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I'm from the bay area in California and I just bought my first car! I got the 2018 fortwo prime ED for $14.5k (pre-tax, pre-fees) with still two years in the original warranty! Do you guys recommend getting the tire and rim warranty, and the prepaid maintenance plan as well? I'm not sure if I made a mistake on purchasing those. I love the car and I'm happy that I was able to get one since they're now discontinued in the US.

Hello community... I hope this community is as awesome as the car is :)... We are about to buy a Smart 2015 ED with 30k km on it, but here is the trick, we are from Costa Rica, and, as a any new buyer of an electric car, I'm afraid that the battery can be dead after a couple of years... (yes, I've read that it support up to 4000 cycles of charge, 8 years warranty (it doesnt apply to me), up to 100k km / 400k in the theory)... Murphy can be around the corner as usual. How easy is buy a replacement battery in a retailer? How much does it cost? Does Mercedez sells it on the site if you have the vehicle registered?. We have Mercedez dealers in CR but they dont sell these cars over here. All info to the newbie electric driver is more than welcome (and comments for the sake of my peace of mind :)) Thanks in advance, Adrian B. -noobsmart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szN3bLF1oP4

Hi All, We previously leased a 451 cabrio ED and when the lease expired we got into the new 453 cabrio ED. We've had it for just a little over 2 months now and I would like to share my experience with it and point out some short comings of the new model compared with the old. By all means the new 453 is definitely an improvement overall compared with the old, I see many other posters already detailed all the advantages. The purpose of this post is so new buyers/owners are aware of the short-comings of the new model, compare experiences, and hopefully look for ways to improve the issues in the future. Briefly mentioning all the obvious improvements on the new model: Ride Comfort, Cabin Comfort Features, Cold-Weather Battery Range, Eco Mode, Cross-wind Assist, Turning Radius, Quick 32A Charing, EasierPre-entry climate control menu onboard etc... which are all discussed by others in details and what makes it worth it to go for the new model. Let's talk about some known problems and issues based on my experience: 1. Steering Sensor Malfunction - Had this the day I picked up the car, generated a ESC code on the dash, took it back to dealership, replaced the sensor and that's the end of that. Did notice that the car was more stable in the wind after the fix so I suspect the cross-wind assist needed either the steering sensor or a fault-free ESC to be operational. Didn't really had the problem that long to confirm that. 2. Battery System Fault Code - Don't know if it was our luck or not, this code popped up once during a drive, took it in, they saw two faults registered "charging system fault", did a whole bunch of tests and cleared the code. They tried to blame it on the charging stations, I politely explained to them that no-matter what stations I plug the car in, the car should not register any code (worst case should just be not charging at all), that's why all the protective battering charging logic is built in to do. Anyways, so far monitoring it and it hasn't come back. Sorry picture was out of focus (it says "Malfunction, visit workshop"). 3. On-board CPU Clock Reset - Happened a few times already, the clock reset itself when the car was parked/charging, came back to a wrong clock afterwards. Note, just the CPU in the dash, the radio clock is fine. Brought it back to the dealership, they found a TIPS to fix this, they applied some firmware fix and I'm monitoring it now. 4. No online smart control app. We all know about this. 5. Climate Control no heat while plugged in. This was definitely not the behavior in the 451 ED. We were able to have the car plugged-in, charging, turn the car on and blast the heat, that was keeping us warm at the expense of a slower charge as expected. On the new model, the moment you plug in the charger, the heat instantly turned into blowing only cold air no-matter which setting you had it at. That means you can't keep yourself warm in the car while charging. Went back to the dealership, they said this is expected behavior, they had no other cars to show it was doing it as well, so I could use your help here to confirm if you have a 453 ED. What we see is the heated seats were still working, and the pre-entry climate control were still working if we turned off the car and set it, so definitely it had the capability to blow heat at the moment, just decides it won't do it while charging and the car in "on" state. Not sure about if A/C does the same, too cold outside to test. Would be really disappointing if they took this feature away on purpose. 6. Blue-tooth handsfree clarity. Not sure if it's because we didn't get the bose upgrade this time, but the new blue-tooth is close to not-usable. They other side can hardly hear us speak without yelling. Even if the car is stopped and not making any noise, it's still very noisy on the other end of the call. If other owners can please help confirm this, that will be great! 7. Climate control, heat takes longer to heat up the cabin. This is very obvious to us, we simply blast the heat the moment we enter the car on a cold day, the 451 would've heated up instantly (5-10seconds we would feel the heat from the vents), while the 453 would start blowing cold air at us, and only slowly heat up after 1-2 minutes or so. Eco mode was off. Again it's too cold to test A/C for now. 8. 0-60 km/h acceleration. Ok, this I have no way to prove as we never had both cars at the same time. Would be interesting if someone who has access to both versions can line them up and do a test. My personal observation is that the initial pick up of the 453 is slower than the 451. The specs don't agree with this and the only observation I have to back up my suspicion is the speed of power gauge reaching to 100%. When I put my foot to the kick box, the 453 ramps up to 100% in 1-2 seconds. Where I remembered the 451 would have done it much quicker (<0.5 seconds). My guess is that they have adjusted the traction control, it just feels like weaker kick on the pick up from 0km/h. Maybe reaching 60km/h or 100km/h time is same or even quicker now, but if it was a race to 40km/h, i would put my money on the 451. I feel most of these problems can be corrected/improved with some ECU upgrade(s). And my hope is that MB will slowly improve as the car gets more mature. Please feel free to share your experience as well, hopefully if enough people voice the same problems we see a solution sooner. Thanks

Lately I've been using my car's included charging brick for Level 1 charging a lot more at my shop and at home. I recently moved back to Toronto, and my place doesn't currently have Level 2 charging, but with less than a year left on the lease, and no current plans for buying or leasing another EV any time soon, I'm making do with Level 1 for now, and it's working out pretty well for the most part. However, with winter arriving soon, and parking outside, I've realized that I need to do something to keep the EVSE, its coiled cord and plug, and the attached extension cord a) up out of the slush and grime, and b) packaged up neatly – either at the side of the house, or in the back of the car – when I'm not using it. Here's what I came up with: … and in real life: Using a little more than $20 in materials, I made this stand that holds the EVSE, as well as about 25 feet of heavy-duty 12-3 gauge extension cord. The brick module is mounted on its side in the middle section, the button to activate low/high charging mode is easily accessible, and the lights are visible. The two arms that act as the cord holders can pivot inwards to grip the body of the EVSE firmly. I used the included velcro strap on the EVSE supply cord to attach it to the frame of the stand, with the plug situated underneath where you can see the extension cord connector. The offset "T" legs can be rotated 90 degrees, so the whole thing lies flat in the trunk (or possibly stands up between the seatback and firewall), or they can be removed entirely. The main module of the unit can still stand up without the legs attached, so you can use it that way as well, if you wish. I've just hammered the whole thing together right now, and it's pretty solid just as a friction-fit assembly. Once I'm sure I don't want to tweak the design any more, i'll pull it apart and cement the parts I want waterproof and permanently connected. It's just one 10-foot piece of half-inch PVC pipe, 14 Tee fittings, and 10 cap fittings. All dimensions are included in the plans, both in the assembly drawing and on a separate cut list. Overall, I'm quite happy with it. It's not 100% perfect, but it's light, compact, and keeps everything together neatly and off the ground. I've attached the plans if anybody wants to take a crack at building one of their own, and possibly improving mine in the process. Here's the link to the plans: EVSE stand plans small.pdf

Brought to you by the Electric Vehicle Society of Canada http://evsociety.ca Monday, September 15 @ 17:00 Meadowvale Town Centre 6677 Meadovale Town Centre, Mississauga, Ontario L5N 2R5 This is your invitation to a special event organized by Electric Mobility Canada and Plug’n Drive, along with the Golden Horseshoe Electric Vehicle Association, the Electric Vehicle Society of Canada and the Toronto Hybrid & Electric Car Club to celebrate Drive Electric Week and to meet EMC’s new President and CEO Chantal Guimont. https://www.facebook.com/events/751490911578040