Smart car page
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 When we started discussing traveling with a toyhauler and HDT we had only planned to carry our Goldwing and leave Buford in the RV when we went somewhere. Over the past year we've taken Buford on outings with us and the rest of the crew sold their motorcycles, so we started thinking about taking a small car instead. We initially were looking for a Mini Cooper roadster convertible. It would be a nice vacation car. However, it would require a 14-foot or larger garage space and this was limiting the search for toyhaulers. We pondered building a garage on the semi itself and pulling a large travel trailer, but this concept has its own set of negatives so we always came back to a fifth wheel toyhauler. We eventually decided to look for a Smart car instead. The Smart car is shorter than the Goldwing. Donna had two requirements for a Smart car. It needed to be a convertible and she doesn't like it when the rollbar color contrasts with the body color. This past November we found a Smart car at a dealership in Lebanon, IN, that checked all the boxes. We made an appointment to look at it and we were led to believe it was our's to buy. Five minutes before we arrived for our appointment we got a text from the dealer that he had sold the car. A two hour trip wasted. What a sleazeball. The search continued. We found a silver 2009 near Pittsburgh that seemed nice but the dealer wanted a little too much for it plus they wanted to charge another ~$500 in fees. I gave him a price but he didn't seem interested. We found a black 2013 in Ohio on Marketplace. However, the more I talked to the seller the sketchier things seemed. His asking price was too low. He didn't have the title but if we paid him for the car we could take the car and he would send the title. I told him any private sale would have to involve leaving with the car and the title. The next day he messaged me and said he was going to pay off the car so he would have the title. What? Why didn't he do that before? Sketchy, sketchy, and more sketchy. The next day his ad disappeared. About this same time the dealer in Pittsburgh accepted our offer. I sent a deposit to hold the car and a trip was planned. Due to the holidays and a vet visit we decided on December 29-30. Read about the trip to get the Smartcar here.
Whoever had previously owned the Smartcar had added some nice accessories. Weathertech floor mats. The OEM tachometer and clock dash gauges. Smartcar-themed mudflaps. Louder horns. Chrome mirror caps. Blue dots in the taillights.
- Changed the air and cabin filters. They hadn't been changed in a long time. I prefer Wix filters...P/N 49301 for the air filter and P/N 49351 for the cabin filter.Upgrades: - Dash cam.
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