This I don't understand at all

[bmx43]

Originally Posted by PassionforPassionCT

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.

yes, but that is the reason for your frustration. you ASSUME that the wait will be shorter. but that's an assumption based on no facts or history. it's the same argument as when people keep saying they assumed the mileage would be better than what the sticker said and then they are upset when it's not. the fact is that this and all factories have a capacity limit. just because the car only takes 3.5 hours to make, doesn't speed up anything if they can only make a set amount of cars with the staff/facilities in place. if they are at capacity, or not willing to add capacity, the wait will not get any shorter. this version of the car is new, but the build process is not. they would certainly, after 10 years, have a good idea on their capabilities and capacities.

you can hope and pray that it gets shorter, but you can't get angry when it doesn't because nobody ever guaranteed you or I a date a car would be delivered. the biggest clue i have is when i straight up asked the GM at my dealer what to tell people when they ask on wait time and he straight up said PAG has advised them to quote a year from date of deposit although they expect to beat that.

[bmx43]

Originally Posted by PassionforPassionCT

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.

well, first, it takes a minimum of 2 weeks to arrive at some ports, and as much as 4 weeks. cars aren't put on a boat the second they are manufactured. they have to be inspected there and then be transported to the port in France once a ship is scheduled to leave. then once it arrives in port, it has to be inspected again, then wait for transporter to pick it up to get to your dealer. this can be anywhere from 1 day to 15 days depending on transporter schedules.

and yes, tons of cars should be arriving any day now, but it doesn't change much really. my dealer told me that they have in excess of 1100 reservations and the have been told that they have an allocation of around 700 cars. they expect somewhere around 60 cars a month for the next year but don't expect to have enough cars in the 08 allocation for their demand if the reservations hold.

[meaux61]

PassionforPassion

I understand what BMX is saying. Please try to remember that reservations started in March 2007. That is at least 10 months of reservers before you need to get delivery. Yes, they can make a single car fast, but the delivery process takes time. I suggest that you let it go. Stop obsessing. I did. And now my car is on its way.

Meaux

[SmartCard]

Bottomline all.... its all speculation. The wait will average 10 - 12months for most people. Whether it picks up a little bit once they get their **** together, that remains to be seen, and would probably afford only a one month speed up anyway. Oh yeah, whats the big deal of two shipments to Baltimore next week....they were sending two shipments per week on occassion back in December!

[Smartdavis]

Anybody know how many cars fit on a ship? Take that number and divide by the number of open dealerships and get a rough idea of how many cars are likely to show up in the next few weeks. If the number of ships coming each month stays constant it would indicate that production for this year is pretty much set......at least it would give you something to do while you're waiting?

[bmx43]

Originally Posted by Smartdavis

Anybody know how many cars fit on a ship? Take that number and divide by the number of open dealerships and get a rough idea of how many cars are likely to show up in the next few weeks. If the number of ships coming each month stays constant it would indicate that production for this year is pretty much set......at least it would give you something to do while you're waiting?

the ship is not exclusive to Smart. they carry all brands at the same time.

[a2jack]

This has got to be the most mind numbing thread ever posted on this site.

A2Jack.

[Smartdavis]

I'm not sure about that. I thought "Poem to an Orphan" was pretty good.

[vanslam]

I agree with SmartCard.

[4-2NV]

Originally Posted by Smartdavis

A possibility occurs to me that maybe that was part of the plan all along. Get everyone to make a very modest deposit to gauge interest and then start up the marketing, and start shipping cars. They figure "who cares if they are orphans or not, someone will probably buy them". It was a simple concept. When enough reservations came in you start to sell the fact that the list was long and the cars would be scarce, and you better hurry up and get in there and buy one now. Nothing like a little anxiety to help things along. Then you leave the rest to the dealers who know how to take it from there.

There may be some substance to this. Interested buyers likely have a better sense of how the cars should be configured than the dealers. So by running the reservation system this way, a lot of orphans end up being created with the kind of color and option combo's that walk-in customers would want. Rather elegant system if you think of it that way. Sure, those in line feel screwed because an unwanted car was produced ahead of their firm order, but that would happen anyway if the dealers were allowed to order for lot inventory. So this is just nature taking its course. And the same customer can be on the dealer waiting list if they want to jump ahead of the line and take a car in the configuration that came available.

Mini Coopers were like this in the beginning-I was there. I ordered a Mini to be manufactured to my spec but the dealer had me on a list for cars that came in that were either dealer spec or orphans. I rejected the cars that comae up and ended up waiting for mine, but others got Mini's much more quickly this way.