More Smolto Happenings

[JShaawbaru]

What has Smolto been up to since the last time I posted? Quite a few things, actually.

I started by driving it to an O'Reilly to get some vacuum hose for my Galaxie, and parked between 2 trucks, as you do when you have a kei car.

Ended up going to the only Portillo's in Michigan since we hadn't been there in over a year, and didn't get cake shakes the last time either.
PXL_20230701_215939079.jpg
On the way there, we were next to a police car at a light, and the officer told my girlfriend to get off her phone; he immediately apologized when he realized she wasn't the one driving

I also replaced the head unit with one I had in my garage. I was planning on keeping the JDM aftermarket one, but with only AUX input, the only way to get music to it was spending money on an AUX to Bluetooth adapter, so I swapped the whole thing, since that was free.
Old stereo wiring, the only odd thing is that they ran the ground wires from each connector to a screw under the dash, instead of connecting them like all the other wires. They were both Pioneer, so I was hoping the connector would be the same, but no such luck. So close. "New" one installed. It sticks out a little more than I'd like, so I might still end up buying a Bluetooth to AUX thing and putting the other one back in eventually.

Smolto at a park. Smolto, as seen from inside a large fancy bus.

On the 4th, I drove my girlfriend to work since I had the day off, and one of the owners wanted to see Smolto. He was impressed my how much interior space such a small car had, and how tiny the wheels were.

Also stopped at a gas station, filled it with 89 this time, and so far haven't noticed a difference in performance or anything. Next time I'll try 93 just for fun, but I'll likely keep running 87 since it's caused no issues. If the gas tank did actually fill all the way, it got almost 40mpg on the last tank, bringing the average MPG up to 37. Can't complain about that!!

I have no pictures, but we also went to a Cars & Coffee at the Henry Ford, Smolto got quite a bit of attention, and one of my friends I hadn't seen in years was there with his 90s Escort wagon. There was also a Nissan Be-1, which was a funny coincidence that the only other JDM car at the show was the same make and model as the only other car I've imported from Japan. Theirs was still the original mustardy yellow color, while mine had originally been red and was resprayed black.
@mhr555 took some pictures though.

Last but certainly not least, we went to the last-minute Autopian meetup in Troy on Saturday. Got to park Smolto next to another RHD car, a truck with over 10 times as many horsepowers, and one of the only cars in the US that is nearly the same size, but a little longer and taller, but quite a bit wider.

[mhr555]

@JShaawbaru that's my friend Eric's BRZed next to Smolto.

[RallyDarkstrike]

@JShaawbaru Yay! Alto updates! I do love this little thing (and kei cars in general, really...)

Also, the color on that imported Rover is glorious!

[JShaawbaru]

@RallyDarkstrike that Rover was just really cool in general, but the color made it even better. Best color I've seen in a while.

[RallyDarkstrike]

@JShaawbaru That color is just so BRIGHT! I'm used to the muted boring tones of a million shades of gray, black and white on most modern cars, so that is a welcome change!