The Recall Desk

Vehicle

Smart Fortwo · 2008

1 recall affects this vehicle. Sorted by severity, then date.

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  • Severity pendingNHTSA·18V273000·2018-04-27

    Smart Fortwo Recall: Rear Insulation Mat Fire Risk

    Mercedes-Benz is recalling 2008-2009 Smart Fortwo vehicles because a rear insulation mat may contact hot exhaust components, increasing fire risk.

    Product
    SMART — SMART FORTWO
    Category
    Vehicle
    Distribution
    Distributed nationwide

NHTSA crash-test safety rating

Federal 5-Star Safety Rating from crash testing. This is a separate government program from the recall(s) above — a high star rating says nothing about whether a specific recall has been fixed, and a recall says nothing about crash-test performance.

  • 2008Not rated by NHTSA

    2 trims tested for 2008; overall ratings can differ by trim.

    View on NHTSA.gov

Source: NHTSA New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), a federal crash-test program — not a recall record.

Wider context for this vehicle

Beyond the official recalls above. These are third-party figures derived from NHTSA complaint data — useful signal, but not part of our verified recall record.

Federal investigations

  • EA17003 Engineering Analysis · engine
  • PE16016 Preliminary Evaluation · engine

Complaint clusters with no matching recall

  • 2008 · powertrain 31 complaints, median 30,000 mi
    Includes 1 alleging a fire. Unverified owner allegations from complaint filings — not confirmed by any agency.
  • 2009 · powertrain 25 complaints, median 41,000 mi

Technical service bulletins

335 manufacturer service bulletins across 12 model years. A TSB is repair guidance to dealers, not a safety recall.

Third-party reliability score

  • 2019: 4.7/5 · 1 complaints
  • 2017: 4.4/5 · 9 complaints · most complained-of: electrical
  • 2016: 4.9/5
  • 2012: 4.5/5 · 8 complaints
  • 2011: 4.3/5 · 16 complaints · most complained-of: engine

This is ProblemsByVin’s own published heuristic (1 worst – 5 best), not an official rating and unrelated to our severity scale.

Data on this panel comes from ProblemsByVin, derived from US NHTSA owner complaints and recalls, and licensed CC BY 4.0. It is not published by a federal agency and is not part of our verified recall record.

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