Was this (Seattle area?) "dealership" originally a smart Center, do they still service smarts/EQ's, do they have factory trained M-B EV mechanics?
Yes the Mercedes Benz dealer in Seattle which is also a smart service center and dealer and has factory trained mechanics working on the Smart ED
Very odd that "...they currently have three cars sitting on their lot. All were purchased at local lease return auctions, all had sat for several months and had flat batteries, all were towed to them for repair and all needed now batteries - none of the people who bought them for $4500 were willing to pay $20k for a new battery..."
Why is that "very odd"? MBNA took all the lease return Mercedes and rather than selling them through Mercedes, auctioned them off to independent dealers. I got mine from such an auction via a friend who is a dealer, it still had factory warranty on it when I bought it and I took it in for service under the warranty once, the warranty has since expired, as factory warranties do, all of them.
I made sure my car had a fully charged battery when I bought it but there were others which were purchased by independant dealers which were then put up for sale and sat on car lots for months at a time. Several were sold with batteries which would intermittently fault, as some of the cars had - do a search on the web for "Smart Car ED battery failure" and you can read all about it. When faced with a Smart that does not run you have no choice but to go to the dealer. I have been a German Car specialist for 35 years and own a shop, there is little or no information available on the repair of these cars. So people towed them to Mercedes in Seattle for service and when faced with the cost of a battery and the lack of availability, left them and are searchign for batteries...
I spent all day yesterday calling all over the US including dealers in 11 states, not one could tell me anything other than that they have repalced batteries under warranty but Mercedes no longer has stock in many cases of the proper batteries for these cars. I called a half dozen independents with EV experience across the country and the most experienced was EV West in LA and they have two sitting in their lot with bad batteries waiting to be scrapped for parts.
I agree that this is "Very odd" and frankly expected better of Mercedes, the fact that people were excited about buying a barely used lease return electric car is not odd in the least, nor is it that they towed them to the only place which will work on them for over 1000 miles...
Apparently these auction purchases were made by private parties who knowingly bought an off-lease smart (with remaining factory warranty?) paperweight?
Not "apparently" but factually. Yes people bought lease return Smart ED cars at auctions, knowing that they were lease return cars, that is what happens to lease return cars, they are sold at auction to independent dealers who sell them to people.
While seemingly all car deals come with some risk, odd that MBFS would sell an off-lease smart without some "AS IS WHERE IS" disclaimer especially if it died while in their possession?
What? MBF sells lease return cars, I imagine not many dealers want to sell lease return Smart ED's which most dealers can not service, so they are sold to independent dealers... like most other lease return vehicles - why is this odd to you? This is how the lease return business works... Look at independent car dealer listings in any major city and you will find dozens of 3 year old luxury cars for sale, where do you think they come from? I personally know 4 lots that do nothing but high end lease returns. MBF does not warranty auction cars, if the car still has remaining factory warranty then that is all you get. All auctions are "as is where is".
No one said the cars died which in the possession of MBF although it would not surprise me if they lost some as they do not have storage lots equipped for electrics. At the auction I went to 1/3 of the smarts had no chargers. I picked mine because it had belonged to the service manager at a local Mercedes dealer and was fully optioned and came with two chargers and a factory bike rack and had low miles...
