Paying the ($99) fee won't buy a place in line

[lhoboy]

SmartCard,
Your two examples are most likely what will happen with the Smart. Alot of people will be abadoning their order as they determine that this feature or that feature is unacceptable. The MSRP pledge will probably be held for those vehicles placed by an order that followed a reservation. Whether the MSRP pledge will be maintained on those vehicles freed up by an abandoned order is yet to be determined.

[MicroNut]

Originally Posted by SmartCard

But you also bring up an interesting scenario - what if someone backs out on an order which was built and shipped for them - who will get that "unwanted" smartie? I guess it may depend upon where it is when it gets abandoned.

My "Dealer Candidate" discussed this very point at the dealer demo day. They stated that if a shipped car was not wanted by the reservation holder, the dealer may, at their option, offer it to another reservation holder (I don't recall that they said "next in line") or keep the vehicle for dealer demonstrator or inventory purposes. One can only guess what the price would be in these circumstances.

[valbeck]

When I confirmed my order on September 19th, Smart Car promised delivery in the 1st 3 months of '08.

[SmartBob]

One can only guess what the price would be in these circumstances.

Someone here posted that Dealers will not be aloud to gouge prices but we'll see.

[rushme]

i guess with 25000 reservation and the limited amount of accessories, colors and options whatever combination and permutation u do to the smartcars, there will be 50 other people waiting for the exact smart car that they ordered if u cancelled your order......they will do a search within 200 miles of connected dealer to find if anybody dosent want the car they ordered.......i hope someone denies theirs close to where i live and i get em....

[SmartBob]

My sales rep said if someone defaults and there are cars left over he will call whomever lets him know they will take anything that pops up. I ordered a Pure but I'll take a passion if it's not loaded up with extra crap. I have 3 dealers who have my name on that list.

[spdickey]

Originally Posted by SmartBob

My sales rep said if someone defaults and there are cars left over he will call whomever lets him know they will take anything that pops up. I ordered a Pure but I'll take a passion if it's not loaded up with extra crap. I have 3 dealers who have my name on that list.

And Penske is going to make the dealers tow the line and deliver the cars by the master list. He wants there to be no hanky-panky with this new car line. I don't think the back-door "dealer lists" and "extra dealer profit" are going to fly this time.

[Old smart]

My dealer told me that they would respect the time/date reservation lists as provided to them. If they somehow had an unclaimed car they would contact the first number remaining at the top of the list and give them first-right-of-refusal on that car, and so on down the list. The F-R-o-R (and I assume secondary-R-o-R) person would not be obligated to take the car, and could continue to wait for the one they ordered with no penalty.

[lhoboy]

Originally Posted by spdickey

And Penske is going to make the dealers tow the line and deliver the cars by the master list. He wants there to be no hanky-panky with this new car line. I don't think the back-door "dealer lists" and "extra dealer profit" are going to fly this time.

Now, if we could just get Penske to have a firm chat with the Ford dealers regarding the stunts they're playing with the GT500.

[mefam4]

Hi, I am a new poster here and i want to thank everyone for their information. On the subject of dealer pricing, i thinkk the reported short warranty is a spinoff of that situation. As i see it, smart has many more orders than it can fill soon, so why not shorten the warranty and let the dealer make big money on the longer warranty sale, that way the dealers are happy but they can save face on the pricing too. still ripping off the customer, just giving them the option of how bad! i think this form of gouging is underhanded.