Smart Fortwo, model year 2016. Filed by Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. and reported to NHTSA on 16 July 2017. 5,061 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (MBUSA) is recalling certain 2016 smart fortwo vehicles. In these vehicles, the lock nut that secures the parking brake cable to the parking brake lever may loosen over time, resulting in increased parking brake lever travel before the parking brake engages.
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Smart's own number for this recall: 2017080009. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 17V448 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 17V448 cover?
- Smart Fortwo, model year 2016.
- What is wrong with them?
- Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (MBUSA) is recalling certain 2016 smart fortwo vehicles. In these vehicles, the lock nut that secures the parking brake cable to the parking brake lever may loosen over time, resulting in increased parking brake lever travel before the parking brake engages.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- As the parking brake lever travel increases, the holding force may decrease to a point where the vehicle is no longer safely secured in all parking situations, allowing the vehicle to unexpectedly move when parked on a slope, increasing the risk of a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will replace the parking brake cable lock nut, free of charge. The recall began September 20, 2017. Owners may contact smart customer service at 1-877-496-3691.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Smart calls this recall 2017080009, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “As the parking brake lever travel increases, the holding force may decrease to a point where the vehicle is no longer safely secured in all parking situations, allowing the vehicle to unexpectedly move when parked on a slope, increasing the…”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 17V448 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC. |
| System at fault | Parking Brake |
| Reported to NHTSA | 16 July 2017 |
| Model years | 2016-2016 |
| Vehicles named | SMART FORTWO |
What the notice says today
The consequence
As the parking brake lever travel increases, the holding force may decrease to a point where the vehicle is no longer safely secured in all parking situations, allowing the vehicle to unexpectedly move when parked on a slope, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
MBUSA will notify owners, and dealers will replace the parking brake cable lock nut, free of charge. The recall began September 20, 2017. Owners may contact smart customer service at 1-877-496-3691.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 175 notices in the record whose component field names parking brake. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 49 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 17V448, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/17v448/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 17V448 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
f06dfa18 - Consequence
7ab63998 - Remedy
773d7ff3
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 17V448 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Smart Fortwo, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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