Demonstrators expected 1/15!

[Lewis]

Salesperson at Catena Motors, Edison, NJ indicated to me today that they expect the demonstrators on site 1/15/08. The cars will only be delivered she said, when the building is complete and she expects the building to be finished about 1/1.

Additionally I was told that in a week they'll be able to track my car for me and tell me when it'll be there! This I think will be a great thing for those of us who need to sell our current cars, get car loans, etc.

Woooooooopy!

[jwight]

Great news; hopefully other dealers will have them around the same time. At least we can drive one while we're waiting.

[Ghetto2315]

Originally Posted by Lewis

Salesperson at Catena Motors, Edison, NJ indicated to me today that they expect the demonstrators on site 1/15/08. The cars will only be delivered she said, when the building is complete and she expects the building to be finished about 1/1.

Additionally I was told that in a week they'll be able to track my car for me and tell me when it'll be there! This I think will be a great thing for those of us who need to sell our current cars, get car loans, etc.

Woooooooopy!

She? There are no female salespersons at Ray Catena SmartCar.

Also, 1/15/08 is a worse case scenario... we are expecting them sooner

[mr_Cash]

Originally Posted by Lewis

Additionally I was told that in a week they'll be able to track my car for me and tell me when it'll be there! This I think will be a great thing for those of us who need to sell our current cars, get car loans, etc.

so, you have not met with them to sign a contract, give them more money down, etc, correct? and you have confirmed ordered, correct?

if she is telling you correct info, that they will be able to track your car,

this seems to give evidence, they are attaching our confirmation order to a specific car, to be delivered to our specific dealer. yes?

a good thing if true.

which verifies, they really did take a chance, build a car, without any additional money down or agreement completed.

that is, 'if', this lady is giving correct info.

it would be fun, to be able to log onto a web site, put in our confirm number, and get back a tracking detail like fed ex or ups.

seems like if they let the dealer do it, they could open it up, to those with confirm order numbers, to log in and find out the same tracking udpdate location info.

call her next week. ask her, if there is a way, she can give you the procedure, for you to log in yourself, to check for the update tracking location info.

a procedure, that you could pass along to the web site here, to let the rest of us confirm orderer's, track our own orders also.

thx.

[Gortok]

YEAH!
Freedom of Information!!!

Talk about stirring up some excitement here!!
(Can you imagine?)

[lhoboy]

Originally Posted by Lewis

Demonstrators expected 1/15!

Sooo, I'm thinking tear gas, police brutality and rioting in the streets. I finally caught on. I've been working tooooo hard!!

[spdickey]

The Canadians have been tracking their cars through their order process for years. If we get VINs of our cars, then we can watch them move through the ports. See the sticky on Vehicle Cargo Tracking.

[SnakeFarm]

Originally Posted by lhoboy

Sooo, I'm thinking tear gas, police brutality and rioting in the streets. I finally caught on. I've been working tooooo hard!!

Ok, If it comes to that, I'm in. But for now I think we should just stick with calls and letters.;)

[jonnysan]

Originally Posted by spdickey

The Canadians have been tracking their cars through their order process for years. If we get VINs of our cars, then we can watch them move through the ports. See the sticky on Vehicle Cargo Tracking.

Would be nice to be able to do for future buyers. In my own case, I don't feel that too much tracking can be done before it's at the dealership. (a couple to a few weeks at the latest)

But then again, I am an eternal optimist.....

[kmeinhold]

At first I questioned that our cars would be built based on a token $99 deposit. But now I'm thinking - its a brilliant idea. The dealer would have to guess what would sell best in their market, if configured reservation holders back out - its still a car for "inventory" the dealer will have a car that John Q Public told him would sell.

Remember that PAG was surprised that there were so few Pures (hmmm what's the plural of pure? I digress) the cars were heavily optioned and the demographics were not exactly what they expected.

Dealers configure their cars mostly with price point/profit in mind, and had I been a dealer (my Dad was a new car dealer) there would have been a substantial number of nearly stripped Pures in my inventory, as I suspect many dealers would as well. They are after-all competing with other smart dealers and Honda/Toyota...up the streat for walk in business.

Will online buyers have the same preferences as someone who walks in off the street? Who knows - but it irrelevant because it looks like every car the dealer can get his hands on will sell.

Finally - I think that dealers should be able to mark up any vehicle they carry in inventory. There are significant costs/risks to carrying inventory that justify this in my opinion. Spoken for / ordered cars - carry less risk and markup is not justified.

PS: I ordered a fully optioned Passion.