashier says - Are you paying for two cars?No - Why? It isn't finished yet. I pumped it myself and hung it up.OH That will be ??$, (the amount I pumped)I leave confused, until I get to the carThe pump now reads $1.43. Did you top up my car?Yes -- with a big beaming smileYou're not suppose to top up Smarts I had already pumped myself. Shake my head and climb in.Manager is outside -- sticks head in Passenger window as I am about to leave - Is there a problem?I explain and she says "I talk to him"I drive way never so happy that this station has stopped selling diesel recently or ran out and had all its diesel nozzles padlocked closed on the same pump stations as their gas nozzles. So I know I did not get $1.43 of diesel but I don't know what grade of gas I got.

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We stopped at pump and as my husband started to put the diesil in over a loud speak a womanbellowed, You al are putting the wrong stuff in your car. Please refrian from putting diesil in your car. To say that my husbands face was priceless...well. Hers was even more a few shades red when we had to walk in and tell her in front of other customers so she would turn the pump back on...........................Similar results on my trip to Alabama. Every time I filled up and went in to pay they said "why did you put diesel in it ?" Then I had to explain how the Americans had ruined the car by needing a gas engine and how the "real" smarts ie Canadian ones use diesel and get way better mileage

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I think my favorite has to be, while at gas station filling up, a couple comes up to me and asks.. Does that car run on electric? No sir it has a fuel powered motor.. they walk away. moments later as they are driving away they ask again, " Then why are you putting fuel in your car?" to my reply once again " its a fuel powered car just as yours thats why i am at the FUEL PUMP!!! "

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Of the model 450 smart, only about 19% of them were diesel, so"real" (the vst majority of) smarts are gasoline powered and always have been!

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Of the model 450 smart, only about 19% of them were diesel, so"real" (the vst majority of) smarts are gasoline powered and always have been!

................I was thinking of NA.

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I drove a gas powered 2005 smart with a Mercedes engine WITH a turbo way before us " Americans had ruined the car by needing a gas engine." Whatever.

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I constantly am asked if its electric when I'm at the pump, filling it with gas. I never had stupid questions asked when I lived in Boulder, Colorado. Once I moved to Georgia though, it started raining dumb questions. "Does it go on the highway?""How many seats does it have?""Is it electric?" to which i've started replying "Yes, just like your car""Do you drive it on the road?" i reply "no I took mass transit""Is it safe?" i reply "is your car safe?"I feel so terrible that the public and private school systems around here have failed these people so miserably. No one seems to have the ability to deduce anything in this area. :( I'm saddened and am headed towards being upset that I'm an American. Can I become an honorary Canadian? I've been to Toronto. Twice! :)

Edited by briand

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When I used to super fill the car, I had to rock it back and forth to get the fuel to settle into the tank.One old guy in a van saw me doing this once and said "You have to burp it after it eats, eh?"

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When I used to super fill the car, I had to rock it back and forth to get the fuel to settle into the tank.One old guy in a van saw me doing this once and said "You have to burp it after it eats, eh?"

Hi All,The comments are not limited to across the border. While at a rest stop just outside of London Ontario, we were asked where do we put our feet? My husband responded it is like the flint mobile.....the guy gave Bill a funny look and his wife responded with (and I am not kiddng) she said really??? Is there a door there on the floor? Do your feet eveer get wet?While fueling in Kentucky, Bill was putting deisel in the car when a lady walked up and talked to Bill and ask if the car was electric and this was while he was putting the fuel in.....A state trooper asked us what the top speed was of the little guy....And said that it looked like a puddle.. jumper. Okay, does anyone know what a puddle jumper actually looks like?

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Thanks for the picture, far from what my imaginaton was conjuring up. And I am told I have a very vivid one at that LOL. I was picturing some creature of some sort.......Okay I am also allowed a blonde moment or two once in while.

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A friend of mine sincerely asked me where i plugged in my smart and I was honest with him. I plug it in at the lower valence on the driver side but i also told him i only plug it in when it gets below -15 celcius. He stewed on that for all of about a minute before he got a cuff and enlightened on the fact that my smart was diesel powered.He still tells me he can't believe it has a real engine LOL.

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A state trooper asked us what the top speed was of the little guy....And said that it looked like a puddle.. jumper. Okay, does anyone know what a puddle jumper actually looks like?

A "puddle-jumper" can be many things, for example: a small boat that you throw in the back of your pickup truck for a little pond fishing; a smaller aircraft that is used on collector routes between larger airports; or a slow, balloon-tired city bicycle; or even a child's toy airplane made of a simple propeller and minimal body.The term is used variously from region to region, but the common thread appears to be that the puddle-jumper is a smaller, lighter, less well-made version of the original for which it is an avatar. So I'd guess the Troop' was saying your smart is a kind of a "mini-me" of the car world :dunno:Bil :sun:

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Puddle jumper is a slang around here for any subcompact car.We just finished a tour of the great lakes with our trailer. "can that thing tow that trailer?" "No, we call a tow truck when we're ready to leave...."Many times we were interrupted in filling (I also don't let anyone else fill, but mostly because I don't like spilled fuel on my paint) by concerned attendants afraid we were using the wrong fuel.At times I thought we should have polka dots painted on the trailer (is that the garage when you put the car to bed at night?) and wore clown noses! One guy ogling us loudly on the freeway lost his glasses down the road. We enjoyed that. don't stick your face out the window at 110km/hr folks!you think that's crazy? Then we took our folder bikes out of the trailer for a bike ride. ~sigh~ clown noses, really. I wish we were paid for the show it would have financed the trip!the first toll guy at the border didn't charge us for 3 axels. "I'm supposed to charge you for the trailer but I can't. I just can't!"Of course all the usual things about how fast can it go and what powers it, but those aren't funny anymore, they're just tiresome. Dan suggested we put a FAQ sheet on the trailer side to spare us the tedium.

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Had a bit of a nightmare this past weekend... we were camping less than an hour across the border from Buffalo in New York state. I should have checked out the campground more carefully I guess, but it was hick central. We set up our tent as quick as we could since about 20 shirtless fat guys and their beers came waddling over and swarmed us asking the usual dumb questions. "How did you get it here, you trailered it, right?" Ugh! We actually packed up the tent at 10pm and drove back to Canada, it was so bad. Why are people so stupid and rude??-Iain

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Sorry to hear about your bad experience. As far as to why so stupid and rude? Clearly the location IMHO...

Edited by lebikerboy

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I had a guy come up to me the other day from NY (It's cruise ship season here in Halifax) when I was climbing out of The Flea and he said "You know what we call them things where I come from - Stupid Cars". Like I hadn't heard that a thousand times already. I just smiled and replied "Yes and GM and Chrysler have proven themselves to produce MUCH smarter vehicles haven't they? Whose broke now?"He just walked away shaking his head and said "These Canadians just don't get it....." :huh:

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I feel so terrible that the public and private school systems around here have failed these people so miserably. No one seems to have the ability to deduce anything in this area. :( I'm saddened and am headed towards being upset that I'm an American. Can I become an honorary Canadian? I've been to Toronto. Twice! :)

Unfortunately, briand, anywhere in the world you can encounter people who engage their tongues (or typing fingers) before engaging their brains. Internet forums are documented proof of that ( just read many of my own posts :) )When the smart was first introduced to Canada, early adopters were bombarded with questions and comments that sometimes left us despairing the state of humanity. It's all good, though (I think).

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Comments from non owners are by no means confined to one area. There seems to be quite a few Smart Cars in the Hamilton area to which I live and yet no matter where my husband and I go, we hear the same old same old.....where does your feet go? You really don't take that on the highway do you? Is it electric. However on occasion there are some that come up with some different comments like when we went on our road tour, which is why I started this thread. I like to see the humour in everything.In my own backyard.......Yesterday as I walked towards Titan there were three people standing beside him. They were measuring him to see if he could fit in the back of the one pick up as a spare if their truck broke down........hmmmm, I may have to start chaining Titan up at night......

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Hi All,Todays comment was from a truck driver who drives an 18 wheeler. He said my Smart looks like an enclosed motorcyle that forgot it should be a bike.

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In my own backyard.......Yesterday as I walked towards Titan there were three people standing beside him. They were measuring him to see if he could fit in the back of the one pick up as a spare if their truck broke down........hmmmm, I may have to start chaining Titan up at night......

My mom just moved into a Senior`s Condo so we held 5 weekends of Garage Sales to help her downsize and to get some money out of the deal at the same time. We used Onyx as an attention getter and sign holder. Parked her at angle in the driveway facing the main road with signs in her windows some days and on other days we parked her back end to the curb right in front of the driveway. I heard - I could just pick it up and take in home in my pickupI have a cube van at home, I`ll be back to pick it upHow much for it - my brother kept saying 50,000 figuring he`d just buy me a new one if someone actually bite (not likely)A few others that are not coming to me right now.Lots of them just looked and asked reasonable questions. She did a fantastic job -- my Mom made over $2,500 at her Garage Sale.Oh, Shirl the truck driver comment had me laughing so hard it brought tears to my eyes. Edited by Onyx11

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This is one of my favourites:My husband and I were crossing the border and as the custom's officer was asking questions, she was checking out my car and asked "just the two of you" I almost laughed out loud as my husband and I both kind of glanced to the back of the car and then I replied "just the two of us" after noticing she was serious. We did have a good laugh about it. I would have liked to make a comment - like "yeah, got a few people stuffed in the trunk", but would not risk being pulled over because of a lack of humour on her part! :rolleyes:

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I had to laugh when I read what was said to you at the Border. Oh boy, how did you manage not to say anything??? I would have difficulties not bursting out laughing or making the comment. It is hard at times. You just never know if they are serious or not.

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