FormerEnthusiast

Hmm... Yikes! Talk about bad luck. My first problem was in the summer of 2017 when my fan motor quit. Not bad considering I took delivery in 2010. Just like my old smart, this will go to charity once I'm done with it. What are you replacing yours with? Eddie

Hmm... Mike's been drinking a bit too much of the Haterade when he's behind the wheel of his Fiesta. I rolled over 231,000km the other day & still love my Fiesta. The only reason I'm getting a new car in the summer is because it's been tough finding a car that can meet or beat it in fuel economy on a regular basis & still be a decent driving experience until recently. Back on topic, there was a lot of GM junk on that list which bloated their offerings. Case in point, the Cruze & Impala! My coworkers get stuck with them as rentals when we travel out east (I had the sense to adamantly refuse them). In my short time driving them, as well riding as a passenger made me think that yeah - I could drive this on the daily - if only I hated driving & life in general that is. I love how GM & Ford claim everyone's switching to pickup trucks & SUVs as the reason they're axing a lot of these models. Did the Japanese & Europeans not get this memo? I haven't heard of them ditching cars or shutting plants down. As well, what happens in places like Oshawa where I'm sure a lot of their employees bought trucks & SUVs. What happens when they realize just how much it costs to drive them? Eddie

Hmm... I think the new SPCCI engine debuting in the new Mazda 3 is genius. Of course, I'd still wanna see fuel economy figures as well a review of its driving characteristics to validate my opinion. With diesel cars becoming a rarity, a gasoline engine that operates very much like a diesel is the closest we will get in the near future to driving a diesel again. I've seen a similar motor from Achates Power with their 2.7L opposed piston compression three cylinder gasoline engine that they demonstrated in a pickup truck a while back. Not sure when that goes into production though & with who. The new Mazda 3 with the SPCCI engine in FWD & a manual would make a very good contender as a replacement to my aging Fiesta next summer. The main problem I have with it is the frustrating infotainment system Mazda uses. First world problem, but it's still a major factor in my next vehicle. If Mazda were to ever take the plunge into EV or hybrid vehicles, I think an SPCCI engine would work much better in an EV with range extender setup than the traditional gasoline motors did for Chevy's Volt or the BMW i3 & i8. Eddie

Hey Mike, I do still have my Fiesta. Mine's been great to me. I can coax 1098km out of the 47L tank & otherwise has been relatively trouble free. I was going to give it away last year to the kidney foundation so I could get a new car, but the money I was going to use for its replacement kept me afloat for the 60 weeks I remained unemployed. Next year once the 2020 models come out I'll replace the Fiesta with a Hyundai Ioniq PHEV. It's one of the few hybrid cars out there that can better my Fiesta for highway fuel efficiency.

Hmm... I didn't think my login was still valid on this site as it's been a while. However Keith's right, I do have a new job semi related to this topic. Edmonton is currently expanding their LRT from Downton to the South East section of our city. It's the Valley Line LRT project which will cost almost $2 billion. It may cost just as much of not more for stage 2 of the project which connects the same line from Downton to our city's West End after this is done. I personally love it for a few reasons: It's about time we get some modern trains in our system such as the Flexity Freedom by Bombardier Transportation. Our current fleet is retrofitted Siemens trains, some of which have been in operation since the late 70's. Everything runs at grade with a beautiful layout that eliminates traffic bottlenecks caused by our other LRT lines & offers what I find to be the most scenic view compared to our current system. As well most importantly, I will be the first driver of these trains having been recently hired on by Bombardier Transportation. While totally unexpected, it's the big break I have been looking for & I'm very excited about this opportunity. I head out to Ontario this Sunday for the rest of the month for training in Kingston as well some hands on experience in Waterloo. I have yet to mention to the company that this is my first flight since the 90's & I might be afraid of flying... I'll leave that as a surprise when I get to the airport tomorrow morning. (I offered to drive the 37 hours at my own expense & still be there on time for Monday morning, but was denied.) The upcoming 2+ years wait for our new trains to come into service reminds me of what it was like waiting for the first shipments of our Fortwo to arrive. Eddie

Hmm...Haha, not looking for another car club. I already lose too much time online without owning a computer! ;)Eddie

Hmm...Gonna have to disagree there Mike!I was around 16K km intervals until I started breaking longer and longer running tanks in the summer. I actually want it to trip the oil change reminder now to get it over with and allow me to plan a good decent weekend drive into Oregon (need to pickup a rare beer), but at the same time my curiosity is begging me to see how far this tank will go. If you haven't gotten it yet, do the undercoat as it helps deaden the outside noise even more. I have the fancy strobing brake lights as I did in my smart and switchback front turn signals. They're white as running lights but blink orange. I yanked a fuse to disable my DRLs within hours of taking delivery. In the next while I plan to buy an extra 3157 harness to piggyback on the current one and wore some resistors to stop the fast blink & dash warning. No relay as it's controlled by the canbus like the smart. The new versions of my switchbacks with brighter LEDs will also be a part of this meaning I'll giveaway my old ones (giving you first right of refusal). Also read up and cut up your headlight wiring to exchange your H11b setup for a regular H11. I'm so glad I did as I now have a lot more choice for bulbs than Osram twistlocks. Eddie

Hmm...Well if that works, I should almost bust out the electric jack for my next road trip!

Hmm...Looks like it's on!However, I thought filling a gasoline vehicle like that would burst the charcoal evap canister. One of the reasons I don't SuperFill my tank. Eddie

Hmm...Looking good Mike!My TPMS never needs to be recalibrated when I switch over to my winters. I'm doing this from my cell phone so let's see if it'll allow me to attach a pic. Eddie

Hmm...So in my quest to hit 1100km, I ran out of fuel! At 1098km to boot. I tried pushing it the remaining two kilometres, but couldn't get it up the hill after one. I'll have to wait til next year to try this again as it seems to act like a diesel in how it only performs its best in the warmest of weather. Eddie

Hmm...Maybe I was wrong. It CAN go lower. 260km and sitting at 4.0l/100km. Eddie

Hmm...So I filled up today and went out for a cruise. So far I've travelled 110km and my dash reads...4.1L/100km!!!If I can keep this up I can push for 1100km. However, I'm starting to think this is the absolute limit of my Fiesta. Eddie

Hmm...1022.3km driven on a single tank! 46.637L consumed. That is almost too close! Eddie

Hmm...Iain, that's massive!45L tank @ 3.7L/100km should make 1200km a cakewalk for you.I know with my car emmisions control means no matter what the ambient temperature is, my first 8km are the worst for fuel economy as more fuel is dumped in to warm it up faster.That and also like a lot of the newer vehicles including a Cummins diesel I drive for work, there's still 1.5L/100km worth of fuel being burnt when engine braking which is rather annoying.I wouldn't be surprised if the European versions do not exhibit this behaviour.Eddie

Hmm...Hehe, no double clutching was a side effect of hanging out with Mike T one afternoon...Changes I made for better fuel economy are using Shell's ethanol free fuel, & diesel shifting.I shift up at a very very low RPM. I also anticipate and time out the traffic lights on my regular commute to work and downshift to avoid braking. Currently at 930 km. I'll wait around at work until traffic dies down and then make my attempt. It'll be nicer when it's cooler out as well. Eddie

Hmm...Rolled into my parkade today where the km remaining hit 0.When it hits 0, I am down to my final 7L reserve. Fuel tank including reserve: 47LCurrent Trip reading: 900kmCurrent ODO reading: 66004kmAvg fuel consumption (not ScanGauged): 4.5L/100kmTomorrow after work I'm gonna try for a 1020km tank. 80km/h & diesel shifting as always. Eddie

Hmm...So on this tank I've been driving harder, maintaining 110-120 en route to work every morning, and I stopped diesel shifting so that I could get away from the lights quicker. My display is telling me that I am now averaging 5.0L/100KM.How is this possible? My only guess is this no ethanol Shell I've been using. Gonna try a couple of tanks on regular fuel with ethanol again to compare.Eddie

Hmm...That he does.Mine is a bright yellow 2011 SES hatchback with the 5 speed manual.It was the 3rd to arrive in Edmonton, & first put on road here.Fully loaded, bought with a massive discount from the company I work for.There is an SFE (super fuel economy) model which is part of the SE option set that is supposed to get better fuel economy. Also the 6 speed double clutch is supposed to get better fuel economy in theory compared to mine, but I think the computer would try to downshift where I would maintain top gear.Ever since that spin with Mike when I rolled thru town, I cannot get out of the habit of double-clutching my downshifts.I need to switch my transmission fluid to synthetic because when it falls below minus 25°C, it gets tough to shift.61K on the odo, and I couldn't be happier with the car.Eddie

It's always bothered me that i fell short of the magic 1000km in my smart (963.9km).I've been ill last few weeks and just been driving my car to and from work only for an average of 50km/day.When I noticed my route and habits were giving my car it's best fuel economy, I decided to see how far I could push it.I was consistently averaging 4.6L/100km (61mpg) in my Ford Fiesta by sticking to roads where I only had to maintain 80km/h.The 47L tank managed to take me 1000.2km where I filled up 45.758L.Fuel used was Shell's premium. My Fiesta only requires regular, but their premium like that of Hughes has no ethanol blended in giving a better energy to mass ratio.The same habits in the same weather conditions with regular fuel (up to 10% ethanol blended in) only yields 5.0-5.2L/100km.EddieEDITS: Spelling, stupid auto-correct on my phone.

Hmm...A year ago today I picked this up.Eddie

Hmm...Not sure bout the oil change intervals and why they're different between the two. Though they are different motors IIRC.The max horsepower is at 6000rpm (which is the redline) and max torque is at 4250rpm.100km/h is only about 2650rpm for me.Eddie

Hmm...Took delivery of my Fiesta on July 30th.It's been interesting because I learned to drive stick on the way home.In the last week I've put on 3307km. A lot of it was tooling around town learning to drive stick.I arrived home this morning at 3:30 from a 26 hour road trip (30 hours of NO SLEEP). I ducked into Chilliwack for some Lemon Merangue pie. Spent 30 minutes waiting for a table, 15 minutes later I finished my pie and a glass of juice. Then I headed home!2204km averaging 5.55L/100km. I was moving at 120km/h+ and because I didnt wanna gear down on the Coca-Cola... I rode up at 140-160km/h to keep the engine between 3-4k. My last 219km from Edson to Edmonton I decided to try out the cruise at 100km/h and got 5.06L/100km.Lifetime average on the 3307km is currently 5.74L/100km.I just love this car! It is loaded up with everything except the 6-speed double clutch auto. With no manual mode of paddles it was a deal breaker for me, and I figured I needed to learn to drive stick sooner or later.Having Sync for my music and Sirius for radio was phenomenol as well. I think I lost my voice on the way back singing along to some lost wonders... ;)The two things that bug me about this car are that the E-Code projector halogen lights were removed for DOT spec reflectors running 9005 and H11 bulbs. Also, the automatic climate control (which is voice controlled in Europe) was replaced by standard knobs.The handling is nothing like I expected from a small car, it hugs corners and stays VERY level no matter what (I can't wait to try that winding highway by Nelson) and the fancy electric steering made it really easy to handle on the highway.Also, there are a lot of sound deadening materials to keep it quiet inside at highway speeds such as extra foam in the headliners and a special windshield. Comes in handy for when I wanna use the Sync system to make/answer phonecalls or have a conversation with passengers next to me.My service interval is every 16k, which is a good thing because I'm probably gonna go thru that in no time.And now to go clean off all the bugs from the front of the car (EWW)...Eddie

Hmm... As some of you know, I have a Fiesta on order as my replacement vehicle for my smart. Edmonton recieved it's first one last Thursday and I spent a couple of hours oggling over it. Mine is either #2 or #3 and I will have it within the next couple of weeks. I went with the Fiesta because I like the styling, the tech used throughout, and most importantly the fuel economy (I used to drive across the country for fish 'n chips at one time). The Mazda2 I think is lighter, looks marvelous from the outside, and maybe cheaper. However the interior is too bland for me, and their smaller engine doesn't get as good fuel economy as the Fiesta (WHAT???). Oh and my FedEx discount with Ford Canada gets me an incredible deal on my Fiesta! I spent the last 7 weekends in a row renting vehicles just to drive again. The more fuel conscious of them made it onto some of the craziest of road trips that reminded me of my days in the smart (lost for 4.5 hours in the woods at night, ran out of fuel two Saturdays in a row at the same spot, etc). In the last couple of months I've rented: [*]1 gasoline smart [*]2 Chevy Cobalts [*]1 Chrysler 300 [*]1 Toyota Rav4 [*]1 Pontiac G5 [*]1 Hyundai Accent My ScanGauge saved me from completely burning dry on fuel TWO weekends in a row at the exact same spot (I juiced up the Hyundai Accident's tires to over 60psi and hypermiled it from Canmore to Cochrane on 3.5L of fuel), as well as gave me other interesting data on these vehicles. Regarding the smaller cars I've rented... It is interesting just how and where auto manufacturers cheap out when it comes to selling affordable cars. The biggest hit on all of them was the interior. For example, with the Hyundai Accident, despite owning my smart I have NEVER been surrounded by so much cheap plastic as I have in the Accident. Also of note, the Hyundai was the only car of the group that did not shut off the fuel injectors when running in gear (and sometimes got WORSE fuel economy when running in gear). And the rattling dash I had in the Cobalt, UGH! (On the latter, all the power steering pumps that were part of a nation wide recall were picked up and sent to the States for rebuild by me.) I'm hoping with cars like the Fiesta, Mazda2, Fiat 500, and Chevy Spark and Cruze auto manufacturers will see there is a market for a premium small car instead of just another econobox. (If I wanted JUST another appliance, wouldn't I be better off with a toaster?) Cars where a nice well equipped interior, decent options, and even some of the nanny safety electronics we all seem to have a love/hate relationship with become the norm regardless of what size your vehicle is. While I miss my smart (it is currently on display in the lobby of Pick 'N Pull Auto, a customer of mine), I wouldn't buy it again living in Edmonton. Move to The Island on the other hand... Until then, I am more than excited to know that my Fiesta will arrive soon and I can go back to being a full-time driver. Eddie

Hmm...Yeah I will get a tax reciept for $100 I think.I'm a little choked about the missing H7 and H1 bulbs more than anything though because they could have been used in my next car.Oh well.Eddie