[koione18]

Hey smart car community! I picked up this 09 passion down in Florida for $3500 last Sunday, and it only had 53,000 miles. good deal? i transport motor homes across the country for work. so figured id get the smallest, best mpg car i could find, and at an affordable price. So far i really enjoy it, but the roof does make alot of noise. ill be taking it to a dealer tomorrow. also, i was wondering why the seats dont lay back? i drove my smart car from Florida to Chicago, then from NJ back to Indiana and didn't get any quality sleep XD any suggestions as to how to make this a more enjoyable tow car? i also noticed that it "jerks" while trying to pick up speed. the owner told me thats how it is? idk. Thanks for any help and suggestions

 

[ElementalDragon]

Well... people DID lay the seats back by holding the lever up and just leaning back REALLY hard to bend the stopping pin back... but that's something i've never done, so not really experienced with it. Might not be the most comfortable, but could always fold the passenger seat flat forward and lay down on the back of it....

As for the acceleration... that's the 451. The "Automated Manual" confused a lot of people because they drove it and thought "Well, it only has 2 pedals, so it's an automatic, and it shifts REALLY slowly". They didn't realize that while it didn't have a clutch or a physical 5-speed shifter, it was still operationally a manual transmission, and everything relating to shifting the gears was computer controlled, resulting in a "slower than an automatic" shift.

 

[jwight]

Welcome to SCoA!

 

[Miss Mercedes]

Welcome to our asylum!!! I dig that colour combo! I haven’t seen anything like that in a while.

$3500 and that low mileage is a killer deal! Usually with that mileage they sell for $1,000 or more higher.

The seats aren’t designed to recline back. The engineers don’t want people driving with the headrest basically touching the rear tailgate. Plus, reclining more than designed would interfere with the optional luggage cover smart offers with these cars.

That said, the engineers didn’t make much of an effort to stop you. To get the seat to fully recline, you hold the seat back adjustment lever up and put a bit of force into the seat until it starts reclining further. This bends back a weak metal tab and reveals that the seat’s ratcheting system does support a full recline. The ratcheting system is what keeps the seat back intact during a crash, not that weak metal tab...so don’t worry...though I probably wouldn’t crash with my seat reclined to an extreme position.

If they’re talking about the gear change motions with the “jerks”, then yeah, that’s generally accepted as normal behaviour for the reason ElementalDragon describes.

I know some people who have smarts as tow cars wrap a bungee cord around the bottom spoke of the steering wheel and secure it to the seat rail on the floor. I guess it helps keep the car more stable?

 

[jzchen]

Welcome!

You don’t want the seat reclined in an accident because your body can slide under the belt with your chin acting like a hook.

You guys/gals must be STRONG. I couldn’t bend that recline limiting pin!

Usually one tows a rear wheel drive backwards with the rear wheels up. Need to fix the steering wheels straight for this or the wheels might turn an you’d be dragging the car somewhat sideways. But I don’t know, I see a lot on this forum pulling forwards.

 

[heraldhamster]

I did what ElementalDragon described on the pass. side of the wife's '09 and I'll probably do it with the driver's on my '12 soon. just got it two days ago, still working out the kinks.