If my Smart ever dies, I'm going to buy a 1973 VW Safari, knows as a "Thing" in the USA. Many are still here and in fine shape, simple to fix and absolutely no computers or other 'modern', expensive gadgets. All four tires are the same and I can get a new one at the grocery store, or a new rim at any junk yard or VW shop. Life was simpler back then, wasn't it? I even remember wrapping rope through the wooden spokes and around the narrow tires of my 1931 Plymouth Sedan, in order to get up a slippery hill once. It worked just fine.
My Smart car only came with one key and I lost it. I bought the key blanks and had the car towed to the nearest dealer (137 miles). In addition to the blanks, electronic key fobs, and programming, I am now told that I need a new SAM (signal activating module) at a cost of $1,050!!!!! Total cost for this mishap...approximately $2,000. I have been a Mercedes customer for 30 years and here are my questions for SMART -- Why have you done this? Who would steal a SMART car? Is the key worth 10% (or in my case 20%) of the value of the car? Please change this. My family has 3 Smart cars and I am very upset.
My Smart car only came with one key and I lost it. I bought the key blanks and had the car towed to the nearest dealer (137 miles). In addition to the blanks, electronic key fobs, and programming, I am now told that I need a new SAM (signal activating module) at a cost of $1,050!!!!! Total cost for this mishap...approximately $2,000. I have been a Mercedes customer for 30 years and here are my questions for SMART -- Why have you done this? Who would steal a SMART car? Is the key worth 10% (or in my case 20%) of the value of the car? Please change this. My family has 3 Smart cars and I am very upset.
1. Who would steal your smart? Drunken vandals, Criminals looking for a quick getaway or to look innocent. Heck, an unsecured smart is a whole lot easier to move around to dump into a lake/canal, or hide where you can't find it.
The way I see it, they should've given you the choice on the SAM.
Last edited by Neonspinnazz; 07-12-2010 at 08:58 PM.
One of the selling points for me on the car was the smart Key in an "budget" car. No need for LoJack or any other after market device. Even the Club is useless.
No Key, Car wont start. End of discussion for the thieves. Draw back? no keys, you have to step up and get a new brain.
That's why this thread keeps coming back as a reminder. If you get a used smart, make sure you get both keys. If you lose one key, it sucks, but bite the bullet and replace it right away because if you lost the second one your screwed.
By the way, you can have up to 6 keys set up for a single smart.
My old Rambler American, I just used a screwdriver and it would start every time. No steering wheel lock, no trans lock, just good oild reliable transportation.
Back in my days of government employment in Belleville IL, the General Services Administration would issue our agency vehicles, almost always from whichever automotive manufacturer was in financial trouble at the time. So, we were dragged, kicking and screaming, into cars that were (to put it mildly) horrible.
First were old (1960's vintage) Ford Galaxies. No air conditioning, no radios, pathetic brake systems (one of the cars could be steered by setting the steering to the right and then applying the brakes - little brake and the car would go straight, lots of brake and it steered left) and door locks that rusted up so that the cars could not reliably be locked. And, trunks that refused to stay closed with the latches, so that we had to use bungie cords to keep them shut.
Then came the Chrysler products. Lordy, but that was a bad six year period. Plymouth Valiants that we had to keep running all day during the horrible winter of 1978 as they would only start by pulling out the electronic board for the seat belt interlock system and replacing it with a new one every four or five days. (It was nice to come out of the steel mill we were inspecting after a hard day in the cold and wet to flop down into a nice warm car.) Seats that collapsed under our skinny butts. And, air conditioning that wouldn't hold a charge for hell or high water. Those were replaced by something called an Omni, one of which overheated so badly that all of the ventilation system plastic (vents and ducts) melted. Radiators that leaked like they had been involved in the Bonnie and Clyde shootout.
They were replaced by GM products, mostly Chevrolet Citations. Bad front ends (alignment) and brakes, something less than adequate air conditioning. Paint that rusted through in less than a year on the hood and roof.
I then was blessed with a Ford Pinto. A great little car, except that a heater, part of the carburetor, would slowly but surely slow the car down from highway speeds to zero. Sit by the side of the road for thirty minutes, and it let you drive for another hour. Oh, and that whole exploding gas tank thing, something we were blissfully unaware of.
There was also a Jeep where the brake system failed, luckily during low speed driving. I got it back to the motor pool with the emergency brake.
But, the ultimate worst of all of those dozens of vehicles we wore out were the AMC products, back when the government was trying to shore up the smallest of the Big Four makers. Hornets that had one heater setting - boiling hot. Transmission selectors that wouldn't stay in gear. Emergency brakes (on new cars) that would lock up and refuse to release. "Chrome" trim that pealed off with little provocation. Windshields that leaked during a stiff rain or in the car wash.
And then there was a dog of an Ambassador. Horrid transmission, an engine that ate oil at the rate of a quart a fill up, and a front end that would not take an alignment, no matter how hard the motor pool tried. No one ever wanted to use it, but occasionally one of us would get stuck with it and have to take it out for a spin. I was the last, and I drove it towards the motor pool to turn it in for a new car.
The thing chugged me along Illinois Route 15 half way through the worst part of East Saint Louis before it quit completely, in a huge cloud of steam. I locked it up, had a plate of barbecue whilst waiting for one of my co-workers to pick me up and take me to the motor pool (East Saint Louis isn't a complete wasteland), and turned in the keys in exchange for the best government vehicle that I ever used, a big, honking Dodge pickup truck with six speaker stereo sound.
For all I know, the beast (the Ambassador) is still sitting there, totally untouched, next to the old Indian Head glass bottle blowing plant. The guys at the motor pool never saw it again. And, God knows no one in their right mind would have taken it.
By comparison to most of the above, the smart is a marvel of precision and tight engineering...
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I bought the key blanks and had the car towed to the nearest dealer (137 miles). In addition to the blanks, electronic key fobs, and programming, I am now told that I need a new SAM (signal activating module) at a cost of $1,050!!!!! Total cost for this mishap...approximately $2,000. I have been a Mercedes customer for 30 years and here are my questions for SMART -- Why have you done this? Who would steal a SMART car? Is the key worth 10% (or in my case 20%) of the value of the car? Please change this. My family has 3 Smart cars and I am very upset. 
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