Car stuck in Park - Dealer says out of GAS!!!

[forumware]

Hi All,

Sorry that my initial post will be a rant however I bought a Black Pure from Lindsay Smart ( Raj Mishra - great guy , took care of everything, highly recommend him)

BUT I have about 800 miles on the car. My wife drives it pretty much local and yesterday...Car was stuck in Park, the radio would not come on, emergency lights would not come on, dome light - no go, dead as a door nail.

So called Smart USA and they got a tow truck over, well the driver said he has towed about 10-12 in the last 3 weeks around DMV (DC, Maryland, Virgina) for same reason. Say what!!!!

So i called the dealer today, the service tech says, You ran out of gas?!? and continues to tell me that they brought the car of the tow truck and it started right up and drove for about 10 miles I just thought he said "ran out of gas" ( I had two bars left, before tow truck took the car so this theory is BS)

So i proceeded to ask him, how come nothing would come on, atleast I should be able to put in key position 1 and turn on the radio or something, he says "we hooked it up to the computer and everything is good"...

I thinking something is fishy... I am sure going to ask for the paperwork of this "service" call... And after using the nifty search feature, there are a few of us with this problem.

And thanks everyone for a great site....I am sure wanting to do a few mods provided this kind of thing does not happen again.

[Cliff@YourLEDShop]

they probably fixed it and then said nothing was wrong...

[artistalana]

you didn't use a new key you had made did you? I don't know about the SMART but on most cars now, if you don't use a key made via the dealership, for protection, it will shut down the entire car and all electronics and won't start again. Just a thought. I've been there. There's something coded in the key...but if it's working now, then I guess you can rule that one out.

[Woody14619]

I'm betting it was a loose battery terminal that found its way back on during a bumpy ride to the dealer. Rip up the floor mat and tighten the batter terminals. The default setup has no lock washers, so they tend to come loose from travel. I had the same issue, including headlight flicker. All fixed by putting a little coper grease on the ring and a lock screw on the terminal nut.

[PerryA]

Lack of fuel would not explain lack of power. I agree with the battery terminal diagnosis. There were multiple posts about the problem.

I added a ScanGauge and I think a principal advantage on a new model of any car is that you can scan for codes before you take the car for service. Unfortunately, if there were error codes, the dealer probably read them and cleared them, so you won't see them now. If you don't plan to add a ScanGauge or don't have access to a scanner, see if you can find someone in the area who has one so you can scan the codes before (and after?) any service.

[sharonlee]

Forumware,

I know just how you feel. Mine stuck in park and dealer said could not find anything wrong. That shakes confidence in the car since there was nothing for them to fix and therefore it could happen again and leave me stranded. Guy on tow truck also said all of the tows were for same reason. However, the dealer seems to be in denial about this problem. I showed him copies of forum posts and all he said was that reading this forum is like reading tabloids. I think they are the ones ducking the issue -- very bad business practice. He also said "Isn't it nice it's our responsibility for two years? After that, you're on your own." Left me just shaking my head.

[Big Panda]

Originally Posted by Cliff@YourLEDShop

they probably fixed it and then said nothing was wrong...

and this would accomplish WHAT?