After a year of waiting… I finally got my car yesterday! I can walk to the dealership from where I work, which is amazingly coincidental considering the lack of initial dealerships in the center of the US. Anyway, I was showed a letter from my salesperson that he received from HQ discussing the fact that they are trying to push a tax break through for this year for Smart owners. This would be similar to the tax break you’d get for buying a hybrid when they first arrived. So let’s keep our fingers crossed on that one! I am not sure if it is a country wide thing or just for here in KY. Either way, it’s a good initiative. Figured I’d share that news for those that might not have been aware. We’ll have to keep an eye on this one.
well, hopefully this is nationwide AND will allow for grandfathering of people who already took delivery! (not something that is effective, say, August 2008 and after)... this would be really cool.
Yeah, and while they're at it, the government should seriously consider granting free use of the High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes (a.k.a., "diamond" lanes) for smart cars. After all, the HOV lanes were intended to reduce congestion, and what's more purposefully built to reduce congestion than the smart? And no, motorcycles don't count, since they already can use the HOV lanes (at least in CA) or ride between lanes. ;)
I'll see if I can get a copy of the text. It was titled, 08 Smart ForTwo Taking Points... I guess it was like new cheat sheet for salesman. It talked about everything from safety to emissions to this in-progress initiative. Perhaps someone from smart center of Louisville can post the note here? Hopefully, I won't get anyone in trouble by mentioning this. I guess if it does happen, everyone will know about it rather quickly anyway.
A bit off to the side, but I have always thought the definition of HOV has been wrong. The test should have been how many UNoccupied seats are in the vehicle. Many times I have seen 7-passenger vans in HOV with two or three people only.
Shoulda' said "No more than two unoccupied seats" or something to that effect.
Please ask your salesperson for a copy of the letter and post it here. If its from HQ, they probably want to get the word out as much as possible anyway.
Just like almost anything else in politics, numbers gets our politicians moving. How about getting an online petition going to support this?
Maybe a "Smart Legislation" day with smarts owner all over the country driving to their state capital.
Quote:
Originally Posted by joelly3d
Anyway, I was showed a letter from my salesperson that he received from HQ discussing the fact that they are trying to push a tax break through for this year for Smart owners.
A bit off to the side, but I have always thought the definition of HOV has been wrong. The test should have been how many UNoccupied seats are in the vehicle. Many times I have seen 7-passenger vans in HOV with two or three people only.
Shoulda' said "No more than two unoccupied seats" or something to that effect.
Back to early aldopters.
I think it's related to the original post in that a tax break is intended to encourage the purchase a fuel-sipping vehicle with low emissions, which an HOV pass would also help encourage. And I do agree that the definition of high occupancy needs some rethinking. In some parts of CA, HOV by definition means 3 persons per car or more. So what are you supposed to do if you have two people in a two-seater? It doesn't make sense. I can see a definition being something like greater than 50% occupancy (e.g., 3 or more passengers in a car with 4 seats) or cars with at least 50% occupancy that also meet Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle standards and get more than 35 combined mpg under 2007 EPA tests.
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