Horn Assembly problems of the 2009 Smart Fortwo

I was on my way to school, the car began making a grinding noise, as I moved to the shoulder it died and the steering wheel locked up, the radio cut off, the horn stayed on, all the wipers went full force and the doors locked. When I finally kicked the door open I went to the front of the vehicle and opened the good. I began so smell burning plastic and went to the driver side again. When I got there, there were flaming drips coming from under the panels. I attempted to put them out but it was futile. I removed myself from the situation and called fire rescue. The whole thing took 2 minutes before the car was toast.

My 2009 Smart Fortwo car caught on fire yesterday and burned. When I was pulling into the local post office, the car?s windshield wipers came on by themselves and then the horn began to honk as well. I got into a parking space and turned off the car. I saw something coming from the front of the car but no flames. I got out and went into the post office to get my mail. While in there I heard several people yelling that a car was on fire. I rushed outside to see my car fully engulfed in flames. I lost all my things in the car; laptop, tablet, cellphone and most of all all my business paperwork, contacts, etc.

The contact owns a 2009 Smart Fortwo. The contact heard a knocking sound under the hood of the vehicle and smoke began to fill the vehicle underneath the steering column. The contact parked and turned off the vehicle; however, the knocking sound and smoke continued. The horn and alarm began to sound. The contact disconnected the battery and flames appeared underneath the dashboard. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was declared un-drivable. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 29,000.

After getting home from school, coming in saying hello to the family I went back out to my car to get my bag. When I approached my car I could hear what I believed to be my radiator fans still running despite the car was turned off. My logic was "maybe a glitch in the computer. " so I proceeded to simply turn the car on and then off to see if that would help. Nope, that didn't do the trick. Puzzled I came inside to inform my dad what was going on, while I was talking to my dad I could hear the factory alarm going off, then it started honking, the windshield wipers were running. When I approached my car to see if the there was a chance that I left something on. When I opened the door, I saw smoke coming under the driver side console, then sparks, then fire!!!! I ran and grabbed the hose to put it out before it got worse and possibly losing the car. I have taken the battery out to make sure this doesn't happen. The carpet near the peddles are singled from the fire and the fuse box is exposed and most of the plastic housing has melted away. Sadly my car is outside the warranty so Smart will not do anything. So now I am making some calls to see what my next options are. I've called Smart customer care and said there is nothing they can do. Not sure what could have caused this to happen, the only upgrade I've done on my Smart is just upgrading the horn, but that was when I first got it. I'll post pictures later. Needless to say I'm glad this happened after I parked the car at my house rather then being stuck on the side of road watching it being engulfed in flames and losing my car completely.

Hello. I saw on the news there was an investigation about 2008/2009 Smart cars. Mine caught completely on fire in April of 2012 while driving. I did not know where to complain to other than the dealership until I saw the news. I bought my Smart car in December of 2009. With in 9 months I started having electrical issues. It would start turning off while driving the turn back on about 30 seconds later. I took it in 4 times and they could never figure out was was wrong with it and would return it back. On the 4th time I did bring up the lemon law and they kept my car for a couple weeks. A couple months later I was on the freeway and my car started going electronically haywire. The front windshield wipers were going crazy and the dashboard was turning off and on. I pulled over onto the emergency lane immediately. My shifter was stick for a couple of seconds and once I put it on park, I took out the keys. When I turned the car back on the wipers started going crazy again, the dashboard went blank, the doors were locking and unlocking and the horn was going off. There was a weird smell and I looked up and there was smoke coming out of by the inside of my windshield. I got scared and immediately go out once the locks unlocked. As I opened the passenger door to get my purse, I noticed flames by the pedals and a black box that melted through the car. I called 911 as I poured water from my water bottle. That did not help. The front of the car by then was on fire. I grabbed my two boxes from my trunk and walked the the emergency lane as far as I could until the fire department arrived. I have saved all the times I took my car to get checked at the dealership. That is the only place I took my car.