Perhaps I am missing something. You can go to the website, order a car for $99 and wait for that very car to arrive. After you do that, you go to your dealer, ask if they have an orphans list. Get your name on that list as well if you aren't too picky and increase the chance you may get a car sooner. Seems simple enough and worked fine for me. I suspect it will for others as we go on.
Sorry, but I think you will find if you read it again you will find that it says you may not have a seat if you stay in line because all the seats maybe gone once you are able to get inside.
haha. no. sorry. they aren't going to run out of cars...you seem to a bit confused in the process. they aren't going to make 30k cars for the US and then say, sorry, that's all for you. they will simply space the deliveries throughout the year and then roll into the '09 model year. not sure what you really are expecting? many people including me waited 10 months for their car to be delivered. why should it be any different for you or anybody else?
Seems to be a rather piss poor way of running a business thru PAG. No real information even though we are "insiders". Think there was a few too many ideas on how this show was suppose to have been run. After almost a year in the planning, someone should of had a better system in place by now, or at least I would of thought so. Or is it just me???
No it is not just you. We are told that if we wait patiently till March we will get some information. Exactly what that information is I can't tell you. I'm not holding my breath. The thing that people that reserved their car in March or April of 2007 don't seem to understand is that they knew that by the end of February 2008 they would have a car. Yes they didn't get any information either while they were waiting but they new within a month or two when they would get their car. Things have changed. Now if you reserved your car in Oct., Nov., or Jan. of 2007 you have no clue when or if you will get a car. Will it be Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec., etc.... Will you even get a car in 2008? There is no one that will step up and answer that question. We are told just be patient and everything will work out or not. While we are being patient you see people getting orphans without reservations. We see cars on e-bay. We see cars on other internet sites for sale. We see people getting two cars. We see people that reserved after us getting their conformations. Still we wait, not knowing. My dealer was suppose to be open by the end of January. Now he says he may be open in March.
No it is not just you. We are told that if we wait patiently till March we will get some information. Exactly what that information is I can't tell you. I'm not holding my breath. The thing that people that reserved their car in March or April of 2007 don't seem to understand is that they knew that by the end of February 2008 they would have a car. Yes they didn't get any information either while they were waiting but they new within a month or two when they would get their car. Things have changed. Now if you reserved your car in Oct., Nov., or Jan. of 2007 you have no clue when or if you will get a car. Will it be Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec., etc.... Will you even get a car in 2008? There is no one that will step up and answer that question. We are told just be patient and everything will work out or not. While we are being patient you see people getting orphans without reservations. We see cars on e-bay. We see cars on other internet sites for sale. We see people getting two cars. We see people that reserved after us getting their conformations. Still we wait, not knowing. My dealer was suppose to be open by the end of January. Now he says he may be open in March.
listen. we all understand your frustration. however, i just saw your rez number of 1394. now i'm really confused on what you expect??? you are exactly 221 days behind the first deliveries. by that date alone, you are 7 months behind the first reservers. if the schedule holds as it did for us, you likely won't hear anything for at least another 2 months, maybe 3. that's the process that we have all been through and you are neither getting more or less info than any of the rest of us. there are thousands of reservations ahead of you who also won't hear anything for months. of course that could all change if the production numbers go up. who knows. my guess is that you have a very long wait ahead of you, just like anybody else who reserved on 1394.
I reserved in April of 07 and am an 1198, I haven't been told anything. I did configure in November but since we're getting into February pretty quickly do you think I am in for a notice of some sort? I'm not holding my breath either. I am in Arkansas, 5+ hours away from the nearest dealer and totally blown off by PAG. and apparently the whole group. I still don't have any info from anyone.
Bmx, you argument doesn't hold any water.. why? Because the people that reserved earliest I think would have had to wait the longest. Everyone knew that the car wasnt going to premiere until jan 08. So those reserving in march knew they had a long wait to get the car based on the simple fact that it was 6+ months until the car can be sold in the US. Now those who reserved in Fall/winter shouldn't have to wait that long. There is no more prep to launch the product. Its here, so why the wait? I highly doubt it would take as much time as it did to launch the brand here, than it will to simple build cars and ship them over. The delay is now soley in the hands of smart and PAG. No more emission testings, crash test, legal issues. Its all done and completed, so those who reserved in oct should for sure not have as long a wait as those in march. Then again I am basing this off of the fact that Daimler is effficent in production. The cars in the showrooms I have been in were built in either nov or dec 07, so effectivley they waited a while to get here. Now of the orders are already put through, I am guessing we are getting pretty far down on the list of what cars were built for who. maybe even into early summer now (reservation wise) that cars are built. So I think that the wait time from configuration should lessen and lessen (as it should) People who reserved in december will not wait as long as those in march.
Bmx, you argument doesn't hold any water.. why? Because the people that reserved earliest I think would have had to wait the longest. Everyone knew that the car wasnt going to premiere until jan 08. So those reserving in march knew they had a long wait to get the car based on the simple fact that it was 6+ months until the car can be sold in the US. Now those who reserved in Fall/winter shouldn't have to wait that long. There is no more prep to launch the product. Its here, so why the wait? I highly doubt it would take as much time as it did to launch the brand here, than it will to simple build cars and ship them over. The delay is now soley in the hands of smart and PAG. No more emission testings, crash test, legal issues. Its all done and completed, so those who reserved in oct should for sure not have as long a wait as those in march. Then again I am basing this off of the fact that Daimler is effficent in production. The cars in the showrooms I have been in were built in either nov or dec 07, so effectivley they waited a while to get here. Now of the orders are already put through, I am guessing we are getting pretty far down on the list of what cars were built for who. maybe even into early summer now (reservation wise) that cars are built. So I think that the wait time from configuration should lessen and lessen (as it should) People who reserved in december will not wait as long as those in march.
no water?? are you serious?
everything you said is conjecture. you or nobody else knows the lead times on the car. if you go into the dealer today and put down your $99, they are telling you to expect a ONE YEAR wait. why should that be any different?
what you seem to be confused on is they don't just turn up the production. the same factory is making the cars that has always made the cars and they continue to make all the cars for all the countries. they can't/won't just decide that the next 30k cars are for the US market. it doesn't work like that. they still have to make cars for europe and canada, and asia, etc. at the same time they are running the US spec cars. obviously PAG has a number of cars that they are guaranteed to receive in a year's time. likely, they are guaranteed X cars per month for the next 12 months. that's how it works friends. i config'd on Sept 1 and got my car in Jan. that's a 5 month window from config to delivery and that seems to be the process that is in place.
I checked autotrader.com for smarts a few minutes ago. There were 34 new smarts available, all from the dealers who own smart dealerships, including one of Penske's own. No pictures, but they do list VINs. The prices seem to be at MSRP. Does this suggest cracks in the reservation system? An advertising ploy on the part of the dealers, or perhaps a different way to move the orphans? Whatever it is, I found it disturbing.
From the way it was explained to me, the dealer's inventory is automatically uploaded to the autotrader site. They have to manually remove or pull a car from the site. Most likely, the listings without pictures you saw were pulled but had not yet been deleted (I found my VIN# on autotrader even after I already had the car in my possession - it was gone later).
I still dont think you get that the wait time that the early reservers had was certain. They knew that they had to wait till at least jan. That was the EARLIEST the car would be available Now I am not saying that my wait will be shorter than yours. But I am sure that the wait times will not be that long. Your taking into account the months when the car was not available, at all. I configured on the 1st of febuary. I dont expect 5 months for the car because all that was necessary to sell the car here has been completed. Now they just have to build it and ship it over. It takes less time to build it simply because its a small car and an efficent process. Somewhere I read that it only takes 3.5 hours to build a car. Its too early to tell what lead time is, simply because the entire wait time scheme is mis-construed. Waiting for the car to be available in the US should not be taken into account
What I am trying to say is that there is no guranteed wait time simply because the wheels are already turning so to speak, so its going to take alot less to keep them turning now.
And to try and make myself clear, where its hard for me to do so. I said earlier that the cars that were just delivered in late January all had November or December build dates. So what were they doing for a while? Sitting at dock. That time should not be taken into account for cars coming in now where they have a dealer to recieve them. The more I think about it, I think were going to be seeing ALOT more deliveries by the end of the month. Rumor in another thread is 2 shipments to Baltimore by the end of this week alone.
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