jonnysan-
I must disagree- I read the eBay listing and the lister offers to buy the car himself and THEN sell it to the bidder. As I understand the PAG agreement this would not violate it since the reservation holder would actually buy the car from PAG. In any event I think the legalities are not the core of the problem.
What I think the core of the problem is, revolves around the cynical decision of PAG to with hold simple information from the reservation holders which we have a right to have after investing our $99, which, I believe they have calculated, has the effect of artificially raising the demand.
If I am typical, I would be perfectly ok with waiting whatever the time would need to be if I knew I was number ??? on the waiting list and x number of cars are scheduled to come in per month. I could then calculate approximately when I could expect my car.
People become artificially impatient when they have no way of knowing when or if they can expect their Smarts and thereby are tempted to go for these rediculous schemes particularly if they are affluent. While there will always be a small group of people who will WANT WHAT THEY WANT WHEN THEY WANT IT, and are prepared and able to pay for it (under our economic system this is ok), fostering the greedy schemes, I do think a significant proportion of reservation holders would be fully prepared to wait their turns if they knew what the wait will be, thereby calming the market.
To our PAG apologists on this forum- Would it really be so difficult for PAG to share this SECRET information (albiet with the commonsense proviso that things might not go exactly as planned)? Unfortunately for us I can only conclude PAG sees this situation as in their interest because of the "buzz" it brings them in the media, while scantimoniously maintaining that they are treating the buyers fairly with the reservation system.
By keeping us all intentionally in the dark (unnecessarily in my view) PAG has attempted to induce the same sort of publicity and market frenzy that greeted the first year of the Mini Cooper. While that will "juice" sales in the short run by making the Smart a sort of prize in a contest (particularly to the impressionable), in the long run I think many people will have a real bad taste in their mouths and shun the brand (as I have shunned the Mini) when this baloney proliferates as, given human nature, it is bound to.
Additionally it leaves us uncertain about when to start to sell our current cars privately, how to save up (for the young buyers) for the purchase, dealing with our insurance companies, whether to repair current vehicles to keep them going until they could expect their Smart, and many other practical matters connected with a car purchase. All and all it is pretty cynical and anti consumer behavior by PAG in my opinion and starting to alienate me from this whole cultural crap that is coming along with our simple little cars.
BTW nothing would please me more than to have PAG prove me wrong by revealing the delivery information we SHOULD have (along with warantee terms, cost of delivery and dealer prep, whether dealers will be prevented from gouging us) instead of jerking us around with secret codes etc..
here is home phone number you might want to wait until 2:00 AM to call because I'm sure his line will be busy.;) I cut and pasted it for Ebay because I think Ebay will block this sale if you want to call it that.
Today
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