How Long will this $99 process go on

[anthonype3]

At what point will smart start acting like a regular car dealer and take orders at the lot or just sell what they have.

With the incredibly long lead times I would think they are entering the point where a class action law suit is a real possibility.

How long can they continue to ask their customers to pay a deposit on a car that they wont see for two years yet continue to fill up certain dealerships with vehicles that anyone can walk in and buy.

I think that their first responsibility should be to people whose money they alreay have.

[gamernotwatcher]

Class Action? under what premise. I would agree that the orphan management needs to be looked at.

[Mousecat]

They have already dumped the $99 program.

It was just a gimmick to create demand and allow the dealer to charge premium prices. If the program bombed they would have used that as the excuse not to bring the car over. The first 40,000 or so just created working capital for the company.

[dcrooks]

Originally Posted by Mousecat

They have already dumped the $99 program.

It was just a gimmick to create demand and allow the dealer to charge premium prices. If the program bombed they would have used that as the excuse not to bring the car over. The first 40,000 or so just created working capital for the company.

Where was it dumped? I just went to the smartusa website and was able to get to the form for the reservation.

[limey]

Good luck with the lawsuit.

Exactly what damages have you sustained though the process?

Reading posts here is getting to be as much fun as standing in the toy aisle at Wal-Mart. Nothing but a bunch of spoled children who want their new shiny toy and throw a public temper tantrum if they can't get it right now.

[Mousecat]

Maybe not officially but for all practical purposes, making a deposit is the slowest way to purchase a new smart. Once upon a time we were stroked as Insiders.

As many on this board have posted, anybody making a reservation today is going to get a different product. In the disclaimers, they state it may be a different model year and price. And somebody correct me if I am wrong but in many parts of California the wait is now almost 18 months. Many have just given up, paid the extra fees and bought an orphan.

[dbwill]

All along there has enough information on the number of reservations made, and the total supply for the year, and the process that anyone could figure out with reasonable accuracy when they were going to be able to get a car. I don't have a car yet but so far it looks like the delivery will be within three weeks of the date I projected when I confirmed and configured.

The reason that there is three weeks difference is due to the holdup of shipments for the first two months of deliveries and the "shifter problem"

Simple math will tell you that importing 25000+/- cars (2100+/- a month) this year, anyone who registered after (roughly) July or August will not have a car till next year unless they purchase an orphan.

Looks like there are three obvious choices, buy something else, wait for your car, or buy an orphan.

[SmartAzz]

Probably at least until the movie is out considering the (Maxwell)Smart/(Agent) 99 connection

[SmartAzz]

Now that there are dealerships it would make sense for orders to come through them at some point though.

[kurt013]

Geez, they have more buyers than cars, so they said, "get in line" and to prove you are at least somewhat serious, put up $99. Then they supply cars as fast as they can to the buyers, pretty much in the order they got in line. Seems fair to me, your lawyer might want to exclude me from your jury pool. The reason other car dealers don't use this method is because there is no line waiting to buy one of their cars.