Smart Car

I could tell by the fuel gauge bars alone that this wasn't going to be a repeat of either the fourteenth or thirteenth fill-up in our '09 smart fortwo pure. Somewhat annoyingly, Mercedes-Benz fits the smart with a fuel gauge that plummets 1/8th of a tank at a time. Think you've travelled 250 kilometres and still have half a tank of gasoline left? BAM ! All of a sudden you've travelled 250.1 kilometres and you've got 3/8ths of a tank left. So when I begin to get excited about the number of kilometres on the trip meter and the number of bars remaining, I ... Read Full Story

Beautiful early autumn-like temperatures were commonplace in Halifax this late in the season over the last two weeks. This meant an awful lot of walking and relatively little driving in the '09 smart car. Over the course of 232.6 kilometres (144.5 miles) the smart fortwo used 6.9 litres of premium gasoline for every 100km of driving. 6.9L/100km translates to 34 mpg or 40.9 miles on each Imperial gallon. While not up to the smart's rating of 5.9L/100km, this is an improvement on the smart fortwo's thirteenth fill-up and about what I'd expect to be seeing if the temperatures were normal for November. Cooler nights ... Read Full Story

Although not quite up to the last fill-up's standards , the last 378.5 kilometres only required 6 litres of premium gasoline for every 100 kilometres driven. This equals 39.2 miles per U.S. gallon or 47.1 miles per Imperial gallon. Why the slight decrease from the 5.67L/100km written about last time? Easy: much of the last ten days have been spent in stop-and-go situations, not necessarily city - although there was plenty of that, too - but in rural areas where photography was the mission . Dirt roads were traversed many times. We even searched for a store, any kind of store carrying batteries please ... Read Full Story

Extensive amounts of driving through central/northern Nova Scotia provided an excellent opportunity to see if last week's terrible fuel efficiency result in our 2009 smart fortwo pure was an anomaly. Before heading out for Economy and Five Islands (via Truro, the hub of Nova Scotia), we visited Terence Bay and West Dover south of Halifax on the rugged Atlantic coast. It was evident early on that our fortwo wasn't going to repeat the dreadful fuel economy of the previous two weeks when the first bar in the gauge didn't disappear until more than 100 kilometres had drifted by. The last tank of Ultramar gas ... Read Full Story

Perhaps the premium gasoline from Ultramar two weeks ago wasn't so premium. For sure, T was trying a new driving style in which fourth and fifth gears arrived just as soon; but only because of a short trip through second and third. First was being pushed pretty hard. Much of our 192.2 kilometres of city driving was at higher speeds as Dartmouth and its outskirts - far less densely populated than downtown Halifax with fewer pedestrians to watch out for - were the scene of our Alfresco Photo runs recently. Cooler weather persisted throughout the two weeks, as well. Cooler and wetter. Whatever it ... Read Full Story