Day 4: Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay

Jun 25, 2007

THUNDER BAY – We left the locks of the Soo hearing of prairie tornadoes heading our way. Knowing this, Olivia thought we should make an effort to try out the cabriolet part of our Smart ForTwo before the potential precipitation prevailed.

JOHN LEBLANC FOR THE TORONTO STAR

The proper way to drive the Smart in the summer.

For Day 4 in our Halifax to Vancouver trek, the scenic Lake Superior shoreline kept peeking out over our left shoulders. Today was also less ambitious in distance compared to the first three. So why not drop the Smart’s top?

The roof is cloth. It can be powered back like a big sunroof all the way behind our heads. Want the full convertible experience?

Hold the button again. This unlocks the rear roof portion (also cloth with a plastic rear window) behind the B-pillar. You then need to get out of the car and lock it in place on top of the rear cargo space. It sounds like a lot of work, but it only takes 30 seconds.

For an even further al fresco feel, the roof bars that connect the A- and B-pillars can also removed. But by leaving them in place, you can get the roof up more quickly if a sudden downpour occurs. Which it did on a regular basis during our drive from Wawa to Marathon.

You can also power back the Smart’s sunroof portion remotely from the key fob. Great idea if the car’s been roasting in the sun for a while.

JOHN LEBLANC FOR THE TORONTO STAR

A roadside hazard on the way to Thunder Bay.

It all works fine, and the engineering looks robust. Pretty neat, especially for the Smart ForTwo CDI Cabriolet’s $19,700 base price; $3,000 more than the base coupe. Keep in mind, that’s $250 cheaper than the next most expensive convertible on the market, Jeep’s Wrangler. And that doesn’t include the $2,000 ecoAuto rebate the Smart qualifies for, too.

Roof down, we were able to spot more moose today than other Smarts (two versus zero).

Day 4: Sunday, June 24
Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay
Distance: 705 km
Average fuel consumption (L/100 km): 5.2
Weather: Sunshine turned to showers. 25 C
Smart car sightings: 1