yolanda

Just before a courtesy cop got into a fight with a profanity user and got my thread shut down I learned that another saskatoon resident has also had parts stolen. I had my wheels and tires taken, but he had a crank sensor taken. I think we need to keep track of these local thefts because it sure sounds like there's a dishonest smart car owner in town ordering parts off our cars! So I'm starting a new thread for this, if you are in Saskatchewan, or even the prairie provinces, and have parts stolen, please tell us here.

who? Me? I could, everyone around me uses it in every day language and it comes as freely to my tongue but I'm pretty sure I avoided it here? I'm usually pretty good with my written language.

I don't think things are worse than they used to be. I read a lot of historical stuff, novels, fiction, non-fiction, etc. and people have come a long long way. But yeah, I wish we could bring the thief to justice

Ok, well, here's the upshot. Unless they're caught, the thieves are getting away with it. I've moved my car to the backyard and when I can physically manage it, I'll move the shelter too. But I've been too weak and sick to do much. Insurance is covering the cost of the tires and wheels and custom caps. They would cover the cost of the fluid but since I bought extra last time and can't be fussed to arrange an invoice I'll not submit that for reimbursement. What's weird is the insurance called me and said they would NOT cover the valvestem caps and fluid but then in the estimate it says they will. I dunno, but ok. I have a deductible of $350 to cover and we can put that much aside in time to pay it when the wheels ordered come in. My car will be pretty again.

Where's the owl?

No, just my neighborhood. It's an "economically depressed inner city" kind of place. I'm one of those beleaguered land owners picking up litter and shutting my windows on hot nights to close out the sounds of drunks fighting and dogs barking. I know for a fact Scotland's got similar neighborhoods. I've seen the video.

I wish I lived in a nicer neighborhood but i just don't have the bux.

Awww, thanks! Actualy insurance is covering the cost for me so you can donate those to someone needier! I just wish the thief would get in trouble for this.

Well it sounds like they're giving me the cost of replacement minus 20% depreciation on the tires specifically, so we'll be paying a deductible of only $350 plus 20% of the tire cost. He was shocked to learn I had less than 73,000 km on the car and had only put 3k onto the tires since they'd been bought in 2014. I told him I'd stopped driving entirely for a couple years when I got sick with cancer, which I did, and that the car was just a grocery getter and I used the bike as often as I could besides. I think he was going to devalue the tires a lot more than 20% till i read off the odometer for him

well my passion came with them and now they're gone. I'm waiting to learn if insurance will replace them. I just figure maybe the community here might hear about someone buying my stolen rims.

Thanks for the attention and the compliments on my colour! I'll be filing an insurance claim today. I really don't expect to see my wheels again but I do expect to be on new ones for summer. I hope it doesn't take too long to get the claim sorted. I'm not going round to the scrap dealers. I see the sense of the suggestion but I've had bad luck trying to dialog with the typical grease monkey, they tend to laugh at me instead of listen. Yesterday afternoon as I was moving the car to the back yard to protect it better I saw some neighbors down the block watching. I don't know them, they ar elikely new, one of the rental houses. There I was suspiciously wondering if it was them. I don't need that, yet here I am, distrusting every stranger I see in my neighborhood. I hate living in a depressed economic neighborhood. Yeah, that's my theory, some scumbag just bought a cheap pulse smart and it needed new tires. So they put out word to the criminal friends who networked till one of them said "I know where there's a smart" and I may well be lucky they didn't jack up my car and take the wheels off the car!

Please first let me apologize for not know for sure where this belongs. If anyone can move it or tell me where to repost it I'll gladly do so. I just had the summer tires and rims stolen from my yard and I strongly suspect it was a to-order job The tires were contis mounted on passion alloy rims with Ride-on TPS fluid in them, an orange slime looking material. No tire shop will touch them because of the fluid, and only smart cars can use those rims. So either the theives are very very stupid or they were going after me because they knew I had a smart car and they had an order for tires. I am in Saskatoon. The car these are destined for could be anywhere from davidson to prince albert. So while they're rare here, especailly the 450 models, it's still a huge market if it's to order parts! If you know of anything I can share with the police please PM me. I'll be keeping this open in a browser window for the next couple of weeks. Thank you. It's a terribly insecure feeling to know someone's got their sights on your baby.

I was a frequent poster on here for a while, but summer came along and I don't have time for socializing online in summer. Come winter I'd get dragged into something else and that's how it goes with me. I've had my smart car since 2008 when I bought a 2006 dealer car as a "new but scuffed" car. She did have a little scuffing here and there and a great need for TLC but with a little work and a few bucks here and there I got her all spiffy and loved loved loved her till 2012. In that Annus Horribilis, while struggling to figure out how I felt about losing my dad over christmas, some bonehead drove into me.Here's the thing, boneheads frequently do this with my car. They'll be staring at me as they pull out of a dead stop on a side street to run right across my path, staring and giggling at my car the whole time. I'm forced to yank the wheel to one side or the other to run around the end of them and manouever out of danger. Well last December the roads had become hard packed shiny white ice with ruts, 8" thick at the thinnest point. The city, pleased with it's surplus budget, was saving money on sanding and other luxury infrastructure work, so with no traction my usual trick left me slapping sideways at low speed into this metal moron.My car got cracked panels front and back all around and a bent rod in the front wheel. Seriously, a sprained ankle and some broken skin! Poor iris. She was totalled by a heartless system of 2nd hand parts sales and kickback from body shops who overprice the estimate.Knowing enough to realize how little actual damage she took, I bought her back for $1700 off the insurance payout and we fixed her. Thanks to Dave from Edmonton who sold me a pulse with no motor we were able to fix her, paint included, for about 5k, half the estimate and actually as much as they gave me for her.I took the disassembled panels in to Lazer Auto Body nearby and they did the spray work. Iris passed her two safety certs last month and is now on the road with a lovely "Synergy Green " paintjob on her panels and the original silver on her cell. Seriously, she was in such good shape we didn't have to repaint the tridion. Heck, she actually still smells new when you open the doors.We put up a fabric shelter in the front for a garage for her and she's just peachy there now. It's where we repaired her after the snow melted, and where she spent the winter in a coma after her accident. The first day we charged the battery and put the headlights back into her front end it was like a family member waking after a eight month coma!

re: 3rd party guy that did the TAN codeHe may have been offering to barter with you, allowing you to offer a price for his labour, to show you're willingness not to just use him. It's most certainly not his fault or problem that someone blew out your codes and why should he work for free? Now you've been quite ungracious twice over, I don't expect he'll cut you any deals at all if he deigns to help out at all. I think if you did not warn Mercedes of the aftermarket parts and that they're important, you may have difficulty making a case but they certainly did not treat you with good faith in that. I've had very good luck with my local dealership. Perhaps it's a regional thing, or the nature of the guy in charge, or that they're the only official dealer around, but they've been good with me, honest and considerate. Mind you, I've been that with them, and that's important in any relationship. It seems to me that you may not have been minding your Ps and Qs to the best of late? Perhaps a bit of apology will get your cruise control working, well, and of course "show me the money" because in the long run, that's what motivates people, eh?

Okay, there's news. Dave very kindly sold me a parts car for a good deal. It was affordable enough to warrant spending on transport as well and it arrived this afternoon. It's a pure model that was previously used as a courier car for Napa. It's got a lot of bits already dismantled so I don't have to wait for spring to tinker a bit, clean a bit, etc. We had to arrange to meet the truck nearby at a truck fuelling station as our streets have too much snow in them and then tow it ourselves the few blocks home. It wasn't complicated but I spent a bit more time outside in the -15C strong breeze and flurries than my body temperature could fight. I definitely prefer spring sunshine... Anyway, car is parked in our yard and I can start assessing the job when I'm ready. The pure, while it lacks a drive train, appears to have the parts I need. We'll have to watch for worn bits though and make sure we replace what we should.I really love my smart. I'm glad hubby agrees, and he really does. We're going to resurrect her and I will keep her until the magic day I can have a solar flying car.... ~grin~

[Thanks! I think things are already on the up with a good parts car bought, a cheap temporary ride, and spring coming early for a change. I need to remember to buy a lottery ticket this month, LOL. I might be due!

Quick note: We got the van clean after paying for a shampoo. The new tires make it reasonable to drive on our snow-packed roads, and a new windshield ensures we won't get pulled for a safety check too quickly. Sadly, we've also learned that the engine is on a limited term with one cylinder blown. We're not going to dump any more into it at this point but if there are no other systems failures we may consider changing out the motor. Even with the money we just put into it, and the cost of a motor plus labour for install, we'd still have paid less than 5k so if that's the worst, it may be worth doing.Every time I go by a smart car I yearn for my little capsule. ~sigh~ Insurance so totally doesn't fix things.

Just a brief update. We're still moving forward on the parts car and have a tent/shelter thing for Iris. Meantime I went hunting in the classifieds and found a ridiculously cheap aerostar that'll also allow my husband to work on his truck without giving up jobs. I'm so joyous to have wheels again and it came in underbudget and far exceeding what I thought I would find in my price range. It's a decent vehicle we won't have to pile money into so now I'm ready for working on the smart. We'll hang onto this van even when both vehicles are fully renovated and repaired as it's a very good camp van or general hauling van. For the motorheads: 1995 ford Aerostar XLT AWD with all the fancy bits. Cruise and power locks are broken and it needs tires, rear wiper, and extensive cleaning. We only paid $400 and I feel almost dishonest! LOL Didn't dicker because that was the posted price and he had it up and running for us, so yeah, that was the price! I still can't believe it, and it had been posted for nearly 6 wks. He even had people come by and turn up their noses. Well, it IS disgustingly filthy from smoking and generally just not being clean. No problem, LOL, the easiest thing to remedy. I'll have it spic and span by wednesday!

I'm so fortunate my husband is on board too. He's also quite mechanical and has a lot more experience with auto mechanics. Between the two of us we'll have her right as soon as the weather allows. My garage is a nasty old board and dirt thing where the spiderwebs and mouse nests make up structure! I had been keeping the car in there but a grommet on the battery well slipped aside and the mice got in. Since then I can't be sure they won't return so we've been parking her in the front drive. We picked up a utility shelter for her yesterday. It looks like the parts car deal is going well so come march I'll be playing jigsaw puzzles with a pair of smart cars. I wouldn't try this on a regular car but the smart is so user friendly. It rarely has stuck bolts and my car is nice and clean so working on her is only a bit dusty rusty greasy, and no knuckle busting. It's also on a small enough scale I don't have to play gorilla on the wrenches. I hated that about upkeeping my beaters all those years! It's another reason I won't just go out and buy a fiat 500 or honda fit. Well, the fiat might be just as nice to work on, but it's still not as cheap to fuel! Frankly I didn't get enough for the car to even consider those options anyway. The cheque at the end was $5550 and that's generous! I'll get another $350 after the fault is cleared. The other driver hasn't reported so the case is still open. They're chasing him, and if he evades for a whole month, they'll just default to him at fault.I can't express how comforting it is, even though I haven't been a good little socializer, that I can still find resources here. Thank you! The world is not generally kind to the poorly socialized. My inflated roller skate will roll again, no question.

I'll explain why the idea of stripping the crashed car onto a blown car won't work. A: I won't accept a lower trim model and getting all my extras shifted even if the "parts car" is a passion (and it's likely to be a pulse) would be a job beyond my resources. I've got leather everything, heated and cooled everything, the stereo upgrade, etc. Secondly, any vehicle coming in from out of province will require the same amount of certifying as the car I currently have will when it's repaired. They all go through the same safety inspection and I've been involved in several recertification scenes and the process is very easy. The garage is usually pretty casual about it, making sure they follow the letter but not making a fuss over unlisted irregularities, etc.Lastly, I am emotionally attached to my car and I believe, in my pagan way that it is alive and loves me back.(yes I'm a Witch and if that's too propagandized for you to take, you may use the ridiculous euphemism "wiccan.") My car has always gotten me home. That's it's promise to me if I am good to it and give it the TLC it needs. Given how well I've manage to apply this theory to some rude stinker beaters in years past, I've yet to be disabused of my notions by the cars. I had a car that hated me once and I also hated her. She siezed her engine a short time after we met and was returned to the seller to find a new home! (cutlass supremes are too big)So I am fixing Iris, I refuse to buy a parts car that's in perfectly good shape if I can help it because I don't want to kill a healthy car and I also don't want to set myself up with a replacement my husband will argue for. Next thing you know I'll be up against a refusal and have to salvage Iris (my car in the avatar).Meantime I'm working on a lead for some cheap wheels. There's one lead on a minivan for a thousand bucks and that would do perfectly for an interim ride. Get a beater to drive, take a year to fix my smart, have a better smart when I'm done and a spare ride in storage for when our truck needs shop time (hubby has a pickup for work.)

Okay, so payout after salvage value was deducted came to just over 5k. I am following a lead on a blown cdi in calgary which is being offered at a generous price so we can also afford to hire shippers to bring here. Most of our payout has to go to bills, sadly, so the plan is to find a POS rust bucket for a song and drive that for a year while we fix the smart. A whole parts car is a nice way to do it and the price is good. If that falls through, though, I'm going to follow up for sure on the blue star panels as that is the current colour of my car. I wanted to repaint it this summer even before the accident, though. Nice colour, but boring to me. I just see navy blue, LOL, when I want something bright! I'd rather a green for instance, or if I must paint, it'll be fun picking the colour at the shop. I won't paint them myself.We did get the list from the body shop but it'll take me days, maybe several weeks, to parse it and figure out what all the entries represent. My husband is in shock at how helpful this forum is being, LOL and I just tell him "that's what we're like in Canada!" (he's from usa)Will try and remember to post an update when there's more progress or any changes.

I wish to speak up in defense of my MB dealership here in saskatoon. I've found them to be courteous, honest, and accommodating, although much of that is from having taken my car in for her regular warranty service (minus oil and tranny oil changes done at home). While their shop rate is a crazy $150/hr they don't waste any time while it's in there and many of the service jobs are done in less than 30 mins, which is priced accordingly. Here in Saskatoon nobody else has the manual or wants to tackle the car without it, so only the foolish garages willing to fly blind would do work on her. So for me, the solution has been a partnership between me and my dealer to ensure my car was kept in top shape. Of course, this is just so the insurance company can total her over a broken front wheel. Sheesh. Now if only I had a cheaper source for those parts!

So I posted somewhere else that my car was being towed "to the hospital" after a crash. While it eppears minor repairable damage, our local govt monopoly insurance has a new mandate from the conservatives to pursue profit. Ergo, they don't like to pay out. The local body shop, however, seems to have a "ka-ching" attitude to winter crackups and went much too far above the blue book value at 10,500 for repair (don't have the quote here yet) and SGI totalled it. I had it returned for a lovely deduction of $1700 "salvage value" from the 7600 BB value they gave it. Maybe I could argue it but this winter has far too many fights to fight and I just want them to go away! Anyway, I"m getting my broken smart and some money to throw at the financial wolves at our door.So here I am looking to repair her and not sure the best place to get the body panels. I will need certain undercarriage parts too. My husband keeps focussing on the plastic panels so if I could at the very least tell him what it costs and where I'll order them, we may be able to return to useful conversations about what to do with it, and how to get me some wheels for the duration.Ok, so the specific question: Do they sell the panels in a full kit, or separate parts? What's the average cost of them as a kit, or separately? Will I have to go through mercedes or do you know of a source you'd recommend for me? Should we be shopping for a parts car, and if so, will a Pulse repair a passion?Damage is to the two driver's side wheels and assembly, and adjacent panels including front and rear bumpers and nose, fenders, and some of the interior bits they hang onto. Home fabrication to repair hidden bits is not out of the question if it's a simple kludge (sewing with zip ties, bridging with steel strapping, etc.) So long as it won't affect the safety rating, of course, because it will have to be recertified before it's put back on the road.I do have a decent relationship with my local smart center so it's about saving money if I order elsewhere.