Winetou - How did you reserve in Jan 08, confirm in Feb and you will be able to pickup in June. That has to be the fastest of any order/delivery.
According to my dealer in Chicago (res #1229, May 11, 2007) my car is built, on the water somewhere and will be delivered mid July. AND they can't give me the VIN number until it clears customs. My DDE has only changed 1 time and that was to June 15 to Sept 14 2008.
Carol, You may want to go back into your configuration email and click that link to log in with your email and password to make sure St. Louis is your dealer. On that page you can change information and even dealership if you wish. But that page should show what your assigned dealer is. You may want to give a call to Atlanta.
Winetou - How did you reserve in Jan 08, confirm in Feb and you will be able to pickup in June. That has to be the fastest of any order/delivery.
According to my dealer in Chicago (res #1229, May 11, 2007) my car is built, on the water somewhere and will be delivered mid July. AND they can't give me the VIN number until it clears customs. My DDE has only changed 1 time and that was to June 15 to Sept 14 2008.
He lives on eastern Long Island, and given the fact that LI has two dealers, his has a VERY small area to cover. It co-insides with the load leveling that was give to all the dealer, so there are probably a very small amount of reservation holders assigned to his dealer that allowed him to get one so quickly. I must admit I feel very spoiled as well. I am a 1337,(late august) and I have confirmation of production with a delivery ETA of the 16th of June.
AND they can't give me the VIN number until it clears customs.
IMHO, that is a line of BS.
the stealership has the VIN# as they should know up to three months out the various customers coming their way... there are multiple status levels... you need to talk to one of the brand managers or general managers at the dealership, not one of the flunkies that just does the test drives.
when you're within 30 or so days of the DDE estimate your info should be showing up on their R11 screens on the Penske system that each dealer has access to. they'll be able to search on your first and last name and pull up your info, configuration, status and VIN# (once it has been assigned).
This was posted by a smart Dealership (was it Seattle?):
Quote:
Once smart 1 has released the information to us, we review each name (and VIN# if available) against the production schedule. Customers are then notified of the status of their car in the following sequence:
C = In production [if there is a VIN# the vehicle is 30-45 days out from port. If not, 45-60 days out]
D = Shipped [this indicates the release of the vehicle to the shipping company in France- 15-30 days out form port]
1= In Port [this indicates that the vehicle has arrived in the US but has not had the final inspection completed and has not yet been released to ground transportation for delivery to the dealer- 10-15 days out]
5 = In Route [vehicle is released to ground transportation- 7-10 days out]
In stock= It is here! [PDI is started- 3-5 days to deliver]
This system began in late February and is supposed to continue as vehicles are added to the production schedule. It is true that smart 1 has limited information, and because of initial information flow issues, smart USA has done the right thing and passed accountability and responsibility to the dealer to manage contacts. I am quite sure what you will find is a lot less aggravation with regards to available information now that the smart centers are involved. Hope this helps. Again, I apologize for the delay in responding.
So, if your Dealer doesn't have any of those... You may have another Dealer.
Today is my 1 year anniversary since reservation. I still do not have a car and will seriously begin looking elsewhere this weekend. The honda civic hybrid would be my first choice. I have been putting it off due to its size. I only have 12 feet in which to put a vehicle in the one side of my garage. But there are soooooo many negatives concerning this little car that I am wondering if just putting two cars away is a crazy thought considering. The main obstacles are a spare and cruise. Starting a 3500 mile road trip in a few weeks and my wife and I would have loved to have taken the smart, but no spare could be a huge problem. Has anyone found a place to purchase a spare rim and tire????? Any feedback on the civic hybrid????? Best wishes to all.
i think the soooo many negatives is being a bit dramatic. perhaps you mean that there are many aspects of the vehicle which do not suit you (but may suit others). i haven't seen anything to indicate that the smart is any more or less reliable than any other new vehicle from a mechanical/build-quality standpoint.
also - after waiting one year, it's kind of silly to give up now, you're so close to the prize! (i will admit the last two months have been worse for waiting than the previous 10 myself)
spare tire, not as much of an issue IMHO - i have two vehicles now, a jeep liberty and a jeep wrangler which sees both roads and off-roads, both have close to 160K miles on them, neither has ever had a flat. if flats are a real concern on a long roadtrip, it doesn't seem like picking up a pure steel rim and spare tire is that much of a hassle.
cruise control - i guess that's personal preference - our libby has it ,hardly ever use it myself, not a dealbreaker for me and aftermarket cruise should be competitive within the year i bet.
Just talked to Marrissa in St Louis and she still does not have a vin# or doesn't know what R11 is? Has my name but thats about all. Has no idea when more cars will be delivered . She told me they just come in anytime 4-5 at a time. So all i can do is wait. This is really hard when nobody knows anything and my DDE is 4-24-08 thru aug 23-08. (ordered May 22 2007 and configured Dec 14 2007 #1237 Thanks for all your info ** Have a Great Day with your Smarts! Carol
Just talked to Marrissa in St Louis and she still does not have a vin# or doesn't know what R11 is? Has my name but thats about all. Has no idea when more cars will be delivered . She told me they just come in anytime 4-5 at a time. So all i can do is wait. This is really hard when nobody knows anything and my DDE is 4-24-08 thru aug 23-08. (ordered May 22 2007 and configured Dec 14 2007 #1237 Thanks for all your info ** Have a Great Day with your Smarts! Carol
is that Creve Coeur? you should talk to the general sales manager Scott Binder. the sales level staff may indeed not know anything, but the business managers should.... when i went to my local dealership, they claimed the same thing - the sales guy from the floor didn't know what an R11 was - i told him to look me up on the computer, and then i pointed to the screen and said, that's the R11 Specific Unit Details screen and there's my VIN# and there's my status C (he did not know what status C meant and had to ask the business mgr) and there's the predicted ETA, etc... this guy had been working there since last fall and prior to that had worked for the co-located mercedes dealership for 2 years. if you want the right answers, it definately helps, IMHO, to appear in-person at the dealership and to speak with the general manager or sales manager and not one of the flunkies. given your DDE they should have your R11 info in the system at this point and be able to give you at least a C status.
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