My car won't start!

[esrazor]

I had exactly 300 miles on my car when I tried to start it today, in a parking lot, and it wouldn't start. I had already driven it several times today with no problems. Instead of having the gear selected showing in the dash, I had three horizontal bars going across and a warning sound beeping. Called smartusa, was put on hold for a few minutes, then was told my computer didn't know what gear the car was in. They had me put my foot on the brake pedal, turn the key to the on position, move the gear shifter through all of the gears and return it to park, turn off the key, and then restart the car. I actually didn't even turn the key to off because I could tell the problem was fixed as a "P" showed up in the dash. I was very glad it was such an easy fix and that it didn't need to be towed!

[Old smart]

Kane,

I'm sure that you have been monitoring this situation. Do you feel that this is a characteristic of the North American only shifter actuation/transmission programming? Is there any short history of such things with the UK/Continental 451 boxes?

[bottlerocket]

Good to know, if that ever happens to me I'll call in instead of trying to do the teach-in myself.

[jonnysan]

Originally Posted by esrazor

I had exactly 300 miles on my car when I tried to start it today, in a parking lot, and it wouldn't start. I had already driven it several times today with no problems. Instead of having the gear selected showing in the dash, I had three horizontal bars going across and a warning sound beeping. Called smartusa, was put on hold for a few minutes, then was told my computer didn't know what gear the car was in. They had me put my foot on the brake pedal, turn the key to the on position, move the gear shifter through all of the gears and return it to park, turn off the key, and then restart the car. I actually didn't even turn the key to off because I could tell the problem was fixed as a "P" showed up in the dash. I was very glad it was such an easy fix and that it didn't need to be towed!

There was a previous poster with this problem and I had recalled the easy fix but could not remember the essence of it and you got it and posted it for us all....I thank you for that! I have begun a file on my own entitled Smart Car Problems and Fixes and your post is the first entry!
Thanks again....Other smart owners will also thank you especially if this starts coming up more and more and I suspect it will...seems like some sort of memory glitch to me...