New 453 problems vs 451 ED

[tikkin]

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 5, 2018 by tikkin
added images.

[lebikerboy]

Ours is a 2017 ED and, we haven't experienced any of the number 1, 2, 3, problems you've encountered.

Numbers 4 ,5, 6 I can't comment on as I haven't used them...

Heater does indeed take awhile to warm up the cabin,

Acceleration is faster than the 451 IMHO. It's just

smoother so, it does seem to take longer.

[tikkin]

Thanks, I think it does accelerate faster once it hits 100%, but it takes a while to get to 100% power.  Theoretically, these motor should be able to instantly achieve 100% so the only thing that could be slowing that down is either TC or programmed by the ECU.  I wonder if it actually detects loss of traction so it slows it down, would a pair of better tires like you have helped?   

[SmartElectric]

First, let me start, I am a huge Smart ED fanboy, and take the 453 ED to work instead of our Tesla S, so that's saying something about the "fun to drive" and "quirky but awesome" nature of this car.

But OP has good points.

 

Daimler charges $33K (MSRP + options for my new Smart) and made the car worse in some respects compared to the completely average prospect of the 451 ED.   Baffling.

 

451 ED purchased in Nov 2013.  Not a single problem.  Car was perfect for intended purpose (short daily commute).

Traded for:

453 ED purchased in Nov 2017.

 

Have seen no 453 issues as OP reported in 1,2,3.  Haven't brought in for service of any kind.

Agree with 4,5,6,7,8.  Am also sad that 451 was better in some respects to 453 as OP noted.

 

Regarding 6 (bluetooth), can confirm with fan on, clarity is bad, but if you only run heated seat during call, quality is acceptable. 

Recommend turning off fan during a call.

 

My issues with 453 ED (assigning numbers starting with #9).

 

9.   Bluetooth fails to connect with drivers phone immediately in driveway, will try to maintain connection with previous drivers phone, even if those phones are 15 meters further away in the house.

 

10.  Touch screen premium audio option "resets" periodically.   Typically looks like a reboot after the car has been running for a minute or two.

 

11.  Navigation is clunky and poor in terms of ease of use and routing.

 

12.  USB audio (MP3's on USB stick plugged into USB port) is flaky.  Routinely stops, restarts and goes to radio and then back to USB during initial car startup for first minute or two.   Will eventually come back to USB audio and back to the song that was previously playing, but minutes pass as this happens.   Sigh.   Happens 2 out of 5 days per week.

 

13.  Not only is acceleration blunted and slower than 451 ED (see point 8), but the traction control on the brand new model is not appreciably better.   At least one advantage is the larger 15" rims/tires on 453 ED offer slightly better road holding than 451 ED on stock rims/tires.  

Point : How can Daimler with all it's technology not make the traction control at least as good as an old 2013 Tesla S RWD, seriously, Daimler should have better technology than a 5 year old car from a startup company that never built a high volume car before right?!   

 

 

Really, truthfully, am souring on the Smart ED experience a bit, even though I love my Smart, I am surely far more impressed with the capability of our 5 year old 2013 Tesla Model S, and that was Tesla's first mass produced product, Daimler has had far more years and bigger budgets to get this stuff right!   Am very close to getting a Tesla Model 3 and selling the Smart.   Sure, the Tesla 3 is 2x the MSRP + options, but that's what I'm willing to pay.

[tikkin]

3 hours ago, SmartElectric said:

Really, truthfully, am souring on the Smart ED experience a bit, even though I love my Smart, I am surely far more impressed with the capability of our 5 year old 2013 Tesla Model S, and that was Tesla's first mass produced product, Daimler has had far more years and bigger budgets to get this stuff right!   Am very close to getting a Tesla Model 3 and selling the Smart.   Sure, the Tesla 3 is 2x the MSRP + options, but that's what I'm willing to pay.

 

Very sorry to hear you feel that about your car.  I still feel here are plenty of improvements made to the 453 I feel it's worth it over the 451.  I didn't go thru them here because you've already covered them very extensively in your other posts.  I totally understand the disappointment when finding out they couldn't get some of these basic things right.  But as a second or third car, it's got plenty special characteristics to make it stand out from a model 3 per say.  The smart is far more customizable to make it unique, and it's more eye catching than any other EV on the market today.  I'm just getting used to seeing too many of the other EVs around GTA lately. 

 

Heck, the fact alone that I can always find a short parking spot on the streets like someone had saved that just for my car is priceless!