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Achtung got a stone chip about four years ago - I recorded the licence of the truck as it happened, but saw no missing glass (so technically not a "chip", but just the tiniest of dimples. Never reported it or went into a glass shop, and finally after a year, threw away the licence number where it had languished in my in-tray. Then two years later, it was a small star about 1/4" across right in my field of vision. Finally got it filled the next year when it was about 1/2", and then had it filled with resin for $25 cash. Lasted fine, and the distortion was not visible unless you knew exactly where to look. However, I suspect the structural integrity of the glass was compromised, and that the star would have continued to grow each winter, epoxy or no. It probably would have lasted another two or three years and perhaps one more repair until finally it would have been too annoying and unsafe to continue to use. The glass shop dude told me specifically not to expect more than a couple of years out of the repair.

Hunh. Just saw our old car today in a car lot on Brunette Ave in New West. It's received "rebuilt" status from ICBC and is being sold again for more than I got when it was written off. I had to stop in for a look - it's a disgrace. The driver's door doesn't match, the tridion below it is wrinkled like a Shar-Pei, assorted other nicks and scrapes are still there on nearly every panel, the sunshield for the panorama roof is missing... but it DOES drive, and rather well too, if I say so myself. VIN 212229 Red 2005 Pulse, black tridion, navy interior, all the usual Pulse options except air.

Just checked the searchable database for Achtung - it appears we never reported it to you! Sorry about that. VIN is.... was 212229, red 2005 with black tridion, pulse, blue-grey interior, bought it at MB West Broadway and generally got good service there. It had a few of the nicer options but nothing special except the plate. (8 UNG) It was a good comfortable, safe, stable car with 45,000 km on it last week..... when it rolled on the #1 near 200th. All that construction makes it a really nasty area and the wife and her friend went up against a 5-tonne but came out OK. Smart in the ditch looked like it was planted there! But ICBC condemned it. Not even going to try to estimate how much it would cost to put it back together, he said. I didn't see much damage in the photos except to the door where the truck tire took the skin off, and the mirrors, a fender and some finish, but what do I know? Maybe ICBC was running short of parts for other rebuildable Smarts? I suppose anything could have happend - cracked engine mounts, for sure front suspension (and we already did that once in our encounter with a curb - ouch!) The thing that really hurts is that we paid so much to be an early adopter, and now it's worth so little. Just figuring out the costs, we spent about $0.045 per km on fuel, (it was never any good on fuel, only getting around 300-350 km per tank), about $0.035 per km on maintenance, $0.17 per km on insurance, and $0.31 per km on depreciation! I never imagined how that would be our single biggest cost, outweighing all the others together! Sigh. So as we report our VIN to the database, we strike it off the list too. If we get another, it'll be another diesel. There still seem to be a few good ones around.

Bugger. Now I have to put Achtung into this registry. ICBc just phone today - the rollover my wife got into on the #1 was too severe - she won't be repaired (Achtung, that is, not my wife. She's OK.) Not sure how I can get the registry number now....Gawd, ICBC seems to write off a lot of perfectly good cars. Wife tried to drive it out of the ditch and it wanted to go, but was too deep in the flowers. I'm SURE the damage wasn't that bad!

Gorgeous drive! Coming back, of course, you can use gravity to throw yourself through the curves and pass everything in sight, which isn't much. We did just that in September - we went up to Williams Lake on the #1/97 which took a day; spent a day seeing how close to the coast we could get on the old Chilcotin Highway, and turned around somewhat west of Nimpo Lake because we spent too much time pulling over and sight-seeing - boy is that nice country! Then the last day came down what we later found out was Dog Creek Rd, and got a bit lost, ran into a few ranch gates etc. but eventually found our way onto the Pavilion Road, and then back home to the Big Smoke along the Duffy Lake Road. Very long day. Super driving all the way - hardly anyone on the roads and most of the roadwork was finished too. Duffy Lake had way too many tour buses and motor homes travelling it - luckily, they were nearly all coming in the opposite direction.

Hemmmm.... I'd better move this to a new section before the moderator does.......And on another note, turning one way under power ( I think it's right) makes more noise than turning the other way. That long hairpin loop off the north end of the Lion's Gate into West Van is a hoot for passing the SUVs that can't get out of their own way in any lane, but I seem to remember that's where it growls worst, and from the rear at that The only caveat is you must be under power. Anybody have any thoughts before I head in for my final "B" serviced under warranty?She-who-must-be-obeyed did smack Achtung into a curb a couple of years ago during the snowfall, but that was the front end, and this sounds like the rear/transaxle/wheelbearing/gears? But wheel bearings are kind of distinctive - one in front needed replacement after the accident (not sure why it wasn't done anyway because nearly everything else was replaced) - and this doesn't quite sound the same.

Question: is a clutch adjustment a standard item on either an A or a B service? I think my clutch has been getting sloppy for some time now (I'm at 29K), and the dealership says the whole procedure is one hour of shop time at $95 an hour. A normal car wouldn't need the clutch adjusted at 30K, so I have to wonder if I'm getting the shaft.Pay to get it adjusted, but it shouldn't be billed at one hour. I had mine done under warranty once and again when the clutch actuator was changed (my cost). Just wondering how one would know if the clutch actuator needs adjusting. I run Achtung hard, but I really don't remember how she ran in the beginning. Shifting has never been the Smart's strong point anyway. Just getting ready for the second "B" service, as well as the warranty/TSB list (I'm trying to compile a suitable list right now) so I'd like to have all the info ready to go....

Drove an A140 in Europe back in 2001 - delightful car! Lots of oomph ( I don't think it actually was 1.4l - I think it was 1.2l but charged somehow) and very nimble handling, and enough power to stay out of the way of the Audis that were dogging my tail on the A-5 most of the time. We absolutely pounded it through the Schwarzwald twisties, and though it didn't have quite enough power to pull through some of the inclined turns, it kept up to a powerful SL230 who was certainly hard pressed to make us disappear until we headed back to Waldkirch and the road opened up and straightened out. I did get it up to 170 outside Karlsruhe once, with a full load on board (4 adults!) and the roughly 1400 km we put on in three weeks were the most comfortable I've had in a long time.Til I got the Smart, anyway.Even the radio made sense, which is saying something. I drove a Opel (GM) Astra last time I was back - gutless, heavy, slow, uncomfortable, and a radio we were never able to get working properly. GM deserves bankruptcy!

Love it! Thanks!

Obviously this was a parking adventure. Anybody know who this was? (Michigan, from the voice track)

Thanks Mike T - very valuable info. I weigh 110 kg and the wife ( who is considerably lighter) and I just finished a trip all over the Island. Best day was from Campbell River to Victoria with detours. Never went over 2500 (generally I don't anyway, and never over 3500 at all), stuck to the slow lane on the hills and straights unless I couldn't see past the trucks, and generally backed off from my usual habits. All shifts at 2100-2300 going up and 1500 coming down. It was a very smooth ride (i've really been practicing the delayed heel-and-toe this car seems to require on downshifts). I've been pushing the revs way down anyway (as low as 1200 on occasion) and generally took my time. Mileage for me was exactly the same as usual on all four tankfills used - 4.7/100km, even on the twisty run to Tofino and back. It's been like this since new (25,000 on it now). My worst mileage ever was a bad week - drove it like I stole it all week, and pushed it to 130 going out to Abbotsford. That tank was 5.7. So I'm pretty clear that all Smarts are not created equal. Ours simply won't ever do the econo thang. Others will. Caveat emptor.

Ooop. Never mind - just found it. We'l be there in July/August, so, sorry we'll miss whoever's going/

What's in France in '08? I'll be across the border in Germany in '08 for a bit of summer (along with elsewhere in Europe). A Canadian smart get-together?

Just had the 2nd "A" done at MB West Broadway. They've changed nearly everybody in there - the sales staff seem to be all new, and I only recognized one service advisor. Coincidentally, the cold treatment has gone away too. Not sure if they're related.Costs:A service labour $94.50Oil filter 160-184-02-25 $7.593l 78987 Euro synthetic oil @ 8.60 ea $25.80B-203 Diesel fuel conditioner $5.49Cleaning compound 002-986-14-71-10 $9.90Windshield washer fluid $3.59In addition, I did the brake fluid replacement early (normally done on the 2nd "B" service) because the car often sits a long time and we don't drive much or often.Brake fluid replacement labour $42.00009-989-08-07-13 brake fluid $25.05Total bill: Labour $136.50 Parts $77.34 Taxes $26.49 The works: $247.16Without the brake service & taxes, the "A" service would have cost $172.06I'm not unhappy. Nearly the same cost as my first "A" service and I got extra work done. Note the much lower cost of windwhield washer fluid compared to $10 the first time. Cleaning compound? Who knows. They also identified for themselves the faulty connection for the rear window washer fluid, which previously trickled down the inside of the rear window. You can tell how often we use that feature. But at least it did get fixed - I merely thought it was another strange wimpy Smart thing....

Thanks to all for my avatar! and Happy New Year!

Hmmmm.... yes, it's a jpg. Very interesting, though. I just tried to upload it to this reply, but my browser merely stalled (using Firefox 1.0 right now after a Windoze reload, and I have a couple of issues with it). Switched to IE 6.0 and still can't upload my avatar to my settings, but I CAN upload it to this reply. At least, I hope you'll get it.Obviously it's something with the way my windoze is set up, not with the site admin. If you receive the jpeg, thanks for plugging it in for me.

Thanks for the offer to fix - I'd like to try it myself first just so I'm not such a noob. I've got to put that Adobe Photodeluxe to work somehow. Although when I look at the file size in WExplorer, it's only 5.9kb, so I can't see how the file size is the problem. That was the whole point of reducing the number of pixels anyway.

Ouch! That hurts worse than when Achtung hit the curbHope you didn't have to have it towed.... ;>)

Wilkommen aus Club Smart Car in Vancouver, Bernd! Entschuldigt mienes Deutsch - es ist schlechter als mein Englisch, aber meine Frau mir versuchst mehr zu unterrichten. Sprichts du etwas Englisch? Ich glaube es ist schwer einen Job fur Mekanikerkundendienst mit jedem möglichem Händler (?) in Amerika oder in Kanada zu finden, es sei denn Sie etwas Englisch jeden Tag sprechen. Sorgst du sich nicht - wir sprechen Englisch so schlecht wie Ausländer, und es ist unsere Muttersprache! Hmmmmm.... in Vancouver, wir sind alles Ausländer....chinesisch, indisch, afrikanisch, europäisisch und Öst-europäisisch, arabisch.... Ich glaube auch dass Smartmekaniker musst auch Mercedes-Benz reparieren. Es gibt nur 10,000 Smart cars in Kanada, so es gibt nicht zu viel Arbeit für Smartmekaniker. Eddy!-Eddy!-Eddy! ist privatmeckaniker und hat seine eigene Werkstatt, aber ich glaube daß es gibt sehr wenige von denen. Es gibt ein Mangel für den Arbeiter in Westkanada (britisch Kolumbien und Alberta) jetzt, also ist es einfach Ihre "green card" zu erhalten, wenn ein Händler du für ihn arbeitest wünscht. Entschuldigung, ich habe keine Liste für Händlern in Kanada. Versuchst du http://www.thesmart.ca/index.cfm?id=4726 Viele Grüße von regnerisch Vancouver! Andre (P.S. Warum willst du Berlin verlassen? Wie ein wunderbares Stadt!)

Does the avatar actually have to be 125 x 125? Mine was 125 x 94, but it still says "File too large". I resized it to 124 x 93 - same thing. I uploaded it from my own file on my hard drive rather than picking out my old one from archive, butI can't see where that would make a difference.Thots?

Duck: Thanks - that's helpful. No towing on the ground without the key on or a gear might try to engage and grind me a pound of fresh tungsten-steel shavings for my next transmission job. And as bilgladstone emphasizes, not over 50 km/h or over 50km. I'm still puzzled about the lubrication question here, though. Pump-driven (dry) gearboxes tend to react badly when moved ANY distance at all without lubrication, not just a limited amount. Wouldn't this be true for the Getrag too?Some responders assume that you will always be with the car for the tow. That's not the case here, and I suspect it won't be the case for several people unless you like packing a tent and sleeping bag in your Smart. In my case, the insurer is responsible for the tow, not Smartmove or MB-Canada, and they get to do it on their own schedule, with their own driver who is the low bidder on a (government) contract. My car was pranged up 20 km from home, in a neighbourhood in which there was nobody I knew who could keep a watch on it for me. The tow truck driver was to pick it up two days following, but no clue as to what time. He called when he was en route to the pickup, but he was only 5 minutes away, I was more than an hour away, and he said he didn't need the keys in the vehicle to set things up to perform the tow....Sigh. I leave it to your imagination what Achtung lived through that day, dolly or not. In my chats with the guy, he left me with the impression he was a responsible driver, but I'm the worst judge of character, so I'm really banking on the same faith in him that I have in lottery tickets to secure my retirement.

After the wife pranged the front-end of Achtung into a curb during the recent snowfall ("Huh?" sez she, "We don't have snow tires?") I arranged for ICBC to get the car to Burrard Autostrasse after they had a look at it. Tow-truck driver showed up without the flatdeck requested - apparently he's the only driver for the Vancouver area that handles 'specialty cars', which puts the Smart in with some very pricey vehicles. To his credit, he said he would use a dolly, but my wife insisted that he go back for the flatdeck, which he didn't take too well. I can understand that if he's on contract, which, for ICBC, he probably is, so he didn't get paid for showing up and going away without a car. (ICBC's not so up on customer service as they used to be - I got all kinds of wrong information that I had to ask supervisors to correct when making the original claim, and have heard same from others, as well as body shop employees... but that's for another thread.)Anyway, 2nd call was to Smartmove Assistance for confirmation, where the TSA there said "Towing on a flatdeck is strongly recommended. The only time you would not tow on a flatdeck is if you were in an underground where headroom is an issue, and then a dolly should be used". That's pretty clear.3rd call was back to the tow-truck driver where I had to explain why it couldn't be towed on a dolly as usual all the way out to the Coquitlam assessment yard and back into Vancouver. He still wasn't happy saying he tows Mercedeses and Ferrariseses and Lambos and everything else that way, so why can't he tow a Smart? He said he'd towed Smarts that way before and knew about the tow hook under the seat etc. I couldn't make a good enough case for him, so I stood on the wife's excuse and we went our separate ways grumbling.So after combing the threads, all I can find is #56704 where s_mack points out his experiences and refers to a line that is in his owners manual that is certainly not in mine; and #77776 where Duck and RichHelms note the damage that could occur to an unlubricated transaxle while being towed, not to mention confusing the ESP system (whatever that is), as well as to documents from Getrag.Also mentioned is towing with the ignition on (does that turn on a lubrication pump? how long can you run it for without running the engine?) and confusion in the SAM module, as well as not towing "backwards" (ie with the front wheels on the ground) due to lack of steering lock (which our Smart seems to have).My manual says:"Switch on ignition""Firmly apply the brake pedal""Move the gearshift lever to position N"...blah, blah, blah..."Only people with a certain amount of experience should tow.""The ignition must be switched on""If the car is being towed, the gearshift lever must be set to position N."....blah blah blah..."Max towing speed 50 km/h...max towing distance 50km."....blah blah blah...Confusion, confusion, confusion....So I'd like to straighten this out, preferably with documentation. Then I can go to ICBC and ask for a policy and operator education at the call centre and on the trucks for picking up Smarts - ie flatdecks only - and outline the specific damage that could - would - occur if this policy was not followed, and how ICBC could be liable. I'd also like to send this to the City of Vancouver, as I recall seeing someone's poor little Smart trundling along on Buster's hook - I'm pretty sure it was on the dolly, but I'm not 100%. Other owners may want to have their cities' Engineering departments notified in writing too. And last, to all towing companies, particularly the owner of the companies, and request a reply, so that they can be considered to have been warned, and therefore liable for damage. Further, owners who have been towed can then use this as a reference to determine quickly whether it was properly towed or whether damage was done to their cars in the process. If this is possible.Obviously, this is bigger than just me, so anybody who wants to write this document without further ado is welcome. Or if this HAS been addressed already, and I simply haven't notice, please let me know. I'm not technically adept with Smarts, so help is needed addressing the engineering points, and legal help on liability will be welcome as well.Or, if this is too big for this thread, please PM me your thoughts, documents and proposals. Thanks.

I guess we had so much stuff in the underseat lockbox that when I pushed something else in, it must have pushed up and over the back wall of the box, and down onto the floor under the seat where you can't see it. I'd removed the box to clean up, and there it was, along with the original delivery slip!Too late. The locks are gone.If Smart GMBH is considering redesign suggestions, a lip along the back edge of the box would be a help for those of us who like to carry a complete suitcase in our lockboxes - maps, sunglasses, deicer, tiregauges, measuring tapes, multitools, makeup(?), child's toys(?) etc....

Hmmm....Thanks Mike. I just had to go look - there's no sticker on the inside of my locking box. That would not have occurred to me, but I did have a long conversation with the service advisor about where they key or the combo could be, and he said if you don't have the key, there's nothing that can be done except hammer them off.'B' service just done - $190 - I think I'll stick with these guys for now, as Malcolm says, although Flying Tiger is also looking good....

Hmmm... $2200 is a bit rich for 3 years protection, even on a $100,000 car. I'll see what they're offering and post back, but I would think that $750 for 3 more years would be about my limit. If it were more than that, I'd probably take my chances. I realize they are a profit centre for dealerships, but that's why I've got so many questions.Thanks for all the info.