Hello Petrolheads! Today I bring you a short test of the latest Mercedes-Benz C  180 d, aka Diesel or BlueTec or CDI. I decided that, despite only having driven the car for 3 days and around 500km, it was worth to write about it; plenty has been said and written about the fact that Mercedes-Benz now uses Renault engines – mostly regarding A-Class’ 1.5 – but regularly the reviews tend to show a very personal perspective, which I believe doesn’t help many real customers, who don’t care from which manufacturer the engine comes from. This review is focused on the engine dynamics, as most of the drive was done on the motorway. The tested car comes with Renault’s 1.6 diesel, downgraded to a modest 116PS/ 85kW and 280Nm. On a cold start, it rattles as loudly as Merc’s own 2.1L, albeit the note being slightly higher pitched. Once warm it improves and becomes reasonably refined, but a hum is always in the background. The tested car was equipped with plenty of opti...

Cheers, petrolheads! This year’s first post regards, once again, the Smart Roadster. It has became some sort of tradition to start the year with such a post but, as last year this time, there are relevant news regarding my garage. I’m now the very proud owner of three Smart Roadsters, after just having added a Roadster-Coupé 60 to the collection! I must confess that I bought it because of the attractive combination of price/ use/ configuration (and because I need a toy to drive on the Alps before I roll the Panda over…). I’m far from being the biggest admirer of the fastback rear, which many (most, from what I noticed until now) people argue make the car’s profile look svelter, while adding some practicality to the mix. But beauty is on the beholder’s eye, and to me, this version only works out if everything is black. The mix of many colours isn’t to my taste, and the fastback also makes the car look taller than the standard Roadster, so a bit less purposeful. ...

Hello once again, petrolheads! It’s finally the time to review my latest acquisition: the Brabus tuned version of my beloved Smart Roadster. My passion for the Smart Roadster is well known and documented, but ever since I bought my first Roadster (the 60kW intermediate variant), I wondered: how much fun is the top of the range Brabus? I mean, with those looks it’s impossible to be something other than phenomenal, right? Sub-1,2m in height, 17” wheels with massive tires, leather-clad interior with aluminium touches and 19 horsepower more … It simply looks irresistible. The latest versions, called Xclusive, add a couple of touches to the standard Brabus, whose specification also changed with the appearance of this top equipment level (then it also appeared a cheaper, equipment-stripped Brabus Finale). However, despite prices starting at a hefty 27k € (in Germany), the options list was still long. For instance, not every single Brabus Xclusive Roadster I have seen has – wait ...

The morning following the celebrations of the Portuguese victory for Smart Times 2014 was dreadful. The steady rain and cold, together with a lack of events for the day, meant that ST2013 was close to dead. I had previously planned to drive what the guys from Top Gear called the best driving road in the World, and I had also been told by locals that the weather changes a lot along Switzerland. So, it was with lots of expectation that I drove out of Buochs at 10 a.m. Clarkson, Hammond and May drove from Davos to Stelvio, but as I was heading back to Germany, I decided to drive to Davos, but instead of driving to Stelvio, I would leave the road 28 and head to Malles Venosta instead, then San Valentino Alla Muta, Imst and Füssen. Fingers crossed for blue skies! The first part of the route was only Motorway, but it was´t that boring because the Swiss landscapes are always changing, and are always beautiful. I must also add that the Swiss people were right of course, because some 20km...

Welcome back, Pertolheads! Today I’m going to share my biggest experience so far on a fan club meeting, more specifically, the biggest Smart drivers meeting in the world: the annual Smart Times, this year in Lucerne, Switzerland. This event has been happening since the year 2000, at first only a meeting of some Smart enthusiasts from central Europe, later with the full support of Mercedes-Benz, and year by year, it grows accordingly. First of all, I should apologize for the personal approach of today’s post, because the simple matter of fact is this: I’m a Smart fan. It has been some time since I wanted to join this event, but living in Portugal made that a little bit complicated, as Europe’s California is far away – around 2k kilometres, to be precise. However, as now I’m living in the south of Germany, things were different. So, one month ago, I brought my beloved batmobile – 2355 km (1472 miles) in two days, without the slightest of dramas – and last weekend I drove...