Freddy and I went for a drive yesterday.
I wanted to go for two reasons;
1. While I was on the expedition, I would have ‘flashes’ of this very trip and just long for it. It was so noisy on the ship that the quiet of the desert was just a beautiful dream for me at the time.
2. Freddy and I love getting out and about and seeing stuff. In this case, it was the cactus flowers. Each year we have managed to be busy at this time of year and thus totally miss them.
I was all for taking the Rangie, but at the last minute, I thought lets take the Smart Car (still unnamed by Amy at this stage)… Honestly, I wanted to take it out on a long road trip and have it, well, for the want of a better word… fail… not fail as in have to be towed home, but fail as in have it just be uncomfortable and really not work out as a touring car.
Ever since we bought I have been thinking the thing is a bit of a joke. I have driven it a few times around town, and while it ‘works’, its just, well, meh.
Anyway, load up the camera case, some nibbles and off we go.
Our destination as you can see from the map is our old favorite, Borrego Springs. (The fudge and ice cream are worth the trip alone).
The trip out went pretty smooth, stopped at the usual look out for the usual photo;
We got into Borrego and was a little hungry…. Freddy spotted a Mexican joint that looked Ok.
Soon as we walked in we knew the food would be good, most of the people in there were Mexican… always a good sign when the locals are eating there…..
They were right. It was fantastic! (The fact that I could not order due to not being able to understand the waitress is a mute point).
Under duress, we did not eat all of it, wrapping the leftovers we headed up the street to get the usual three slabs of fudge (peanut butter, moca and chocolate) and a single scoop each of ice cream.
We headed out and once again stopped at the usual look out for a few photos;
(Note, there are a few more photos in the Ben Album).
On the way home we overtook a Lexas and VW something that were just not trying.
Got home and on Amys instance, we filled the car (she did not have to insist that much, I wanted to fill it up and check what the economy was like)….. right about here, things really changed…..
We did 162.5 miles and it took 3.761 gallons…. I will save you reaching for the calculator… it works out to be 43.2MPG.
Uh.
That’s 18.3km per liter.
The whole trip cost $16.54.
In the Rangie it would have cost around $75.
And thats not the worst. (well, it almost is)……
The ‘worst’ thing is we both had a total blast.
The thing handles way better than the Rangie. The seats are fantastic, neither Freddy or I were sore in any way after some 6 hours of driving. There is heaps of room inside the thing. The stereo is great. Its super quiet. On and on the positives go.
I set out with the frame of mind to not like it and just totally ridicule the thing and who knew… Turns out Mercedes know a thing or three about designing and building cars.
Go figure.