Hi all,
I thought maybe this would be the place to go to see what can be done about my mom’s situation. For context, last year, in Nov 2022, my mom bought a used, 2018 Smart ForTwo EQ for around 20k. Just a week or two ago, she calls me to tell me her car won’t start, so I ask her to show me what it says, she video calls, and I see something similar to a High Voltage battery error. So we get it towed to her house, and she makes an appt with the Mercedes dealership she bought it from. FF to today, they tell her that it’ll be 23k to replace the battery. Anyone here who might be able to help me figure out what her next steps are? She doesn’t have anywhere near that kind of money on hand, and neither do I.
A lot of folks are claiming the battery should be warrantied. Here is the US warranty. I do believe the federally mandated warranty was enacted within the last year. California state law as of April 2018 requires a 150k warranty. The question is, when was the vehicle originally delivered?
Sale of the vehicle was originally in California back in October of 2018 from what I can remember. Mom bought it back in November '22
Doesn’t matter the vehicle is within Mercedes base warranty on time and mileage.
California 10 year/150K mile warranty is hybrid only (for whatever reason) and not for EVs.
There is no federally mandated EV battery warranty at this time. This has been beaten to death in this sub. The California warranty you are referring to is for PZEV vehicles: partial zero emission vehicles with engines.
The beaten do death warranty wasn’t in place when the vehicle sold as new. I mentioned that a few times myself. I misspoke about the California warranty; odd that it excludes EVs though. Anyway, the buyer seems to be in the hook for repairs in this case.