Driver’s seatbelt broke at the tensioner as if the cable had been cut with wire cutters. My vehicle has not been involved in a wreck. Under normal driving conditions. Safety issue is if it broke this easily what would’ve happened if I had been involved in an accident? Of course I took the vehicle immediately to a repair shop and the cost to repair is $843.31. Of course the parts have to be ordered. This is a safety issue it’s a law issue you have to have a seatbelt it’s not like I can’t live without the seatbelt. All my research shows that several people have complained about the same incident happening to them I was not driving the vehicle at the time I had just stopped at a store got back in my car and the seatbelt was broken.
smart Fortwo seat belt problems
15 of the 346 owner complaints about the smart Fortwo describe seat belt won't latch or retract, most of them for the 2009 model year.
- owner complaints
- 15
- worst model year
- 2009
- typical mileage
- 28,800
Is there a fix? No recall or service bulletin covers this area of the car yet.
By model year
- 20171
- 20141
- 20132
- 20121
- 20112
- 20095
- 20083
Often reported together
What owners say
The drivers side seatbelt connecting floor (I think it's the belt force limiter) has a cable that has broken off. This is the 2nd time this has happened to my SmartCar. It is a design flaw because the cable runs against the metal of the seat cutting thru the cable. It isn't usually noticed until it breaks off making the seatbelt complete become broken from the floor. Additionally, SmartCars including this one have a known issue where AirBags become I op (light on) due to connection issue under seat. So now I have no restraints in my car.
Seat belts do not retract. There were couple of times while in transit on city road, I had to apply brake suddenly and seat belt fail to engage to hold the passenger back . All the time , both seat belts do not retract to their home position when not in use and car is stopped and parked, this caused dents to the car's body and frame around the door when we close the doors. I reported to the local mercedes dealer september 2018. In december, they could only replace the driver side seat belt. The passenger side's belt has been claimed to be backed order till now. I have called numerous times to follow up for the repair and I am still waiting for over 6 months for this faulty seat belt to be repaired. I don't feel safe to drive my car. I lease this new car since october 2017 and the safety issue happened only within a year.
The driver side seat belt latch has failed for the second time in 2 years. The male end can not be inserted into the female end.
Driver's side seatbelt will not latch, I'm using the passenger side seatbelt for now. I can't have a passenger in my car because of that broken seatbelt. This happened already before, maybe a year ago and mercedes benz of georgetown wanted me to pay for it after being fixed but I insisted that it's a safety issue and I shouldn't be driving from their shop without having it fixed. So frustrating safety issues that no one wants to take care of it until somebody's dead.
Driver side seat belt fails to buckle. Nothing lodged in buckle, but mechanism appears to be broken.
Seat belts for both driver and passenger sides became twisted within the first couple of years of ownership. Despite attempts by service technicians to untwist and repair the mechanism the seat belts remain twisted. Seat belt latch on driver's side finally failed at about 25,000 miles. Both seat belts had to be completely replaced at our expense. Also, the car doesn't always shift from park to reverse properly. It sometimes takes several attempts to get the transmission to engage.
My wife was departing with the car and when she tried to insert the seat belt buckle and it would not insert. I called the mercedes dealer and they said it was a common failure but they wanted to charge me for the repair.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 smart fortwo. The contact stated that the air bag warning indicator illuminated. The dealer stated that the driver side seat belt retractor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 14,724. Updated 11/21/14*cn updated 5/7/2015
Drivers seatbelt buckle does not latch at all. Mercedes will not pay for it or fix it and want us to pay out of pocket .
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the smart Fortwo seat belt
Which smart Fortwo years have seat belt won't latch or retract problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2009 (5 complaints), 2008 (3 complaints) and 2011 (2 complaints).
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