Just a quick post to let you all know what’s been going on. Apart from being very busy with work (50-60 hours per week on average over the last month and a half), I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in the Certified Organic Association of British Columbia Tradeshow this weekend in Abbotsford.

The BCSEA has a booth there, and I will be on hand Saturday and Sunday to discuss sustainable energy issues at large. I’ll probably learn more than I share, so the blessing is for me in reality. Plus the food is (naturally) out of this world. (Which is a good thing!) The Future of Food was the feature film tonight.

Moving along…

I have yet to do the fuel filter modification to my car, and being that temperatures are still quite low (today it was zero), I have not yet begun running B50 or B100 biodiesel. However, the good news is that the B20 in Delta is now available in a low-pressure and small nozzle pump.

Marie Harwood is still considering options for her book about my trip across Canada.

Doors are closing and doors are opening. Let the right doors open. I sense some large-scale changes coming this year, and maybe a new project as well.

Don’t forget to follow the Fuel Challenge, as they will soon be travelling across North America. Which reminds me, I need to start planning my guess for that leg. I could use 2500 litres of fuel courtesy of Shell!! ;-) To date (as of day 38), they have travelled just over 16,000 kms on 668 litres of fuel, which is 4.17 L/100km. Remembering that my 33 day trip was 16,344 kms, I can very easily relate to how they must be feeling.

The Vancouver International Autoshow is coming up at the end of March. I will be there, and will bring you some insights on what’s new and upcoming.

Happy 60th Pharmadude! (You know who you are…) Stay tuned for your coordinates and much more phun.

Closing food for thought:

“Socialism collapsed because it did not allow prices to tell the economic truth.

Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow prices to tell the ecological truth.”

- Oystein Dahle, former Exxon vice president for Norway and the North Sea

It’s closing in on the end of the first full year of smart being in Canada. I’ve had mine since January. The year went by fast. It’s hard to believe that only 4 months ago, I set out for Labrador in the 100 MPG Challenge.

Tonight, I put storage insurance on it for two months. I’ve elected to not drive it through the winter months in order to save a few kms for next year. The odometer rests at 49,928 for 11 months of driving.

In the meantime, I have plates on my newly acquired Suzuki X-90, a small two-seater 4×4 with removable glass t-tops, the most fuel efficient 4×4 in it’s day. Some of my best tanks are nearly 40 mpg… and I seem to be hitting 35 mpg easily.

I’ll be updating this site shortly, with many additional links and articles coming. My time at Club smart Car has been positive, but I will not be carrying on as an admin or moderator by the end of January. My time will be refocused on this site, the BCSEA, and hopefully a new website tentatively called ‘Fraser Valley Enviro Hub’.

In the later spring, I will be attempting to beat 100 mpg (US). My record tank of 113 mpg imperial equates to 94 mpg US, so I’m quite hopeful I can pull it off. I have ordered and received an after-market cruise control system to assist with this goal. That will be the only modification made to the car, other than this time, I will not be carrying 300 lbs of luggage with me.

I will continue working with the City of Abbotsford through to at least June/July 2006 on the Community One-Tonne Challenge, provided the Conservatives don’t scrap the program if they win a minority mandate.

The car has recently been at Blackwood Lumber in Abbotsford for a ‘climate change cash’ promotion, and I was also at a school in Surrey early December, answering questions about climate change and my cross-country trek, while showing the grade 5 students the car. (There will be an article and pictures on this very soon!)

Stay tuned, there is much more coming!

My car was repaired satisfactorily on October 27th, a full 15 days since it had broken down. A second part had to be replaced after the computer was successfully reprogrammed. The ‘electronic clutch actuator’ - a servo motor that assists in gear changes - was malfunctioning.

I’m glad to have the car back. Thanks to Nelson Mah at MB Richmond for getting me the C230K while I awaited return of NRG SVR. I will post a review of the C230K shortly.

Repairs of this nature are very uncommon among the over 4000 smarts already delivered in Canada. I still feel confident in the quality of the vehicle.

Wednesday Oct 14, my smart started acting up. Phantom computer issues. Had to have it towed to Mercedes-Benz in Richmond.

My first rental was a [cough]Ford Escape[/cough]. An XLT AWD version with the 6 cyl 3.0 litre engine. I had been wanting to try an Escape Hybrid for some time, but this would have to do. All things considered, I managed 9.7 L/100km overall, or 29 mpg. This was over 900 kms and various fills. Best tank was somewhere close to 35 mpg on the highway with cruise set at 83 kmh.

After 6 days, I stopped by MB to see what was happening. The computer was in, but the car wasn’t ready yet. MB rented me a Corolla. Okay - well that’s a good car. That’ll be neat to try again for a day. Or two. Or three?

Not able to tell you what my mileage was - but it was close to 6.5 L/100km. Auto tranny no doubt a factor - which is rated as 7.8 city and 5.6 hwy. The Corolla is an excellent vehicle all around, despite a boring and outdated interior. The funny thing was filling 24 litres into the tank despite it being at 7/8 full.

Okay, well that was fun. Now it’s Friday. Is my car ready? Uh… no. We have one of our cars ready for you, can you come in to exchange? Okay. Maybe a smart?! Not available. Hmm… how about a C230 coupe?

Nice car, interesting mileage calculator on the display. Had to call fasteddy to find out how to get into the gastank… duh! Best I could get it to show after a fill was 6.2 L/100km and 912 kms remaining on the tank. Is that good? The car is rated by Transport Canada as being able to get 6.8 L/100km (42 mpg) on the highway with the five-speed automatic transmission, making it the most fuel efficient model in the entire 2005 Mercedes-Benz Canada line-up after the smart and the E320 CDI.

I’ll have this C230 until probably Wednesday next week. Where’s the cd’s I haven’t yet unpacked from my cross-country trip?

Unfortunately, my car will not be available for an SE2 rally at UCFV on Monday, but I am hoping to have it back just in time to take part in the opening of a new highway exchange on the Trans-Canada in Abbotsford BC on the 28th.

Oh, one other thing. I was lucky enough to drive a brand new 2006 smart last Friday. Xandria’s car had arrived in the last few weeks - a passion coupe in bay grey/silver with heated seats and power steering. Not even 500 kms on it. Took it around Stanley Park and a few places in town. Nice ride. Xandria and her husband TFM (Dean) are the creators of Club smart car. They also own an interesting company called Speakeasy Solutions. Their specialty is keeping customers supplied with the latest in speech-recognition software…

I took my car into Eddy Lai for inspection and servicing on Monday morning. Eddy has been working on Mercedes-Benz products for 25 years. His company, Flying Tiger, provides smart owners with a vast array of OEM and after-market parts, covering all of the basics as well as performance and styling.

Eddy’s Richmond shop is well equipped to handle all vehicle servicing needs, including engine swaps and rebuilds.

Being that my car has 43,000 kms on it now, it was time for a fuel filter/water-separator change in addition to a full inspection. All the suspension and drive train components checked out fine. The only sign of wear was on the rear tires - they are wearing evenly, but will need to be replaced around 60,000 km. (The car is rear wheel drive as you may know.)

I want to thank Eddy for his continued interest in the ’smart car community’. He has helped in many ways to establish connections between owners, and has provided much help with events through his extensive list of contacts in the Mercedes-Benz world.

BTW - he has a pulse coupe demonstration vehicle for sale - which features many performance and styling upgrades. E-mail him if you are interested.

It seems that every other edition of the newspaper or tv news broadcast is featuring a story with pictures of gas station signs showing ‘100+’ cents per litre. A recent editorial comic we saw depicted the price of gas as ‘89.9 per ml’.

There also seems to be no shortage of folks complaining about the so-called high price of fuel. (Has no one ever wondered why we’re being conditioned to pay even more for bottled water at these same stations?)

Nevermind the price of fuel. There’s an easier way to cut your costs, and reduce your GHG emissions at the same time. Drive something more efficient.

Thanks to imagiNet for assisting with the sign for our times.