I had a long phone conversation with Checkered Flag Motors, Virginia Beach, VA this morning. There really wasn’t much to be found out except:
(1) Though their new smart facility is under construction and due to be open in January, they are still not officially named as a dealer. Apparently there is training to be completed before that will happen.
(2) They do expect to have some cars in January, even though a public estimate was for the third week of March.
(3) So far they have gotten little information from smartUSA Distributor LLC. Perhaps that will come with the training.
(4) They have not been forwarded any customer contact info from sDLLC. They don't know in what form it will come. They don’t know if the customer information will be fed to them individually, or a prioritized block of names.
(5) They are ferreting out info just like we are - from internet interest sites.
(6) They think that when they get their allotment of cars that reservation holders will have first priority over walk-ins for what is in inventory. It could be that a reservation holder who walks in before his number and car comes up and wants to buy whatever is available off the floor will just forfeit his “ordered” car. The $99 - ??? (I doubt if many people will care at that point!)
(7) CFM, as the road show refreshment host, was invited to the "private" demonstration same as us and had to wait in the same lines as us to drive. Exept for the bottled water, cookies, and smoothies, they were out of the loop.
So it goes….
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