Buying A Pre-Owned, Transmission ?

[smartaz]

I am thinking about buying a 2008 pre-owned Passion with 15,000 on it. When I took it for a test drive, it would not back up when put in reverse. The salesman (not a smart car dealer) would shut the car off and restarted it. When he did this it would back up. This happened several times before it seemed to work OK. He said he was going to take it to a MB dealer, who did not also have a smart dealership, and have it checked out. Is this something normal or should I steer clear of this particular smart car? Thank you.

[Suze]

Nope, that's not normal. Normal is like all other cars - you put it in reverse and it goes backwards.

[John_H]

Unless you were moving forward when switching to reverse, this shouldn't happen. I'd like it to not happen under even those circumstances, but it appears the software and sensors for the Transmission Control Unit get confused sometimes when there's opposite momentum to the gear change.

[Smartfor2guy]

go find another car...