Can anyone help?? my smart is just over a year old, at it's service I reported that it sometimes wouldn't go into reverse unless I turned the ignition off and on again. They looked, 'made a small adjustment' and said if it continued I would have to let them have it for a few days. Well, it still did it, I was out with a seriously ill person, taking them out for an hour for a drive following their direction. Came to a point where I had to turn around, did the first part of a 3 point turn and lo! no reverse. The ill person got out of the car, and was going to walk away so I had to get them back, and move the car. It wouldn't shift into gear no matter what I did, so I felt the only solution was to try to push the car away from the wall it was facing, blocking the road. I couldn't move it without getting out of the car, and when it moved, it caught the camber of the road and began to roll backwards.. by the time I managed to jump in and pull the handbrake it hit a parked vehicle.. no damage to them, but big pushed in fender on my little smart from their bumper. I feel that smart is to blame, as if it had worked I wouldn't have had to get out; I had to get the patient back to hospital, and my only experience of smart assist was waiting 3 hours for the AA which I didn't have. Any thoughts please
Replies to This Discussion
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Should or shouldn't I can't say but I am thinking they are going to say they did all they could and thought it was likely working when you pulled out.
I feel for you and likely would have done the same thing. I just don;t see this as one you will win.
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Permalink Reply by Herb Bell on -
The miserly 2-year warranty on the Smart should ring a clear warning to every prospective buyer that even the reseller of Smarts in the USA thinks it's a bad risk when it come to electro-mechanical failures.
Apart from the car's "cool" and "tiny" factors, why would anyone want to expose themselves to the fiscal damage of owning a car that even the reseller deems to be risky?
Mind you, I haven't experienced any of the typical problems reported by other Smart owners to date, but, Gee, folks, how bad does it have to get before people buy a Hyundai with a 10-year warranty?
One Canadian owner told a harrowing story of getting stuck with a Smart that just wouldn't "go" in the middle of a severe snowstorm, a potentially life-threatening situation caused by crappy transmission programming.
Even under ordinary driving conditions, I have never owned a car with such a quirky transmission. I know that the Smart uses a computer-controlled manual transmission to get maximum mpg. But why does it have to be run in Manual mode to get a proper 1-2 shift? Try running the car in "D" with the gas pedal on the floor to see what I mean. Apart from the excuse that the factory has set up the transmission to give maximum mileage, is there not a better way to make this tranny shift in a more "normal" manner? How about an "economy" vs. "sport" switch?
Don't get me wrong. I love my Smart 451 in spite of its shortcomings, but with a little real engineering, this car could become a planetary sensation.I know enough about German Engineers and Management to realize that the problem lies with management, not the engineers. Hey, guys: "FEEX Eet!"
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Permalink Reply by linda bowers on
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thanks for your replies, We heated and pushed out the dent (if you could call it that!!) and I'm saving for a new light fitting lol!
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you need a new clutch plate assembly to fix the problem...had ours done under warranty.you are not the only one that had this issue
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