It all started by not going into Reverse or Park...

mikie · 02-05-2008, 12:01 AM

Mine in the Shop!
Ok, my smart won't shift into Reverse or Park. The button on the front of the shifter won't push in and allow you to select either Park or Reverse. I was lucky that it happened while the car was in Drive.

Once parked (in a pull-through parking space) I have to leave the key in the ignition, because Smart wont let you have the key unless the vehicle is in park. I set the hand break, leave the car in Neutral and then lock the car with the second key.;)

Smart Center Portland hopes that this is a result of this screw problem. They'll look at it tomorrow on Saturday. I'll report back.
Last edited by mikie : 02-01-2008 at 06:34 PM.

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Smart Shop visit - Not so Smart
Update to the shifter problem with my smart. I have to give huge Kudo's to Smart Center Portland. Bryce came in on his day off to look at the problem and was hoping that it would be this mis-aligned screw problem. 3 hours latter he determined that the entire shifter needs to be replaced. He'll overnight air the parts on Monday and will hopefully have me back on the road Tuesday.

Again I can't say enough about the top notch service that SCP is providing.

Smartless in Oregon...

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On the Road Again...

Smart Center Portland Rocks! Thanks to Bryce, the service manager, I'm back to being Smart all over town. Bryce was able to repair shifter. I didn't have to wait for any parts to be received. I was able to find out that there is a large parts warehouse in Oklahoma, so parts shouldn't be too hard to come by if needed. Thanks again – Smart Center Portland!

BeSmart · 02-05-2008, 12:10 AM

Yoooo Hoooo

LIVNLTL · 02-05-2008, 01:45 PM

Sounds like one of those minor problems that causes major pain for you. Glad to hear your dealer stepped up as expected. Thats good news for all of us. Bryce keep up the above and beyond the call of duty type service thats how legends are born my friend.

PS To all smart-waiters: This is just the sort of post us smart-waiters are waiting for.

smart cynce · 02-06-2008, 11:10 AM

Glad we could help, Mike!

eqwalker · 02-06-2008, 11:13 AM

Hey mikie, did your smart give any early indication that there was going to be a problem, or did it just one day not work for you?

jediknight36 · 02-06-2008, 11:16 AM

Someone else had the same issue... hmmm

**jwight** · 02-06-2008, 11:21 AM

There's another thread in the Ops and Maintenance sub forum. Looks like smart is doing a "soft" recall under the guise of additional PDI.

CruisingAZ · 02-06-2008, 12:01 PM

I test drove one yesterday and when I tried to put it in reverse the shifter kept going from park to "N". The sale girls and I tried a half dozen times before it finally found "R"

anthony94114 · 02-06-2008, 03:54 PM

This is the kind of customer service I hope is standard with smart. After owning a MINI (-a hell of a lemon!) and suffering pitiful service with them- it's nice to know MB/smart is on the game there. Glad you were handled so well.

mikie · 02-06-2008, 09:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eqwalker

Hey mikie, did your smart give any early indication that there was going to be a problem, or did it just one day not work for you?

1. The smart did give some indication that something was going on. The shifter had been hard to get into reverse or park a couple of times before it wouldn't move. Not alot of warning.

2. Some of the issues described above about finding reverse is a different problem than the one I had.

3. I know that we can't choose where to take delivery of our cars. I'm glad that my dealer was Portland.