Home · 2016 Smart Ed · Complaints

What 21 owners told NHTSA about the 2016 Smart Ed

These are the actual owner complaints behind this car’s reliability verdict, filed with the federal government, unedited. They’re unverified reports, not confirmed defects: read them as leads for your pre-purchase inspection, not a diagnosis.

All (21)Crash / fire / injury (8)Engine (7)Fuel system (7)Brakes (5)Electrical system (5)Body & structure (2)Steering (2)Visibility & wipers (2)Driver assistance (1)Engine & cooling (1)Equipment (1)

1 of 21 complaints match · Body & structure · crash/fire/injury only · clear filters

Sep 10, 2021Body & structureCrash

The roof detached on the highway. It was just replaced by Mercedes Benz in Manhattan and a couple of weeks later when it went on a highway, the roof flew up and I had to hold on to it for dear life while I was searching for a shoulder since they don’t have them everywhere on the East Coast. I didn’t want anyone behind me to be killed. I didn’t want myself to be killed either. It’s very hard to drive with wind and a roof coming against you. As soon as I found a shoulder I bumped a street sign in a bush because it was so narrow and then the tow truck driver had to come and bring a ratchet straps to secure my roof to the car. He had to block traffic with his tow truck so we didn’t get hit and die. Then I had to drive five hours with my roof detached from Washington DC to New York because it was Labor Day and they were no mechanics open. It was TERRIFYING. I have nightmares. I had lives on my hands and my own. If it had flown off completely, which it would have if I didn’t pull it down as I pulled over, someone would have been killed and I could have crashed driving and holding my roof down at the same time.

NHTSA ODI 11432522

Working with the data? Download all 21 complaints as CSV · fetched from NHTSA July 28, 2026

How to use these: a complaint is one owner’s report, filed voluntarily and published unverified. Patterns matter more than any single story. If several owners describe the same failure at similar mileage, put that system at the top of your pre-purchase inspection list. Back to the full 2016 Smart Ed verdict →