Originally Posted by mfoster "...in fairness to delivery of Smarts in 2008 if they can't deliver all that are reserved they should shut down the $99 reservation and open it up when they can meet the demand. People reserving now may not see a Smart until 2010. Hope it is not the case."
Amen. I'm totally with you on that one. It would be total BS to have to wait that long and really terrible business sense.
I suspect that once the dealers are up and running, the $99 reservation program will be no more.
In an article in cnn.com about Penske and smart, there's an indication that only the first 1000 reservation holders are being contacted to confirm their order. Nothing is said about the other 30,000 or so. I would guess that these initial confirmations will be used to determine the models, colors and options the factory will concentrate on. Since confirmations were sent to people with both the March 19th and 20th dates, it suggests that fewer than 1000 people made reservations on the first day.
Here's the link: http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/04/auto...n=money_latest
Don't you think that at 350 e-mail "groups" per week, starting 4 weeks ago that you should have been contacted by today?
Not sure I buy into the only 300-350 per week e-mail contact method...
This is the Internet and e-mail...No real reason fro PAG/SmartUSA to play coy with the game.... What--- their servers can't keep up with 15,000-25,000 responses in 24 hours?
How hard would it be to dump "confirmation" e-mails out to however many $99 "reservationists" they have against the number of confirmed cars being imported?
In an article in cnn.com about Penske and smart, there's an indication that only the first 1000 reservation holders are being contacted to confirm their order. Nothing is said about the other 30,000 or so. I would guess that these initial confirmations will be used to determine the models, colors and options the factory will concentrate on. Since confirmations were sent to people with both the March 19th and 20th dates, it suggests that fewer than 1000 people made reservations on the first day.
Here's the link: http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/04/auto...n=money_latest
woohoo! I see they finally got off the 3/19 sthick! and even on to 3/21 now!
(From my count, I believe there were over 1000 orders easily on 3/19 alone.)
I found one section of the article amusing:
When the time came a few weeks ago to place the first dealer orders with Mercedes, Penske tried something else new. Ordinarily dealers have to guess what combinations of trim level, colors, and options will appeal to customers. When they get it wrong, unsold cars can languish for months.
But Penske was able to go to the first 1,000 reservation owners, find out exactly what features they wanted, and then place a detailed order. "It is entirely different from having John Doe waiting on the showroom floor for the customer to walk in," Penske says. "Those days are over." If all dealers did business that way, it would eliminate inventories and big discounts on orphan cars.
Kind of makes it seem like Penske came up with a novel idea (placing orders in advance), however this is nothing new. New vehicle launches of cars in hot demand are typically done this way - by placing an order. And I really don't think "those days are over" as Penske claims. John Doe has always had the option of ordering his car, but John Doe typically does not want to wait months while his car gets built. Additionally, John Doe - who also likes to haggle over price - can do that with a car sitting on the dealers lot, but usually not on an factory order.
In an article in cnn.com about Penske and smart, there's an indication that only the first 1000 reservation holders are being contacted to confirm their order. Nothing is said about the other 30,000 or so. I would guess that these initial confirmations will be used to determine the models, colors and options the factory will concentrate on. Since confirmations were sent to people with both the March 19th and 20th dates, it suggests that fewer than 1000 people made reservations on the first day.
Here's the link: http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/04/auto...n=money_latest
I don't think or should I say hope he dont stop at 1000 why would he want to limit his profit when theres several waiting in line some with cash ready to purchase a SMART TODAY.
I read the cnn article differently. I think what Penske actually said is that the first 1000 orders were sent off to the factory as a batch. Nothing to imply this process won't be repeated every three weeks or so. This would make sense based on:
Smart's latest newsletter says that all reservation holders will be contacted by email (at some point) with a login to the confirmation website.
According to the same newsletter, Smart USA is now sending out these emails at a rate of 350 per week (as of October).
If this process is a good way of determining order preferences for the first 1000 reservation holders, why wouldn't you use it for the rest.
I don't believe they built the whole web-based confirmation system for just 1000 customers (much cheaper to do that by phone).
I have no facts to back this up, but I'm pretty sure that way more than 1000 people reserved on March 19th.
Ditto, I agree with your reading of the article. The article was published on the 5th of October. So sometime prior to the 5th, the order for 1000 went out. As of today, some holding reservations from March 20 and 21 have been referred to the order site. How many from the 21st is still uncertain. Penske appears to be trying to increase the profit from the smart, not by wringing more money out of his customers, but by reducing overhead, idle salesmen, inventory, and orphans. More power to him I would prefer this process to haggling with a car salesman. So much for my 2 cents. Anything that makes the smart a success!
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I would prefer this process to haggling with a car salesman. So much for my 2 cents. Anything that makes the smart a success!
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