Fortwo reservations hit 28,000

[SmartCard]

Notice this little snippet in yesterday's business section from our local paper:

Demand for SmartCar ahead of likely supply

Penske Automotive Group, which will begin distributing Daimler's mini Smart cars in the U.S. next year, has booked 28,000 reservations for the vehicles, significantly outpacing the likely supply.

The distributor expects to sell between 16,000 and 20,000 vehicles in 2008, Penske Automotive Senior Vice President Tony Pordon said

- from wire reports

[SMART]

Yeah... I just heard that same figure last week too! This is quite the accomplishment for Smart USA and I am very excited about it!

[amoore007]

So,..........is there an order for delivery?
Who waits until 09?

[lhoboy]

Originally Posted by amoore007

So,..........is there an order for delivery?
Who waits until 09?

"First come, first served", I would guess. I'm just wondering how many of those reservations are for bona fide car buyers and how many are for speculators who will have the car on eBay before it is delivered.

[SmartCard]

Originally Posted by amoore007

So,..........is there an order for delivery?
Who waits until 09?

No orders into the system yet, and presumably those above the production cutoff will have to wait until '09.

[smartmx]

Originally Posted by lhoboy

"First come, first served", I would guess. I'm just wondering how many of those reservations are for bona fide car buyers and how many are for speculators who will have the car on eBay before it is delivered.

Good point about how many are actual buyers, I am inclined to think more than a few will not buy...
When the tour hit my area I was told that in Tucson had a wait time until 2010 who will wait two years to get their car

And the 28000 car figure is not that much out of production reality, smart needs to sell at least 25000 cars in the US just to breakeven, they need more than that to turn a profit..if not, smart is no more, lost way too much money up to today...

[smartInDenver]

I originally put in my order "just in case" I decided to buy the car, but didn't necessarily plan on buying it. I just didn't want to be last in line if I DID decide to buy it. (Then I DROVE it and now I'm hooked!!)

I'm sure there will be more than a few people who change their mind based on price, or personal circumstances changing, or cold feet, or too long delays in production, or whatever. There's also a whole bunch of questions about the smart cars that haven't been answered yet.

[amoore007]

Smart in Denver,
Did putting down the deposit get you a place in line? I am not sure. You may be just IN the pot with everybody else. Good luck. AL

[lhoboy]

Originally Posted by amoore007

Smart in Denver,
Did putting down the deposit get you a place in line? I am not sure. You may be just IN the pot with everybody else. Good luck. AL

I believe they are keeping track based on reservation number. We might compare numbers to see if there is a pattern and we can estimate the beginning number. Mine is # 8310211178 recognized on 3/24/07.

[JagZilla]

Originally Posted by lhoboy

I believe they are keeping track based on reservation number. We might compare numbers to see if there is a pattern and we can estimate the beginning number. Mine is # 8310211178 recognized on 3/24/07.

Based on your number and the date you made your reservation, I don't think they are using a simple numerical order, as my reservation was placed on August 5th, and is 705551XXXX (I'm not sure how wise it is to give the complete number on a public forum).

JagZilla