My kids' Dad

Obama vs Clinton

I haven't been that interested in politics for a while but then an article in The Economist struck me. I like the magazine since it reflects an educated economics perspective and when they discuss US politics they offer an informed but non-US view. The comments online about the article reveal a lot about the various supporters (and non supporters).

The Obama supporters seem to have some difficulty articulating why anyone but a sycophant should vote for him.

Clinton supporters seem to have better reasoning for supporting their candidate.

For months it seem obvious that McCain is going to win unless Clinton and Obama team up. Now I really do not favor any of these candidates but McCain has the fewest delusions about the power of the office and the role of government. I believe that a Clinton and Obama ticket would prevail under certain circumstances regardless how unlikely:

Hillary and Obama form a partnership where she takes the primary role of president but must consult and gain acceptance by Obama on each non-trivial decision. After four years they would agree to switch positions (when campaigning). This would have quite a few benefits - they would need to reach a moderated position on many issues; Obama would gain some real experience; the role of vice president would become elevated to a near peer role that would ensure better succession; they would  demonstrate team work as is more common in our culture today (two heads can really be better than one). I doubt either has enough humility to consider such a proposal.

Of course there are a number of variants that are even more appealing. Let's say Obama gets the Democratic nomination - then Hillary could run as VP under McCain; and better yet a McCain/Obama ticket would be very appealing.

Inaugural Grand Rapids smart meet up

Here are some photos from yesterday's local meet up. We had 15 people attend and 7 shiny new smart cars from around the state.

Seven little smarts all in a row!

One blue one is hiding - can you find it?

Great bunch of people - as soon as we met we all hit it off - non-stop smart talk!

This is the Steelcase Corporate Development Center (called the Pyramid) largest building in West Michigan it is as unique as the cars. Like smartville Steelcase also has a natural landscape that is native to the area.

Five smarts easily fit in 2 regular parking spots!

Another shot showing the relative size to ‘normal’ cars.

At the local McDonald’s customers were very excited!

Steelcase Global Headquarters front entrance another pleasant mix of style and values.

As part of our local smart club meeting (inaugural meeting), we stopped at the Steelcase Global Headquarters – Steelcase also is a champion of sustainable development and Lean Thinking.

Tearing into my ForTwo

I was unhappy with having a lid on the glove box area. It was getting in the way of using my iPod and I felt that it was a waste of space. When some change that my daughter put on the lip outside of the box slipped under the frame (but not into the glove box I decided that I could pull out the frame and just do without. Then I noticed the rubber mats on e-bay and decided to take action.

I am very happy with this change and feel that the interior is more flexible now. Below are some recent photos. I plan on cleaning up the scratches and holes either with an overlay panel or some material that will hide damage.

 

trip to smartville

I rented an Audi A6 from Sixt to leave Paris and see family in Germany. Our first stop was smartville in Hambach, France where all of the world's smart cars are produced.

View Larger Map

Smartville is located right off of the A4 motorway about one hour from Strasbourg. As you head into Hambach you will see the sign for smartville and the "Centre de Communication" which is the visitor center. Outside and from the A4 you can see the classic smart tower with various models on display.

Inside this round building is a greeting area, accessory display, food area and large auditorium with models.

We browsed the displays and saw a short film about smart production.

 

My wife and I took a tour of the assembly plant with Sabine from smart while a coworker watched our kids. Children must be at least 16 years old to go on the tour. The photos on the smart web sites give you a good idea of the factory (we were not allowed to take photos). It is bright, clean and designed with environmental sustainability in mind. The factory runs two shifts producing almost 600 cars a day (each car takes 3.5 hours to build) of which around 200 are destined for the U.S. Cars are built to order from customers reservations entered through the Internet. Customer orders are currently scheduled about 60 days before being built since the waiting list is about a full year right now.

Smartville was created around 1995 and completed at the end of 1997. It brought a welcome source of income to a small economically depressed area with high unemployment. Today the average age of the workers is 30 years old. They are embracing many LEAN concepts that Toyota pioneers brought to the world like Just In Time manufacturing and kanban. Smart is also invested heavily in green buildings (minimal energy waste), green processes (recycle waste materials), people friendly production work (team rotations) and green car materials (like the flax based interiors).

Here is a shot of the day care center that operates from 6 AM until 11 PM. It serves smart and the surrounding area as well so that young families have a close safe place for children.

Of course we could not resist a few goodies that were on sale.

Visit to Paris

We just returned from a family vacation to Europe so that we could visit family. The first part of our trip was sightseeing in Paris, followed by a tour of the smart car factory in Hambach France, then Strasbourg, Nurnberg and Dresden.

We enjoyed the musicians on the Metro.

After checking into our hotel (Le Meridien at Montparnasse) we visited Galeries Lafayette at Hausmann and then the Grand Synagogue for Friday night services.

Saturday we visited Versailles.

Then we visited the Louvre

And then the next day the Eiffel Tower and Invalides (Army Museum and Napolean's Tomb).

Then we visited Montmartre, the Sacré-Coeur and Place du Tertre where my son gave the best chess player/artist a real run for his money. At first he humored my son then realized the kid was serious and good. His buddies gave him a tough time asking if my son was 12 years old - when I said 'nine' they broke out in laughter. They kept calling him a young Bobby Fischer. My son did lose the game but barely (got caught in a trap when the other fellow looked beat) but that worked out well so the artist did not lose face.

Subzero temps and the smart

The weather today is deadly cold - 0F and below (which the car's gauge accurately displays). When it is this cold we get wind chills down around -20F, the road salt stops working so road crews lay down sand, and the locals try to stay off of the roads since they will ice up and get very slick. My smart is getting a bit squirrelly in these conditions, but then again so do most cars. I feel comfortable driving with this car in these conditions and only a fool would drive without caution. The heater takes a little while to warm up but once the car is warm it keeps up with the cold. Having heated seats is really appreciated on days like this and keeps the delay in engine warming from being an issue.

Notice the height of the snow in the background.

 

And here are some videos we shot from today:

smart invoice

For those who want to see the dealer invoice for my 2008 Passion with the options I ordered online:

In addition to the invoice I paid $995 for 60 month service contract, $113 for two sets of optional floor mats (rubber and fabric), $971 Michigan tax and $180 documentation fee plus $23 registration and title fees for a grand total of $18,171.98. I could have saved $5K with the base Pure model and no options but what fun would that be? I did not want to spend the typical $30K for a typical family sedan. I saved a lot of money and got lots of extras I did want like upgraded sound system, leather seats, heated seats, A/C, rain and light sensors and alarm.

smart car links

I wanted to start a list of good smart car links:

smart usa official site
451s named after the 2008 smart model "451"
SCOA smart car of America enthusiast site
smartclub hongkong - just awesome check out the splash page, just like driving a real smart car!
S-Smart.com - I wish I knew Chinese!
smart center Bloomfield - where I bought my smart
Club smart car - Canadian club site
thesmartclub - UK site
Scoot - Toronto blog for smart owners
smart canada - Official site
smart times - web magazine based in UK
evilution - another UK site
fortwo chat - another US site
smart fortwo blog - smart car blog

Online parts:
Smartune - Seattle based site (where I ordered my Doug Thorley headers)
smartsRus - UK smart parts (bought my EBC pads here)
Flying Tiger - online smart car parts Canada
Smart Tune - UK smart parts online
parts4smarts - Canadian online parts
smart movez - online smart parts in Florida

Reviews
Road & Track
Daimler's Minicar - More Charming Than Smart - WSJ Mar 21 2008
Mercedes sees electric-car progress - USA Today Mar 24 2008

Smart Car of America Member Location

Check out this NY Times blog post on smart.

You can check out a map of smart owners (or wannabes) who have chosen to map themselves on mapservices.org.

An example

We flew on Malaysia Airlines from Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur and I was impressed with the little sign in the lavatories that said something like this:

May we suggest for the comfort and respect of others that you clean the sink when you are finished.

What a great idea! Each time I used the lavatory I found the lavatory spotless and each time I finished I made sure that the sink was clean and dry. Nothing wrong with encouraging courtesy and it might even prove contagious.

The inflight service was, needless to say, a delight. Terima kasih

More smart car coverage

A local TV station came out to shoot a piece about our smart car. While in Hong Kong a friend gave me this little figure of AstroBoy - he sure seems to fit, doesn't he?

Great trip to Asia

I recently spent a few weeks in China (Guangzhou and Hong Kong) and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) as part of work.

I found that the people I encountered both professionally and on the street were smart, gracious and hardworking.

Hong Kong is a very large cosmopolitan city with incredible diversity. Our host took up us to a restaurant on the "peak" for phenomenal views during dinner. We also visited the classic Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon for an unforgettable experience in the roof level bar "Felix". My uncle suggested we visit the men's room but would not say why. I all I can say is it is a must see experience.

Guangzhou is one of the largest cities in mainland China and is a center for trade. I was struck by the wide diversity of cars from small to large and luxurious as well as the energy and activity level of people. It may be a communist country bu economic freedom abounds and the people are very friendly. The hotels were also beautiful and inexpensive (about $55 US per night).

Kuala Lumpur was a bit warmer being on the equator but the people were equally gracious and kind. The city is also very diverse with a majority of muslims but also significant numbers of Christians and Hindus and ethnic Chinese. I scouted around the infamous markets for bootleg software and found that you could buy a multitude of DS games on a single card (78 in 1) but the Wii games required a chip modification to the consoles in order to play the knock offs. I didn't bother buying any of these. Kuala Lumpur is indeed a vibrant city with a dynamic populace bent on getting their share of the globalization wealth through education and technology. It also shows a face of Islam which is very forward looking combining the essence of the faith with integration into the modern world.

First day with a smart car

Our new smart car is getting a lot of attention like this blog from our local paper.

I dropped our son off at school today and all his friends were mightily impressed. At work is was a non stop tour all day long by staff and visitors. Of course I had the car washed before I got to work since the drive in last night was so nasty. The car wash people were amazed. Crossing guards were amazed. In short everywhere I go I am getting a lot of stares and then smiles.

My new Smart Car

Just picked up my new 2008 Passion smart car from Detroit. I was one of the first to register and one of the first to get delivery in Michigan. (I think I was the 12th to pick up but since I was in China for the last couple weeks I could have picked it up earlier were I in the country.)

The dealership site and the smart car site are linked.

Our next step is to establish a smart car enuthusiast club for West Michigan.

Check out the Smart Car of America web site for enthusiasts.

We are the superior being

Since Blockbuster just raised rates on their programs we switched to Netflix for DVDs. We like the TotalAccess program where we could exchange the DVDs at our local store but we weren't about to spend more on our monthly fees. We discovered the Watch Instantly feature that streams some movies direct to our PC (Vista) and have been enjoying the new Dr. Who series (which airs on Sci-Fi Channel). This led me to track down this video from the KLF (Timelords) which the kids love:

DISCLAIMER: Although we love this video, we DO NOT endorse the indiscriminate extermination of Daleks.