general problems of the 2009 Smart Fortwo

The contact owns a 2009 Smart Fortwo. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle suddenly lost motive power. The vehicle was turned off, the contact waited, and then restarted the vehicle, and the vehicle operated as needed. The failure had occurred several times while driving. The contact stated that while depressing the brake pedal, the vehicle failed to brake immediately and drifted to the left. The brake pedal was depressed to the floorboard for the vehicle to come to a stop. The abs warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who diagnosed that the abs was faulty and retrieved diagnostic trouble codes: 1314 and c1443. The contact stated that the front brake pads were replaced by the dealer, and the rear brake pads were replaced by a certified mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired for the failure to accelerate, and the failure persisted. The vehicle was purchased on July 17, 2025, and the seller kept the repair issues with the vehicle from the contact and failed to provide information on the previous repairs. The contact stated that the failure recurred after retrieving the vehicle. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 74,254.

2008 Smart Fortwo has a recall open for reprograming the transmission computer because of rough shifting and bucking while shifting and lugging the engine to much before down shifting. Mine is a 2008 but the VIN was not included in the recall and I am having the same problems with mine. Can mine be added to the recall?.

Car doesn't shift from park to reverse or it goes into neutral this is a safety issue . Im not the only person with this issue and apparently Smart knows of this problem. This problem is putting people into neutral when they start and leaving you in the road. . They need to be held responsible and knowingly putting people at risk. I was sitting in a parking lot when I couldn't shift into reverse . I've read and heard from others Smart is saying a software error.

Iintermittently fails to shift into reverse when stopped or parked.

Possible safety issue with Smartcar 2009, VIN: [xxx] intermittent issue with gearbox shifter not allowing car to be shifted into reverse. Safety issue. When trying to back into a parking space, or leave a parking space. If a similar smarcars are stuck on train tracks, and cannot maneuver to get off the tracks this could be a very serious safety issue. . Read more...

Randomly, after starting the car and selecting reverse, the dash display doesn't display 'r' or it flashes 'n', and the transmission doesn't engage reverse gear. Moving gear shifter between park and drive several times or restarting vehicle helps sometimes. This would be very dangerous if needing to reverse in an emergency situation and the car doesn't move.

Within the space of three months, in the middle of driving my Smartcar, my dash display has gone from showing d (for drive) to n and then flashing three vertical bars. I have lost all control of driving the car and luckily there was space on the side of the road to coast to a stop. When trying to turn the car back on, the three bars remain. There is a way through the shifter to restart the car or at least getting it into neutral. A series of pumping the brake, turning the start key and trying to move the shifter back and forth through gears. Eventually, the car will start. Unfortunately, the three bars of death (as nicknamed on the Smart car forums) can happen for any numerous types of faults such as weak battery to faulty communication with the transmission, to heater/air conditioning operating unit is defective. The list is long. The problem is my car has completely stopped working in the middle of the road without warning and this could be very dangerous.

Tl the contact owns a 2009 Smart Fortwo. While driving various speeds, the transmission shifted into neutral without warning. The contact also stated that the vehicle would completely shut off, causing the brakes and steering wheel to fail. The vehicle was taken to world wide motors, inc (3900 e 96th st, indianapolis, in 46240) where they updated the software system in the vehicle; however, the same failures occurred multiple times. The manufacturer was contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 41,000.

Seat belts for both driver and passenger sides became twisted within the first couple of years of ownership. Despite attempts by service technicians to untwist and repair the mechanism the seat belts remain twisted. Seat belt latch on driver's side finally failed at about 25,000 miles. Both seat belts had to be completely replaced at our expense. Also, the car doesn't always shift from park to reverse properly. It sometimes takes several attempts to get the transmission to engage.

Vehicle doesn't always shift into reverse from park. Sometimes will not go into drive from park many people with same problem online. Please please help us get the manufacturer the fix this. This is not normal wear and tear.

I also have the problem with the transmission. The transmission will not go into reverse or drive after engine starts. It happens about 2 to 3 times a year. It can happen after an overnight stop or just a few minutes. It always works after a few minutes however, a couple of times the non engaging transmission allowed the car to roll into a vulnerable position in the street. I felt lucky there was no traffic.

While driving the car, the engine will rev and then there is only neutral showing. I have no reverse or drive. Thank goodness when this happens I have had a place to pull off the road. I turn the car off and sit for a few minutes, turn it back on and have all the gears. I have tried driving in the "manual" position but it still happens. Lately it is more and more frequent. One of these days this car will get me smushed. Smart needs to do a major recall on this! I am only the second owner of this car and got it with only 18,000 miles on it. I now have 35,025 miles on it. Took it to a mechanic and gives a po803 code, which states a clutch sensor. Smart cars code says it needs a new clutch! wth!?? and if it needs a new clutch then why does this only occurr in the colder weather and not the summer!!??!! I am so pissed! Smart car take responsibility for your screwup in the design of this car! this has happened so many times!!!.

The vehicle fails intermittently to shift from brake to reverse or from reverse to drive. When the failure occurs, all that is seen on the front dashboard is a blank screen and the car alert systems lets out a continuous beeping denoting the failure of the shift. It sometimes requires immediate turning off of the engine and restarting in order to get to the desired gear. Seldom that does not work, and turning off and waiting 10 minutes seems to allow gear shifts. This is dangerous especially in the reverse to drive failure as when coming out of a driveway on a busy road, it may cause an accident. This has occurred after warranty and I was told there is a Mercedes Benz software upgrade meant to solve it. But this is a charged service. As a safety issue, I implore that this should not be a charged but required safety recall. Upon viewing the complaints it seems a few other suffer the same degree of failures. As the car is a niche brand, the consumer base is smaller and you do not have as large a complaint pool as a Honda accord, which is fairly popular and has a large consumer base. I humbly request the nhsta make daimler ag and Mercedes Benz USA responsible to repair this and have every Smart on the road's transmission software upgraded free of cost.

Drivers seatbelt buckle does not latch at all. Mercedes will not pay for it or fix it and want us to pay out of pocket .

The car has a problem with not going in reverse when you put the gear shifter in 'r' position? usually after driven and the car is warmed up. The car just rolls when put in reverse, as if though it's in neutral. . When giving gas it just revs the engine and nothing happens. . The car is automatic transmission. And it can be dangerous putting the car in reverse if it's on a slope. The vehicle can roll. This is a normal problem with the 08-09 year. This should defiantly be a recall issue. Thank you for taken the time to read my complaint.

I was driving on a suburban side street when suddenly the engine cut off and the car came rolling to a stop. Fortunately I was not traveling fast and there was room to pull over but I could have been injured if the incident was on a highway. A local mechanic could not identify the problem so I eventually had it towed to the dealership which tested it and found that the coupling motor (a component of the transmission) was faulty and needed to be replaced. The car is running okay now but the repairs cost over $1,000 and it is only 4 years old.

My Smart is not going into reverse gear. This becomes very dangerous when trying to get out of traffic while exiting a driveway or parallel parking on a busy street. Other drivers become impatient especially when there are cars in both directions blocked because of the Smart unable to reverse. Smart provided a software update for this known problem but it still persists. I have two friends with Smart cars and they both have this problem. I've also google searched "Smart car reverse" and what pops up is gear, problem and gear problem. There seems to be many Smart owners with this problem.

This has happened over the last year, at least a few dozen times. Sometimes it's happened as often as 2-3 times per week. I will start my car, and shift into reverse, and where there was a p for park on the display, the display is now blank, and my car will not reverse. It will also not go into drive, or display d. I will try moving it back and forward and the display stays blank, and my car won't move. Sometimes when I restart my car it will go back to normal, shifting into reverse, and displaying an r on the display panel. . . Other times it will take several minutes for it to respond, and to be able to move. I have read on-line about other owners having several parts replaced and software updates, but always the problem seems to come back. Others claim it's the clutch plate assembly, and that those have been fixed for the 2009 model. . . But I've still experienced the problem. I've read about this happening to others in traffic, and I've read about dealerships not being able to find "anything wrong" with cars in this situation.

This shifting problem occurred erratically since I've owned new. First incidence was with selecting reverse and thereby loosing the ability to select any gear mode (fwd or rev). This oddity is usually resolved by turning the switch off &restarting but sometimes by selecting neutral & waiting. The next problem came when attempting to accelerate at approx 20 mph which caused the engine to idle & car to coast as in neutral. The first 2+ years, this was resolved by lifting off the gas completely & reapplying. This began to happen at various speeds, always when accelerating. Note: engine revs for bout 1/2 second before failure. My guess is, it happens when it needs to downshift 2 gears. Then also began to happen under load (up long hills requiring auto downshift) always solved by gas recycle and evolved into having to recycle multiple times before it would downshift. Over time,I learned that I could prevent this by downshifting manually & not waiting for "autoshift failure". Sometime in the last year, it has become more frightening as it will not recover by recycling the gas. I don't remember the date or mileage it first happened but I must almost stop before it regains ability to shift/accel normally. It is erratic but was a long time before it repeated itself after the first incident. They are happening more recently & a couple of times in heavy highway traffic & now my wife refuses to ride with me. I talked with Smart rep when car was new & he stated that "reprograming the transmission" was option but this procedure is not covered by warranty. I have appointment to have this 'reprogramming' done at the dealership but have been told it may only solve the "reverse" selection problem. They are not aware of my problems happening in other models or of any recalls, so maybe other owners are slow to complain like me.