in uh full disclosure the last video where i was sitting in the hot tub talking about exciting news
to share with you next video i'd already gotten the vehicle so um i put on a few miles and i've
really been enjoying myself the last few days wait till the end of the video because i'm going
to talk about some things uh kind of explain some of the really neat plans for the future
and what's going to happen here on the channel and how i'm going to use my new vehicle
but without further delay i want to introduce you all to
tater tot i have i've named my car tater tot here a 2014
smart car not the electric drive this is a 2014 gas model it's got a three cylinder one liter
gas engine that gets 42 to 44 miles per gallon in her let's check her out this is actually just the
smart car 42 base model this is not the pure or the passion model got a few upgrades it just got
some wheel covers on there right now but i stopped in the modified auto and got 20 tint all around
here that looks awesome once we get inside i'll show you some of the things this is just a one
owner car i'm only the second owner of tater tot and they got the base model and made some factory
upgrades upon delivery this thing is clean y'all these are on marketplace all over the place and
craigslist you can pick these up right in the two to three thousand dollar range and i got the best
one that was for sale this time of year ready for this take a look guys it is called the 4-2 because
it is for two people there is only two front seats there are no back seats and believe it
or not it is incredibly spacious you can see all the leather and everything going on here that's
not leather but there is it just looks super super clean i'm adding my gopros right now so we can try
those out just a super clean car and look at the little space back here in fact we'll come back to
this in just a second let's look back here first we got a smart key fob here with lock unlock panic
and here's your trunk button hold that one down and we can open up this guy right here
look at all that grocery space right there also you can tap either one of these back here to pop
down the tailgate and yes i called it an actual tailgate because it is a tailgate that holds 250
pounds grab your cooler y'all throw it in there sit down on your tailgate in your smart car and
look at this beautiful view of the water just awesome right the cool feature about the tailgate
is that it's got a little hidden compartment of sorts fit beer or soda or jumper cables or
whatever you need in there and and really lots of space back here look at all the grocery space
in here i can reach my arm all the way to the seats right there lots and lots of space i've
got my seat almost all the way up right now i just pulled the passenger back but that goes way back
also everybody out there has got a lot of nasty things to say about the smart car
i've had it three days now and and already i'm getting like the most popular thing people say
to me is oh that's so unsafe eric what are you gonna do if a semi crashes into you head on
the same thing that would happen if you're in a honda civic or a toyota what do you mean head-on
with a semi believe it or not these smart cars are incredibly safe they have a four-star safety crash
feature and this whole thing there's a lot of plastic on the car but this steel frame that goes
through here there's some tests that show that it's actually a very very safe car contrary it
doesn't matter you've already made up your mind so go ahead and spread your hate i don't really care
it is a very safe car and i don't care who you hit head on at 60 mile an hour in the freeway
you're not gonna survive so come on guys also take into consideration the fact that i'm coming from
riding a motorcycle as my daily driver outside my rv i'm used to getting out of people's blind spots
and making sure that i'm seen and so i'm going to be extra safe in this thing let's uh climb inside
because again i've got my seat almost all the way forward because i'm kind of a short guy and i need
to reach the pedals honestly as long as you don't like look behind you you know just just like this
it's like riding in a normal car really it feels like it and this seat right here hopefully jax is
going to be able to sit here and be happy on these short little rv trips that we take everything is
really clean there's a clash dashboard up here here is the uh smart key and as you'll notice
there's nowhere to put it one of the very few cars where you put the key right there and there's your
i guess we'll call it an automatic let's go ahead and start this guy up though it's not
really an automatic it's a manual go up here see we got all our lights started up
like that i know i'm not wearing my seatbelt turn the parking brake off
you can see there's no check engine lights or anything we
are and if you can read that 19 947 miles that's right under 20 000 miles for a 2014 model
and there is some stuff that is certainly new for me air conditioning in a car
although i have it in the rv there is air conditioning in this car there is also
heated seats driver and passenger heated seats and jax has already tested this out right there and he
loves it i have never had any vehicle with heated seats so that's pretty cool they have also
upgraded the the stereo here so that's good that it's already got the dash kit in case i can put
in what i want for navigation everything i got my magnetic post here there's an open glove box there
and i'm just now kind of testing out my my angles here for the gopro so i can vlog while i'm driving
in the car here let me turn the car back off here let's talk about the transmission because
this car is manufactured by mercedes-benz it's a german mercedes-benz car however it's their other
brand their smart car but yeah this has got a mercedes-benz all craftsmanship in it however
it is the transmission is a little strange and unique in that it is a manual transmission
that is automatic a manual transmission that's semi-automatic so what does that mean exactly
let me start it back up here all right i started it back up here what does that mean exactly well
just like an automatic transmission we can go into drive all the way down and the d is lit right
there and it's going to drive except it's going to feel like you are in a manual transmission car
because there's no clutch down here it's just gas and break however when you hit the gas and
start moving you're physically going to feel it switch gears so you're in first
the car physically is shifting like a manual transmission automatically for you as you're
driving and it looks funny if you're near a smart car because like if i'm going to shift i'm going
to do it real quick and you're not going to see that jerkiness but because as a driver you don't
know when the odd the manual transmission is going to shift it always catches me off guard
and you'll see me go like that or like that and then the whole car kind of rocks back and
forth a little bit it's a it's a strange sensation luckily if you don't like that you can put it into
full manual you just won't have a floor clutch and how you do that is quite simple you just
tack it over changes to the plus sign we're in first gear as you're going if you want to go into
second gear you just there's second there's third wanna go back down to first it's it's basically a
straight manual transmission without pushing in the clutch with your left foot or you can put
it back into automatic i think it's all about preference and what you kind of prefer i'm i've
been pretty much half and half most of the time i would say it's probably just in the automatic
manual but from time to time i like to take control especially if i'm filming are going to
be talking on a camera i'd like to be able to know when to anticipate the changing of gears and stuff
so far it is a great little car again for three thousand dollars i mean you just can't
beat that and these cars get a ton of flack i mean everybody's got something funny or nasty
or just something hateful to say about a smart car and the thing is i do not care anymore guys
it is so it's going to be so much better for me okay complete clock climate control
now we're going to get into some of the reasons why i think this is going to be a car
that i might tow behind the rv instead of taking the motorcycle yeah you heard it
a lot of details still to work out but but hear me out okay my my youtube channel riding the
motorcycle i'm starting to get to that age where you know semis don't see me and people are cutting
me off and i almost die every single time i go out to make more videos for you guys on the motorcycle
you know it's constantly either raining or in the summertime it's 110 degrees so it's
really uncomfortable to take the motorcycle and everybody's complaining because i wear
a t-shirt and shorts even though it's 100 degrees you know and so i i definitely feel that having a
climate controlled vehicle where i can lock up my belongings most importantly bring jacks and
you guys know i'm going to i'm going to bring jacks on these little out of the rv excursions
around the country so heat air conditioning much much much safer than a motorcycle
i won't get into being safe because like i said most people already made up their mind it is a
dorky looking car it gets lots of attention so we gotta slap a nomadic fanatic sticker on there i
already did looking good there and maybe later on a little nomadic fanatic decal black on the side
the other thing is hope well i don't have the rv right this second but the color scheme matches
miranda which is kind of funny miranda's white with gray and black stripes like literally how
cool would this look towed behind the rv four wheels down the smart car is a very popular car to
tow that way you go into the manual and there's a seven step procedure once you put the key in like
just say you're all hooked up with your blue aux and connected to an rv there's a sequence of stuff
you got to do including disconnecting the battery you gotta put in a disconnect battery thing
and then put it into neutral so that it doesn't hurt the transmission and then you can easily
tow this with no speed limitations or mileage limitations and smart car is increasingly more
popular for rvers of course jeep is what everybody does and then we went into that whole geo tracker
thing for a little bit and now it looks like a lot of people are switching to smart cars
remember uh gone with the winds travel with the smart car behind their rv for a little bit too
and oh one last thing there's no engine up here this is a rear engine car the rear engine
it's uh under here so if you want to check your oil and everything you unlatch that guy right
there and that's how you do most engine stuff although the coolant stone the front your window
washer fluid and your blade brake fluid and all that but the engine's right there which means
where it's a rear wheel drive car which is kind of neat kind of kind of unique but again once you go
through the correct procedures and look at your manual because it tells you exactly those seven
or eight steps you got to do to be able to flat toe it in neutral behind an rv so you're hearing
it from me now that there's a possibility that yeah uh this gets towed behind miranda tater tot
might be coming across the country with me however here is the little snag with that whole idea i'm
having a hard time finding the components the um base plate that is sold through blue ox is
out of stock and i ordered it three different times once through e-trailer once through blue
walks directly and then once through amazon and all three times they got back to me and said nope
it doesn't exist we stopped manufacturing back in march for covid and there aren't any in the world
so i can get pretty much all the components except the base plate that goes into it so i've been
talking with jason from camping with kelly's and i'm gonna start looking at some used or wrecked
smart cars that were maybe towed behind an rv in a previous life where i could get the base
plate from the front the piece that's connected to the frame that comes through here that's the only
otherwise um if i can't get that because of kovid i may have to put off that plans and
take the motorcycle with me anyway and store the car here in illinois i don't want to do that but
how do i always mention to bring up covet virus stuff in every single video how about because
seriously it affects everyone's life right now and i don't like those people who are purposely
pretending like it doesn't like it's not there and it's not affecting people it is ruining businesses
and families it is it is killing people it it it's a real thing and it affects us all so yeah from
time to time i do bring up the virus and i do talk about how that how everything's going illinois has
oh my gosh the governor's not even here he's out of state right now
in his own state where he says you're not allowed to work unless you're in essential work so
nobody can work unless you work at walmart or a pharmacy a lot of people breaking that rule you
can see what a menace to society i am out here by myself uh we are still allowed to recreate
and everything so the parks haven't reclosed like they did back in march and april but
anyway enough about that well no not quite enough about that see here here's the main thing is that
because all the restaurants reclose the only way you can get food around here is if you have a
car that's under seven foot in height and you can't be on a motorcycle you can't be on foot
because you can't go inside and order you have to be in a car in order to get food around here
we got the toilet paper shortage i haven't seen toilet paper in two weeks i'm not out i just
want to mention that however toilet paper is all gone cleaning supplies are all gone from walmart
i don't know if it's just illinois that's like that because i've only been here we remember we
we got re-closed down here in the statewide even even in the cities that haven't had a single case
completely shut down out of toilet paper and every essential we might need
ten months later man holy cow so i need the car at least here at the house for
surviving just for doing basic things but also we're going to go on some adventures and that's
the big news is for the rest of this month until after christmas jackson are gonna take the car
out safely and legally and uh go explore some new stuff around here that's the plan i should
say that's that's the immediate plan okay i just i just want to shoot this video out real you know i
could have been more creative with this but tater tot needed to be shown to the channel and i'm
really excited i'm sure i'm forgetting some stuff we'll talk about it later this week as i get some
things done because all i've done is put wheel covers on tinted the windows and change the oil
it's just good to go so thanks for watching we'll get back to something more interesting in
the next video and hopefully this changes the channel for the good thanks for watching guys
bye
me