Delivery Date Estimator

[sfmike64]

I just checked on my delivery date estimate, and it's showing SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER of this year.

I configured my car two months ago (put a deposit down last May). Apparently it's being built out of solid gold on Jupiter, so it's going to take a while.

I've rarely run into a company with such contempt for its customers or completely inability to deal with them honestly as Penske/Smart USA. I can only imagine how bad their customer service will be if you ever have a problem with an actual existing car.

I don't know what to do. I would really like the car, I'm sure, but I can't see giving my hard earned money to such idiots.

[E-SMART]

I'm an 1188 (res'd 4/3/07, conf 11/9/07) rec'd call from my dealer already (on 3/25/08, 2 to 4 weeks until delivery) so this isn't too far off. smart web site says:

Estimated ETA Date:
3/19/2008 to 6/17/2008. Your vehicle is currently planned for production or is produced and in transit. Please contact your local dealer for a more accurate delivery estimate.

They of course are giving themselves a good size window although I see other results from other 1188's, would imagine this will deviate a bit between geo areas.

[Soapdish]

I love my Yaris - S. They have many colors and options to choose from, and they have a spare tire and 7 yr 100K warranty.

[sfmike64]

I just checked my delivery date (deposit May 07, cofigured January 08), and it's saying September-November 2008. Apparently my car is being made of solid gold on Jupiter so it's going to be a while.

I've rarely run into a company with such contempt for its customers as Penske/Smart USA. I'm sure I would like the car, but at this point, I'm loathe to give my hard earned money to such clowns.

This extends to the dealer here in SF. I went there the other day to see if I could test drive a car. That would answer some questions. They couldn't arrange a test drive for three weeks. Yes, three weeks to give me 15-30 minutes of time. Clearly they have little incentive to help customers who have already ordered, but I was really shocked by this. There were three sales people on the floor and only one was helping another customer. What exactly do they DO all day? It boggles the mind.

[smartcenterSeattle]

The dates are based off of a “worst case scenario” that does not account for cancellations or increase in production. We are hoping we will get an increase in production and cancellations are undoubtedly going to happen. So how accurate, [inaccurate] is the calculator? We won’t know for sure until new production numbers come out.

Now let me take off my smart USA company hat:

The dates we are getting are a little surprising to us as well. Don’t cancel your reservations! The more cancellations, the fewer cars will come. If the cancellation rate does not increase because of the DDE then more cars will be sold to the US market and the wait time will shorten dramatically. smart USA has obviously read this forum enough to know that under promising and over delivering is way better than no promise at all. That’s why this calculator exists! It is very likely that these are much worse than “worst case scenario”, and more like “if everything goes wrong” dates.

[curtis]

well, i'm an 1184 and I have gotten ZERO e-mails and ZERO calls regarding my car. What ever happened to those SmartUSA newsletters they were e-mailing before I placed my reservation a year ago?

[spdickey]

Originally Posted by curtis

well, i'm an 1184 and I have gotten ZERO e-mails and ZERO calls regarding my car. What ever happened to those SmartUSA newsletters they were e-mailing before I placed my reservation a year ago?

Put your email addy into the DDE and see if you are still there. If you are, you may want to check with your ISP to see if the smart newsletters are being blocked as spam.

I do email campaigns sending emails to people who asked to get them (event schedules), and about 2-3% of them are bounced by ISPs "just because" even though the recipient asked for them.

[mdfortwoguy]

I think if everyone takes the time to calm down and read over some of the last ratios of reservation to confirmation to delivery dates, they will see that this counter is not accurate at all.

Releasing this was a rather large mistake, IMO... err rather the apparent date padding was a mistake.

I'm not sure why everyone seems to want to jump the boat into a Yaris either... and bringing it up in this thread was wholly inappropriate, especially in the manner that it just was.

[saxdiva]

Reserved April 20, 2007
Confirmation December 8, 2007
Estimated delivery: July-September 2008.


After being told for MONTHS now our order would be in production, I'm officially done with smartusa and the B.S. they call a reservation process. And I'm sorry I supported this brand enough to fund their market research, since this is how they treat us in return.

I am so disgusted right now that I'm about to write a letter to the automotive editor of the L.A. Times. If we get screwed for being in a metropolitan area, then I think it's reasonable to warn everyone else here about it.

And no, I don't think these guys are reading this forum, unless they're just so unbelievably arrogant that they just don't care.

Happy trails, people. Hope the process of getting your parts and service for your cars turns out to be handled better than this sham of a reservation process.

-Leanne

[curtis]

SaxDiva, I was just thinking the same thing...Your Smart breaks dowm and you bring it in for a repair and the tell you it will be fixed in about 90 days or so..