I spoke this morning with Miguel Bartoli who will be the sales manager for Smart Cars at Lokey Motors in Clearwater, Florida. He has just returned from an initial dealers meeting in San Jose last week. Things are still being held pretty close to the vest but this is what he told me.
1. There will be three dealers in central Florida. Lokey in Clearwater, A MB Dealer in Sarasota and an MB dealer in Orlando. All three are under construction with Sarasota nearing completion but the other two will not be completed until Feb or March. All three will likely be able to deliver cars in Jan even if construction is not complete.
2. There are yet to be any "official" dealers because no one has signed final dealership papers. However they were told at last weeks meetings that they have obviously been approved or they would not have been invited to the meetings. Miguel does not know when SMART will officially announce the dealerships.
3. Miguel indicated the first shipment of cars in very close to being shipped from France and the expectation is that cars will be here by the 1st of January. He reiterated that orders will be filled in order of confirmations.
4. He continues to believe that the cars will arrive equiped as indicated in the confirmation process.
That is all I could learn this morning if I hear more at any time I will share it with you.
Since it takes two weeks on the boat, the first wave of cars has probably set sail even as we speak! Anyone out in Baltimore who can take some spy photos at the WWL port?
I spoke this morning with Miguel Bartoli who will be the sales manager for Smart Cars at Lokey Motors in Clearwater, Florida. He has just returned from an initial dealers meeting in San Jose last week. Things are still being held pretty close to the vest but this is what he told me.
1. There will be three dealers in central Florida. Lokey in Clearwater, A MB Dealer in Sarasota and an MB dealer in Orlando. All three are under construction with Sarasota nearing completion but the other two will not be completed until Feb or March. All three will likely be able to deliver cars in Jan even if construction is not complete.
2. There are yet to be any "official" dealers because no one has signed final dealership papers. However they were told at last weeks meetings that they have obviously been approved or they would not have been invited to the meetings. Miguel does not know when SMART will officially announce the dealerships.
3. Miguel indicated the first shipment of cars in very close to being shipped from France and the expectation is that cars will be here by the 1st of January. He reiterated that orders will be filled in order of confirmations.
4. He continues to believe that the cars will arrive equiped as indicated in the confirmation process.
That is all I could learn this morning if I hear more at any time I will share it with you.
In addition to this, I've talked to Mercedes/Maserati of W. Palm and they are going to be a smart dealer also. I'm thinking that may be the closest for me....about 85 miles away....I'm in Vero Beach. And I ordered my car on Thursday, Nov. 15, having put my reservation in Ap. 7. We're getting there! Sure looking forward to this! We're shifting paradigms....and it's about time.
In addition to this, I've talked to Mercedes/Maserati of W. Palm and they are going to be a smart dealer also. I'm thinking that may be the closest for me....about 85 miles away....I'm in Vero Beach. And I ordered my car on Thursday, Nov. 15, having put my reservation in Ap. 7. We're getting there! Sure looking forward to this! We're shifting paradigms....and it's about time
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I'm also in Vero Beach, and I talked to Mecedes of Palm Beach. The sales mgr there said we would probably be directed to that dealership. I registered on Apr 21, but haven't received my confirmation yet.
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I'm also in Vero Beach, and I talked to Mecedes of Palm Beach. The sales mgr there said we would probably be directed to that dealership. I registered on Apr 21, but haven't received my confirmation yet.
So, it looks like there will be at least 2 smart cars in Vero! Mine will be yellow/black/black. Your's? We'll have to look for each other. I live near the Vero Beach Country Club.
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