"Instant On" radio!

[johnssc]

Good morning!

I just took delivery of a smart Passion coupe with the base radio/cd player. When I am listening to the radio or cd player, I always turn it off before turning the car off.

When I re-start the car, the radio comes on without me pressing the "on" button. It is not a "big deal" but it is puzzling! I read through the manual for the radio but can't seem to find anything there that helps.

Anyone run into this? Is there something I should be doing differently?

Thanks for your input.

John

[JPaul]

Much more on that at:
Make your radio stay off when starting the car.

[johnssc]

Thanks JPaul. Never having had a radio that did this before I thought something was "wrong." Since this is what the radio does, I will just turn it down before I shut the car down...

[martek@wcnet.org]

I have the radio 10 and it does not do this. I get to decide when to turn it on and off, I would really find this to be flaw in my opinion.

[mrhummer3]

I recently spoke to a Smart factory rep and he told me that SMART had a defect in some of the radio 9 units and this caused the radio to turn on each time the car was started. He had the dealer order me a replacement radio, which I have not gotten as of yet. He indicated that this is not some kind of programming choice in the radio's ecu, but simply a defect which they will replace the radio under facotry warranty. Hope this helps.

[johnssc]

Yes, that does actually! I did not even mention it when I had it in this week. I will put it on the back burner until I need to schedule a maintenance - or perhaps I will give them a call and get their input. If a new unit has to be ordered it might be better to do so now...

[widdle car]

My Smart is 2 weeks old and started doing this last week. It's sort of annoying to me, so I will call my dealer.
Thanks for the info.

widdle

[EdwardDennis]

Mine has had the instant-on defect since delivery. I recently phoned the dealer, reported the problem, and was told they would order a factory replacement. They'll switch it out when the new unit arrives.

A pretty painless warranty issue.

[nickpiketx]

Same thing from Roundrock Texas Dealer. Said that changing out radio was only known fix. thay will do it under warranty when I bring it in for first Oil Change.

[abelenky]

I also have the Instant-On radio problem, and complained to my dealership.

The reply I got was:

"At this time this is a known issue. It is a software problem and smart is aware of it. At this time there is no fix for the issue. Tech support will be sending out a update as soon as the solution is found."

This seems at odds with the other posts here, which state it is a hardware, not software issue.

Anyone know where I can get a truly "official" answer to confirm/contradict what my dealership is telling me?

-Aaron