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.
Is it possible to have the car towed to a 3. party workshop? While I realize that the US has large distances and a scattered population, the cells themselves are probably intact. In all likelyhood, we’re talking a bad circuit board, a couple of joints that need to be re-soldered due to corrosion or bad wires. An EV service center can probably fix this, although that won’t be cheap either.