Laguna Niguel, CA

gryphon · 09-06-2007, 04:05 PM

Just came back from visiting the Mercedes of Laguna Niguel dealership and they told me that yes, they are going to be selling the Smart Car. They will be the only dealership in Orange County and are going to be converting an existing smaller sales building to be used for Smart Cars only. The only new information I was able to get from the salesman was that they were informed that the cars would go on sale here in Feburary of 08. The salesman had put in his reservation for one quite early, as soon as he heard that the dealership would be handling them.

Bonnie · 09-06-2007, 09:09 PM

That's great I'm just a few miles from that dealership. Did they say how many cars they would be recieving. I made my reservation at the end of July after seeing the car in Paris. I'm thinking that even if they get the cars in Feb that I'm on the tale end of recepients.

jonnysan · 09-07-2007, 04:47 AM

I would bet on that one for sure, Bonnie, but no one really knows whether the reservations are all dumped into a pot or not at this point. Lots of gray area still exists in the whole marketing setup....at least what one can tell from the outside even as an insider.....

(Now there's a play on words!)

**SMART** · 09-09-2007, 11:29 PM

Looks like Smart Laguna Niguel is on top of things.... www.smartcenterlagunaniguel.com

ALephart · 09-18-2007, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gryphon

Just came back from visiting the Mercedes of Laguna Niguel dealership and they told me that yes, they are going to be selling the Smart Car. They will be the only dealership in Orange County and are going to be converting an existing smaller sales building to be used for Smart Cars only. The only new information I was able to get from the salesman was that they were informed that the cars would go on sale here in Feburary of 08. The salesman had put in his reservation for one quite early, as soon as he heard that the dealership would be handling them.

Yeah thats old news.

I Posted that on Smartenthuisiast 2 months ago.

Aaron Lephart

**SmartCard** · 09-18-2007, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ALephart

Yeah thats old news.

I Posted that on Smartenthuisiast 2 months ago.

Aaron Lephart

yeah, but you didn't post it here! ;)

ALephart · 09-18-2007, 04:10 PM

Now that I have my post count up to 3 and can hopefully post URL's, I will be.

Aaron Lephart

SmartBob · 09-18-2007, 04:37 PM

Hypothetically: Cars do go on sale in Jan/Feb....what gets sold? A couple walk in off the street and say they want one. The dealer says, sorry you will only be able to reserve one to purchase about a year from now. We've got more cars reserved than we have manufactured. How's that gonna work? Anyone? Will dealers get some cars for the floor but won't be allowed to sell them? This is all just rhetorical of course but I'm impatient and want my Smarty NOW!

Then if March reservations get their cars in Jan/Feb will I (Aug reserve) be able to get mine Apr-May?

**SmartCard** · 09-18-2007, 06:04 PM

Unfortunately, simple math does not support that timeline. Assuming Smart will be able to produce and ship say 1,500/month (18,000 annual - should be higher)......It seems the entire first month of production will take care of only one day of orders - 3/19!!!
The second month of production (February delivery) would probably only round out the month of March reservations. SO it probably will take 8 months (next August!) to start delivering the past summer's (June) orders....and that's assuming a good deal of cancellations between now and then. I think you and I have a bit of a wait ahead of us!

paul c · 09-19-2007, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmartCard

Unfortunately, simple math does not support that timeline. Assuming Smart will be able to produce and ship say 1,500/month (18,000 annual - should be higher)......It seems the entire first month of production will take care of only one day of orders - 3/19!!!
The second month of production (February delivery) would probably only round out the month of March reservations. SO it probably will take 8 months (next August!) to start delivering the past summer's (June) orders....and that's assuming a good deal of cancellations between now and then. I think you and I have a bit of a wait ahead of us!

Maybe the math isn't so simple. I'm guessing, but I suspect that there a surge of "reservations" at the beginning in March from people who knew about the cars from trips to Europe or from the Zap effort. Then there was a dramatic drop off until the road show started in late May or June with the natural increase in publicity. We also don't have firm grip on the actual number of reservations or the percentage of people who will follow through on a purchase. It's almost certainly true that the first couple of months of production will be absorbed by the March people; but the April / May people may get their smarts fairly quickly thereafter. As I said, just guessing...