Not sure why the other thread got buried when it first appeared in General Discussions, but here's an update on this newer thread...
Hi Guys,
I posted this on clubsmartcar.com as well. Comments there said that the Speed Channel was extremely negative on our car and totally confused when it sold for $25k, a good deal over the new 2008 smarts. Some ignorance of smart history, I assume.
Didn't get a chance to hear the Speed Channel editorials, but you know what? I'm tickled to death that the car brought $25k. Even though we lost money compared to what we sell these for every month, I wouldn't have done it any other way. To confuse the negative Speed Channel guy was priceless. All across America, there were muscle car guys seeing the smart for the first time... but in their venue! There was a car, described by the Speed Channel as a risk, but selling at $25k, much more than the 2008 cars. Hello, hello, anybody out there? YES these cars are going to be successful, despite the negative publicity that some of the media may dish out.
Here are two great stories from today... and remember, these are ALL muscle car guys out there.
One of the drivers that help get the car from the tents to the staging area, asked if he could drive the smart car up to staging instead of me. Sure. As he drove it, he kept shaking his head, smiling. Halfway to staging he asked me to tell him everything I could about our car. It was the neatest car he'd seen in a long time. He couldn't even tell it was running. When we got to the staging area and he turned the car over to me, here was his exact words: "I've been a muscle car guy my entire life, but after seeing this car, I can tell you've seriously affected my opinion. I'm getting one of these little guys.
At the entry to the stage, a guy came out and said he would be driving the smart off the stage after it was sold (it would no longer be my car at that time). As we talked, he said he'd been waiting a full year, hoping that a smart would come up for sale this year so he'd have a chance to drive one off the stage. His other dream car was a Barracuda. I asked him how he was lucky enough to have been assigned my car since there were about 8 different drivers. Simple, he said, he was the guy in charge of the drivers and assigned himself to our car.
Despite the lower cost it sold for, this was a great experience for us and an unbelievable opportunity to expose the smart to thousands of folks that had not yet seen it. Well worth it.
Here's some information we learned about Barrett-Jackson that is quite interesting.
We were unfamiliar with Barrett-Jackson until we found ourselves with these two cars that might be worth a bit more money. When we researched options other than ebay, we found Barrett. The benefit of Barrett-Jackson is that you can do much better than other methods if you find the right buyers. The danger with OUR cars at Barrett-Jackson is that this is primarily a muscle car crowd. This was conceivably the worst possible audience for the smarts. The chances a $15,000 top bid from this group was in more than one of our nightmares. Big chance. Fortunately, at least a few in the audience realized the value and the first one went for $31,000. Second one only brought $25,000, but that was fine.
Interesting information about Barrett-Jackson. Bidders must pay $500 just to be a bidder. There are over 6000 bidders this year. Buyers pay a 10% Buyer's Premium, Sellers pay a 10% Commission. Sellers also pay a Consignment fee based upon the day of the week the cars are sold. We paid $700 for a Wednesday slot assigned and $900 for the Sunday assigned slot. Over 300,000 will attend during the 6 days of actual auctions and the "family" day of reviewing. About 1600 cars for sale this year. Last year's total sales were $112M.
As with any event this size, everybody wants to sell things in booths at the site. There may be over a thousand vendors selling their wares by paying the Barrett-Jackson folks varying "rental" space rates for their spaces.
For car enthusiasts, this really is the place to be. Visitors can get into the event for a relatively inexpensive $35/day or $150 for the whole week.
One other thing. Bidders receive a card with the days of the week and 10 numbers on each day. Know what that is? Yep, a drink ticket. tongue.gif Good marketing, huh?
Do the numbers. This is a very, very big money event. It is the Superbowl of Auto Shows in the US. Great thrill to be there and hope that we exposed the smart to many more folks in the US.
Ron Gaus, aSmartCar.com
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