North Shore (Chicago area) Dealer?

[E-SMART]

Received an email notice on another "street smart" event, this time from what I think will be at least one dealer in the Chicago area - Knauz Automotive Group out of Lake Bluff, IL ... this area is commonly referred to as our North Shore out this way. The event is similar to the national ones put on by smart, to be held Tuesday, 9/18 at the dealership. I looked on the Penske site and while Knauz is also a MINI and MB dealership it doesn't appear to be owned by Penske. I signed up for this one, says that smart reps will be on hand so we'll see ... Autoweek had a quick article that list prices for the U.S. smart models were released (about the same as we've already seen) but I'm more curious about what additional options, etc. will be offered. We put our online reservation in and rec'd confirmation on 4/3/07 so hopefully we'll be among the the first year of customers!

[E-SMART]

but no comments, anyone else on the forum get the invite?

[SmartAmerica]

Knauz Auto Group has been a dealership since 1930, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Land Rover, MINI, Chrysler, and Buick & Panoz.

They are a perfect match for a Smart car dealership.



They have dealerships in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff Illinois. Knauz Continental Autos in Lake Bluff were among 64 Mercedes dealers nationwide to be named in the 2002 Mercedes-Benz "Best of the Best" Dealer Recognition Award, for professional excellence. William Madden is President& CEO of the Knauz Auto Group.

Knauz Chrysler Buick
775 Rockland Road
Lake Bluff, IL 60044

Karl Knauz
Land Rover Lake Bluff
375 Skokie Valley Hwy.
Lake Bluff, IL 60044

Karl Knauz BMW
407 Skokie Valley Hwy.
Lake Bluff, IL 60044

Knauz Continental Autos Mercedes-Benz
Knauz Mini
Knauz Maybach
409 Skokie Valley Hwy.
Lake Bluff, IL 60044
Phone: (847) 234-1700

[E-SMART]

They had two smart coupes being driven , a third (with leather) was in the shop as someone broke the seatbelt retractor?? Overall, very good experience, went with the wife during late afternoon, not a lot of people because it was by invitation only. Had a chance to get up to highway speeds (dealer is along Rt. 41) but otherwise a short trip. The smart america person putting folks in each car seemed to be confident in the info he shared. Interestingly enough he said all of the dealers had been selected, only waiting for formal announcements. Looks like Chicago area will be getting two, Knauz and Loeber Motors (both are big MB dealers). Confirmed that intro date should be Jan 1st but I'm sure that depends on all of the other stuff happening ahead of it. He also mentioned that Sirius will be the Sat radio (they had a booth there, but were packing up, so no additional info yet). Sirius is good, I've got it in my '06 Mazda3 GT so if offered would get it in the smart as well. They had a silver/black that was our color choice which looks great ... only negative at all is that the cloth seats appear to stain easily and it shows up on light colored seats so we'll be going with the leather option (hopefully they'll offer more than black) ... wife loved the car so hopefully we'll hear back from Knauz so we can take delivery in Jan!

[futurefortwodriver]

Loeber Motors had a roadshow event in September, and they said there is a 99% chance they would be the smart dealer for Chicago. I spoke with a rep there, and he said that you can sign up online and specify during the confirmation process which dealer you want to pick it up from (in my case, Loeber Motors). I love driving the smart fortwo, so I'm excited to pick it up from Loeber!

[E-SMART]

Apparently there were 3 dealerships to be considered for Chicago but of course a lot could change from this government posting, don't mention the third in these meeting minutes ... in it they say Knauz's will be

- Smart Center Lake Bluff

and Loeber's will be:

- Smart Center Lincolnwood

I sent an email to the sales contact that told me about the drive event so we'll see if they have made any more progress!

http://lakebluff.govoffice.com/verti...29493AD%7D.PDF

As there location is not on my way to anything haven't checked it out since the drive event ... I know we have at least a few Chicago area folks on this forum anyone else see anything going on ???

searched some more and found a single page site for Loeber:

http://www.getsmartchicago.com/about.html

and yet one more ... video a bit creepy!

http://www.myspace.com/getsmartchicago

last one for this post (promise) ... wish there was more for Knauz, the Lincolnwood location is close to my CPA at least

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/mar/485625573.html

[E-SMART]

Got this reply from the dealer contact at Knauz, this is great news for those of us in Chicago because now we have two confirmed:

From: Linda Allen (lallen@knauz.com)
Sent: Fri 12/07/07 9:45 AM
To: xxx

Mr xxx:
We can now confirm that the smart cars are coming to Lake Bluff in 2008, as part of the Knauz Automotive Group. We are currently finishing construction of our new smart showroom, and hope to start receiving cars in January. We expect to have additional information in the near future.

Thank You!
Linda Allen
Knauz Automotive Group

[E-SMART]

copy and paste from:

http://www.getsmartchicago.com/

January 02, 2008

An update from Chicago's smart center!

Hey, everyone! Get ready...smart center Lincolnwood's construction is 99% complete! Go ahead and check out the photos of our progress by clicking the link on the right side of the page called 'smart Construction - 12.31.2007'.

We are also looking forward to seeing our first fortwos arriving in Chicago in the middle of this month! This means that our first reservation holders should be looking to take delivery in the next few weeks! We will begin contacting reservation holders in the Chicago area within the next week or two to give you a status update.

What does this mean for our patient line holders in the reservation process? We'll also have a few demos to drive, and some official smart merchandise available. So come on in, meet Josh, our smart center Lincolnwood brand manager, or Billy and Colin, our two smart brand specialists, and check out the brand new smart fortwos! We can't wait to meet all of you!

Posted at 12:26 PM in smart center Lincolnwood News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

[E-SMART]

this was from today ... inside it appears that things are ready to go, very small showroom wedged next to Chrysler ... very low key ...

smart center Lake Bluff

[E-SMART]

and a lot of more space devoted, looks like they are just waiting for the cars and the sign out front ...

http://www.getsmartchicago.com/photo...120/index.html

smart center Lincolnwood (Loeber Motors)