Unlike simple manual transmissions where you can switch between forward and reverse with little regard for the direction the car is actually moving, the smart appears to have some sensitivity here. While the car shouldn't "break" if you have some momentum in the opposite direction, it's good practice to make sure you're not moving - foot on the brake - when you change between reverse and drive.

Some of the clutch problems are reported to be exacerbated by this momentum change. Stopping the car solidly helps those touchy clutches happy under software control.

While the difficulty backing out of your spot sounds odd, switching back to drive was quite possibly done while you still had rearward momentum, making a confusing software situation worse.

Or at least that's how I see things today from the discussions here on the forum.

 

Unlike a true manual, which you can declutch while rolling backwards and start to move forwards, the Smart seems to need a moment to get itself together. When we switch gears (from P to R) we always wait a second before applying gas, to let the car "figure out" what gear it's in. I think the signal is electronic, not physical, so the car can get confused as to where the lever is. It also happens to people who go over large bumps in the road, and have to re-teach the car where the gears are (by putting the key into the 1st position, applying the brake, and slowly shifting from P to D and back again).

The clutch problem is a different beast. It seems the car gets confused when you ALMOST come to a stop; it can't decide what gear to be in, so it'll go, "2, 1, 2, 1, eh forget it I'm staying in neutral for a second," LOL. If you come to a complete stop, it'll go back to 1 and start moving more smoothly. Or if you use it in manual mode, you can leave it in 2 and roll on but with little acceleration.

 

Mine seems to want a foot firmly on the brake when shifting to reverse.

If I happen to be at a full stop, foot off break, shift to R .... it gives a very jerky, clunk clunk reverse motion. Firm foot on break, shift to R ... smooth

 

I agree with the other posts that the smart seems to require a full stop (with foot on brake) BEFORE changing directions from D to R or vice versa. The problem, on those very rare occasions when it occurred, generally has been when I reverse down my driveway, slow down in the street, then switch to drive without fully stopping. The only other times (twice) this happened were during parallel parking; I would drive slightly past the leading car's rear bumper, switch to reverse without fully stopping, then get stuck in either neutral or drive without being able to reverse.

Fully stopping and waiting a second or two before shifting to reverse or drive usually cures the momentary problem; when all else fails, shift to P and turn the engine off for a few seconds, then start the car and you should be good to go.

 

Thanks. The dealership also mentioned that if I didn't stop fully that might be the problem. I honestly don't remember if I did or not.
I did find out that my paddle shifter to shift up is defective and I get to go back when the part comes in to get it replaced (it doesn't always shift up when I hit it).
I also thought that if you held the up shift paddle shifter (the right one), that it would switch it from manual to automatic. Mine doesn't do that. Is that a different model that I was thinking of?

I told my dealer the problems I'm having. He didn't care...until I mentioned that I still haven't gotten my survey regarding my satisfaction of my purchase of the car and how he did.

 

The 2009 models will change from manual to auto mode if you're in auto mode at the floor shifter and if you hold down the + paddle for 2-3 seconds. It may not do that if you're decelerating and upshifting would cause a stall; the computer does everything it can to prevent a stall from having RPMs drop too low. But it won't smoke the clutch, so it much prefers to choose a more RPM friendly gear.

I've had the situation where it won't shift into D - I tested it today, in fact. I was moving in reverse just ever so slightly, and that was enough for the computer to refuse damaging the clutch. I came to a full stop, shifted and it took off like normal. It's programmed to do that. If you did the same thing with any other manual transmission, you'd over-wear the clutch.

 

Sounds almost like the problem that I had with my 08 Cabrio. My problem was that after driving for a while, when you stopped and put it into reverse it would show "R" on the screen, but would not go into gear. The only way to get it to work was to put it in park and turn off the car! That seemed to reset the problem. Very frustrating.

The dealer played with the car on number of visits that I made. They looked at the shifter box, the transmission "brain" at the back end of the car and ultimately replaced the clutch (and made a mess by leaving oil marks on the rear bumper and the passenger seat ... sorry, I digress!). I was able to find others on both the American and Canadian forums with the same problem, but it does seem to be more of an issue with the 450 models. If you hear any "clicking" or "grinding" when you switch in into gear, it is another sign of issues with your clutch and was related to the problems that I had.

Hope this helps.
Good Luck!