We drove the Smart Fortwo back to our garage folowing the crash. Turns out we couldn't just crawl underneath it to diagnose the damage as hoped. We dusted off our backs, went to the local tire shop and put it on a lift.
We were in for a surprise.Our local shop is Stokes Tire Pros in Santa Monica. They were our third option. We'd already called two Mercedes-Benz dealerships to locate alignment specs for the Smart. Neither had access to them, or a clue where to look.
Stokes techs found alignment specs for a Euro-Smart in their database. US-specs were unavailable. It was the most progress we'd made so far. We decided to have the alignment measured but not adjusted. Cost: $25.
The right-rear tire was toed out. A visual inspection seemed to back that up. It appeared that a portion of the muffler (top of pic) was pushed into the right control arm on impact.
In the back of our minds, we wanted to repair the Smart ourselves. When we confirmed the alignment was out and control arm bent it was time to turn it over to the pros. We found even the pros were unprepared for this car.
Stay tuned for more.
Mike Schmidt, Vehicle Testing Coordinator @ 2,460 miles
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I wonder who the pros the car is going to be taken to next are. I also imagine parts may need to come directly from Europe for the repair. We'll see, folks!
Off-topic:
That's Arron (not a typo) on the left in the second photo. (Look at how little of the alignment rack the car uses! =Þ) He aligned my car before I went to Laguna Seca in November and Buttonwillow in March.
For those local to the Santa Monica area, they do great work!
http://www.stokestirepros.com/
This might be your best bet:
http://www.vancouver.thesmart.ca/index.cfm?ID=5957
The smart is going to have some high insurance rates.
Well, now its confirmed that while the Smart may be safe for its occupants, it is poorly designed to suffer rear enders, the most common of road accidents
Since the car is so new to the US, I can't fault it for any difficulties you may have in getting it repaired.
But in general, the more I read about the car the less sense it makes. VEry limited cargo capacity, painfully slow, and poor fuel economy given it's size and performance limitations.
It's not even that cheap.
Tell me again what they point of this vehicle is?
It's so cute and small, good on gas - that's all.
They need to fix that AWFUL transmission, If you see any in the streets, you can time 2-3 second shifts because the car jolts.
These little suckers must've suffered some rear end lumps here in Canada, they've been offered for sale since 2004.
Try the Toronto dealer for info, since our market is three times bigger than Vancouver's. hee hee
http://www.toronto.thesmart.ca/index.cfm?ID=5834
"bankerdanny: But in general, the more I read about the car the less sense it makes. Very limited cargo capacity, painfully slow, and poor fuel economy given it's size and performance limitations.
It's not even that cheap.
Tell me again what they point of this vehicle is?"
This thing is nothing but a no good novelty.
Hey if it is build and sold by Mercedes, to some folks, it must be good!
Really the ONLY thing good with this car is very easy to park in a small parking space. It is just a very expensive golf cart with doors that goes 90 mph.
Can I see a video of how awful this transmission is? I haven't yet had the opportunity to experience the smart for myself.