This will not change until it is mandated by law. i absolutely loathe car dealers and am by no means sticking up for PAG, i just think your anger is misplaced.
You are correct, sir...
Each state has it's own laws governing what IS ALLOWED to be charged by the dealers...It is YOUR STATE's responsibility to make this "fee" reasonable.
If it's not what you like it's not the importers responsibility to change it...it's YOURS!
You and people like you have to get together to make the laws get changed. Otherwise, it won't happen. There's nothing Smart, PAG, or Daimler can do about it.
Lewis, I admire your conviction to your principles. I hope that your dealer sees the error in their ways soon enough for you to get your car.
Reasonable document fees are one story. Clearly the fees charged by your dealer are not reasonable and are just a way to gouge their customers.
I attended the smart road show at the Irvine Spectrum. It was one of the first, if not the first, stop on the tour. Dave Schembri was there working the crowd and answering questions. He was very nice, friendly, knowlegable and helpful. Along with a bunch of other questions, I asked him about smart's policy on dealers adding additional fees. He said that the dealer agreement specified that the dealers were not allowed to add fees, markups, market adjustments, etc. Smart's goal was for customers to have the same high level customer experience at each and every dealer across the company. Part of that experience would be that the price would be the same no matter which dealer you bought from.
Now that they are open, you can see that smartcenters are loosely modeled after Apple computer stores. At an Apple store, the design is simple, everything is neatly on display, there is a uniformity in the look, and the prices are @ Apples's MSRP. No matter which store you go to - you get the same service(let's hope) the same computers, and the same price with the same options offered.
Yesterday, I talked to Ken Crossman at the smartcenter in Studio City, CA. I asked him about additional dealer markups. He stated that the dealer agreement did not allow additional fees and markups. At his dealership, all cars will be sold at MSRP with no extra fees. He said all dealers have agreed to that as part of their dealer agreement. He said that either you believe in and abide by the spirit of the program or you shouldn't be a smart dealer. He said that they would even be selling their orphan cars @ MSRP. Of course, they already have a list of buyers and they might accessorize them a bit. But still, the accessories would be at the published retail price - not some inflated rip-off price.
Ken said that the reason they don't offer other wheel choices yet is that the stock wheels are part of the US market crumple zone, energy disipation safety system. The dealer agreement did not allow him to sell non-approved wheels as they could compromise the safety of the car. More wheels will be available at a later date but they will be designed and tested to meet smart's US safety specifications.
All smart usa needs to do to put a stop to this gouging is threaten dealer allocations or even better- how about PAG saying to dealers- no car gets delivered to you without a signed contract! At present the dealers actually have a built in incentive to kill off reservation holders- even on the up and up because then they don't have to pay PAG the $50 finders fee! And imagine how many people are walking in right now offering $ under the table. I know it's happening at Catena - already they have two lists PAGs and their own! They LOVE cancellations.
So please spare me the baloney about the law. All problems in the world can't be solved by politicians (in fact they make more problems then the can solve IMO). Smart USA has the power to immediately fix this issue for the buyer if they wished to- they don't wish to PERIOD!
No matter how PAG shills on this forum try to shift the blame PAG is where the problem is.
Sure have - but you know what Fish?- I know it's difficult for many to accept- but PAG is the problem not the solution.
Listen they could simply say to dealers- no deliveries without a signed contract with a reservation holder. That would give us some bargining power with the dealer to kill off these fees. PAG doesn't want you to have that power. That's also why you either do your deal (i.e. get gouged) with your assigned dealer or your car becomes an orphan that they make more profit on than if they sell it to you after your year wait. Lots of bargining power there eh?
Remember when we were told by PAG that if there is a cancellation the car would be offered to the next reservation holder? Well now many of our dealers are making their own lists of customers without reservations for the orphans and PAG is choosing to do nothing about that problem either.
I know business Fish- these were all hard decisions made by managers who know what they were doing and done to hurt the customers and help their sleazy dealer base.
Come on Fish- Penske didn't become a billionaire by being a fool. Really think PAG is blissfully unaware of all this? Think someone at PAG isn't reading this forum? Do you think with his 50 years of experience in the auto business this all was impossible to forsee? Think this subject never came up when they flew in all their dealers for that meeting?
IMO the PROBLEM is PAG- they see their interest being more aligned with their sleazy dealers than their honest customers. Birds of a feather?
How do you guys in the 1200-1300 reservation range feel about the orphans going to non reservation holders? Maybe THAT is a bigger scandal than the gouging?
IF PAG doesn't force dealers to offer orphans to reservation holders in order of the reservation, all your reservations are worth nothing except as a tool to lock you into a dealer with whom you have zero bargaining power.
Wrote to the President Schembri (for the second time- got an answer the first time about a different issue- no answer this time- I know he's Quietly fighting so hard for us - re: some PAG shills- just NOTHING the poor man can do).
What might get some result for you guys is the letter I wrote to the CEO of Smart in Germany letting him know how his subsidiary in the USA has adopted short sighted greedy US business practices not smart AG ones that would help build his brand in the USA.
Posted by Lewis - "How do you guys in the 1200-1300 reservation range feel about the orphans going to non reservation holders? Maybe THAT is a bigger scandal than the gouging?"
As a 1369 and my wife being a 1470, the bottom line for me is the fact that I will not be charged a "market price" that is $3,000 to $10,000 over MSRP! Frankly that's good enough for me. I went into my rezo with my eyes wide open and now knowing I'll be paying $595 dealer prep to my dealer will still not deter me. I can enjoy my new smart and re-sell it without any loss in equity for at least the first 18 to 24 months.
As they say . . . "never look a gift horse in the mouth!"
P.S. I used to sell Hondas (two weeks, before switching to Saab) and my dealer tacked on $5,000.00 to every Odyssey, with the salesman receiving only $100.00 of it!
All smart usa needs to do to put a stop to this gouging is threaten dealer allocations or even better- how about PAG saying to dealers- no car gets delivered to you without a signed contract! At present the dealers actually have a built in incentive to kill off reservation holders- even on the up and up because then they don't have to pay PAG the $50 finders fee! And imagine how many people are walking in right now offering $ under the table. I know it's happening at Catena - already they have two lists PAGs and their own! They LOVE cancellations.
So please spare me the baloney about the law. All problems in the world can't be solved by politicians (in fact they make more problems then the can solve IMO). Smart USA has the power to immediately fix this issue for the buyer if they wished to- they don't wish to PERIOD!
No matter how PAG shills on this forum try to shift the blame PAG is where the problem is.
OK man. sounds like you have it all figured out. clearly you're pretty inexperienced in the new car biz. good luck with that.
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