Truth / purchasing, owning, selling a SMART

[Jordon]

When we got our smart I expected to have a few problems, and knew that if it had to go to the dealer (300 mile round trip) then it would be problem, and luckly we have only had to deal with this situation once (7500 miles). I am also one of those that knew the car would depreciate rather quickly, it is a niche vehicle that a small number of people still want and don't have. Hopefully we don't have the same reliability issues as some have had, but that is why we got the extended warrantee. Good luck selling, fuel prices are rising, that may help the sale.

[SmartDigger]

Now that Rodger picked up Saturn, we might see more Smart centers.

[texaspierz]

We just brought home our new 2009 smart car tonight. We traded in our 1 year old orphan for our original $99 order back in November 2007. Our orphan had one minor problem with the gas tank cap, it was fixed in less than an hour. My husband got his Brabus Cabrio in February. We absolutely love our smart cars.

[Alan Smithee]

Originally Posted by JD10367

...Not the usual case, plenty of satisfied owners with no problems, yada yada yada...Still, I'm damn sick and tired of Smart owners--or former owners, as the case may be--giving the impression that these cars are lemons.

The OP brought a lot of the grief upon him/herself, but for those objecting to accusations of the smart's build quality, note that it fell third to last in the JD Power initial quality survey published yesterday (only Land Rover and Mini were worse).

If you got one that doesn't have issues, either you are very lucky, or you have very low expectations of vehicle build quality.

[jwight]

Originally Posted by SmartDigger

Now that Rodger picked up Saturn, we might see more Smart centers.

No, no, no - a thousand times no. How do we kill this rumor? Dave Schembri made it crystal clear at the Wisconsin Dells rally that smart and Saturn will operate as two completely separate entities under PAG. No overlap whatsoever.

[forestacademy]

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee

The OP brought a lot of the grief upon him/herself, but for those objecting to accusations of the smart's build quality, note that it fell third to last in the JD Power initial quality survey published yesterday (only Land Rover and Mini were worse).

If you got one that doesn't have issues, either you are very lucky, or you have very low expectations of vehicle build quality.

Do you have a link to that as a source?

[Alan Smithee]

http://www.autoweek.com/assets/pdf/CW62076622.PDF

[jimvw57]

Nice picture but it says nothing as to how the ratings were achieved.

[Alan Smithee]

Um, it's a survey of owners...have you never heard of JD Power?

http://www.jdpower.com/

[jimvw57]

I have heard the name, but I'm not to interested in someone who spends time digging up dirt on others. But the I quit watching the nightly news years ago since they only show the stuff that will get them better ratings and it doesn't matter if it is true or not.

So the survey is of owners... All the owners, or just the disgruntled ones that report problems . The people that are satisfied with what they have rarely fill out surveys. That will put a negative bias on the survey but there is no way to tell if it is a true indication or not.

This is not an attack on you, just on surveys that are preached as gospel by the pompous fools that fabricate them.