European Model

[bipbip]

I asked before but it was way back when you didn't quite know when you'd get the US model out.
I've since got the e-mail from Steven Morehouse at SmartieParts confirming availability of mine (N? 821) and am still a little worried to put the order through in case it won't work on a European smart, on the other hand I'm not to keen on losing my place in the queue ...
So, should I worry or go ahead and asume it will be OK?

[admin]

I'll get Steven to address this right away.

But at this time, no sales are authorized outside of USA/Canada.  We have no idea at all if it will work on the cars over there and there's a reasonable chance they won't since the shifter is different and we have code in the software that recognizes [P]ark and [D]rive, which the Euro-smarts do not have.

Really we have to send someone over with our tools and a unit to verify if it works and how we can make it work.  Tell me, do you think there is much demand?  So far I've really seen very few people outside of the US show any interest.

[Cruise451]

I remember your post from before.  Spain, right?  Actually, our code doesn't recognize P (doesn't need to) but it does use D.  I'd say there's a 50/50 chance that the European versions internally use the same code for "Auto" as ours do for "Drive".  I'm leaning toward saying it will probably work because the competition's unit works here.  Now, I don't know how they programmed theirs but it knows the difference between D and N so I know they didn't design it for the US version just like I didn't design ours for the euro version.

Ours works in manual mode and theirs doesn't.  I'd say that might be the thing that may not work on the euro-version if anything.

I'm eager to find out!  Send me to Paris!  Or Madrid!  Greece would be nice.  Oooh... Rome!  Come on, don't we have a transporter on this ship?

Craig

[SmartieParts]

[...] I've since got the e-mail from Steven Morehouse at SmartieParts confirming availability of mine (N? 821) and am still a little worried to put the order through in case it won't work on a European smart, on the other hand I'm not to keen on losing my place in the queue ...
So, should I worry or go ahead and asume it will be OK?

From my perspective... here are some thoughts:

• The queue is currently fulfilled.  At this moment there is nobody waiting!  I haven't gotten them all paid for and out the door, but everyone on the list received an email to proceed with their purchase. I over-sold by a little but I think there will be enough cancellations to work that off without a problem.
• If there is a queue again, I can later re-instate your place in line.  Just remind me of your original request # and I can reactivate it later. So you can let it expire if you wish and not really worry about it.  This wasn't the case a week ago - I just figured it out recently
• If you want to be a guinea pig for Europe, I also wonder if it isn't ok to just ship your order out as normal?  If it works, great. If it doesn't, then the cost of trying is the shipping both ways.  If you can accept the risk (ie cost of 2x shipping) then??

 - Steven

[Cruise451]

The issue with sending it to Europe is that if it doesn't work out of the box then it doesn't mean it can't.  I would just have to spend some time with my laptop and a loaner smart to get it to work.  So if someone tries it and it doesn't work and it gets reported that its a no-go, then we immediately have at least some, if not most, of the European smart community believing it won't work.

Then again, if it does work, it is a lot cheaper to find out this way than to fly me over just to find out there was no reason to go 

Craig

[bipbip]

Hmm. I understand both of your opinions on the subject.
The thing is, it's not just 2 lots of shipping - if the unit doesn't work on a European model there's a lot of niggly wire replacing to do when reverting the procedure i.e. quite a lot of unpaid work.
I'm just a private punter who's not really up to experimenting (being his only motor, too); might I suggest a daring dealer from the UK or Germany try the experiment out?
As far as demand from European smart owners I can still feel the echo from the hue and cry created here when we were told by Messrs MB that they weren't even contemplating C/C on the 451 and that was a year before the US adventure started. It should be standard on all vehicles these days but alas some don't see it this way yet.

[admin]

We aren't going to begin non-North American sales until we have confirmed it works in other markets.  That either takes a visit or a volunteer or both.  It also takes having more to sell   So likely October at the earliest.

[bipbip]

Thanks for your time on this. I await further news as from October as I'm sure do many more from this side of the pond. Smartieparts have my e-mail in any case and I'll contact them towards the end of the next month to see if there is further development.

[BigPerformance]

BigPerformance would be willing to get either an engineer over and stay at my place OR take an order to see if it works.
Ian

[admin]

I've been trying to find reasonably priced airfare to the UK.  There hasn't been a big push to do it because a) we're out of stock, b) European/UK demand hasn't exactly been overwhelming.  But I'll see if we can make something happen.

[SmartieParts]

BigPerformance would be willing to get either an engineer over and stay at my place OR take an order to see if it works.
Ian

I'll go.  My concern at the moment is just cash.  I'm strapped from the investments in this company and not having product to sell thanks to longer-than-expected shipping and production times (nobody's fault really, just everything going wrong that could have).  It'll cost about $1000 to get over there.  Ian... if you're interested in getting this product for sale then this is what I propose... you cover half of that ($500) and I'll bring the equipment necessary to properly install and test.  At the same time, I'll demonstrate the installation for you so you have a head-start.  You supply accommodations as mentioned, and a car for me to test with.  Success or failure... the unit is yours, which is worth practically $500 anyway.

"Wait a minute, Steve's not an engineer"

True... true.  But I've worked with Craig enough on this that I'm confident that I can either get it working, or can adequately collect the data that Craig would need to get it working.  Most don't know this, but that's how it started here anyway.  In the beginning, Area 451 couldn't get a car and so we used my car to pull the data off of and do the initial testing.  With instruction from Craig, I did all that data gathering and I was the one that figured out the data stream for the traction control (not too shabby, eh?).  So I'm pretty sure I can do it.  As you may have noticed, Craig hasn't been around much.  He's a busy guy and is now back working on some aircraft control thingy.  I spoke with him this morning and he absolutely does not have the time and can't spare any of the techs either.

I also have a pretty good feeling that the unit will work right out of the box.  If it does, we're still not home free.  There needs to be extensive testing done to be sure ALL aspects work as planned.  Another reason I don't want to just ship a unit out to the unknown.  Whether it appears to work or not, I'll need a good 2 to 4 full work days with a European 451 to test and collect data.

Let me know if this sounds like a plan.

 - Steven

[bipbip]

Still no news then ...
A Merry Christmas and: a Prosperous 2009, up to you really ... ;-)

[SmartieParts]

Well, you know...  I posted in a variety of UK forums looking for some interest and assistance and it really went nowhere.  There has to be a pull from the customer base... you can't just push something on a market that doesn't want it.

Still, that doesn't mean nothing has been happening.  I am going to be in Italy in January.  So I posted on some Italian forums and got even less response than on the UK ones.  No matter, I'm going to go guerrilla on this one:  rent a smart, find a quiet road somewhere, and do a little "road side improvements".  If it works right out of the box then perfect.  If it doesn't (more likely) then I'll have the equipment with me to do some limited testing and adjustments.  I'm not going to ruin my honeymoon messing around with it for more than one day so we'll see how it goes and hope for the best.

Cheers.

 - Steven

[intocoasters]

.....  rent a smart, find a quiet road somewhere, and do a little "road side improvements"....

That is hilarious! 

[bipbip]

I'm not going to ruin my honeymoon messing around ...

Of course not: what would the (new) missus say!

Congratulations and a Happy New Year.