SMART Dealer and Service going out of business!! (Re: sc White Plains)

[rfernatt]

I'm about 250 miles from my nearest dealer (only 50 miles would be a blessing!), but I haven't returned to the dealer since I purchased the car. I have made stops at dealers in Annapolis and Devon, PA for service - I happened to be in the area for work travel and made time to stop.

While I was getting my 10K service and battery/trans upgrade in Devon, I only saw one looker in about 2.5 hours. But, I also witnessed a Brabus delivery (happy older couple). Devon had many orphans on the lot as well. Not even smart is immune from our current economic distression...

[padi176715]

I am between two dealers, 55 miles from either. I have been in the dealership on weekdays and there were very few lookers, but on the weekends they have a lot of lookers and the orphans are going out the door. Let the fun begin.

[Old smart]

White Plains closed for good or just "mothballed" until times get better?

[forestacademy]

Its not that they are closing the smart center, but that Ray Catena is closing its dealer group in the area.
I know my smart center may be a stand alone building, but it relys on the network of Bergstrom dealers arouns it with shared services. It doesn't have its own finance person, it shares that with the other dealers next door.
So for Ray Catena when Lexus, BMW, Mini, etc lost a tone of sales and need to close down a section of the company, smart goes with.

Hey Mods, Can we merge this with http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/for...usiness-20747/

[Old smart]

Originally Posted by forestacademy

... Hey Mods, Can we merge this with http://www.smartcarofamerica.com/for...usiness-20747/

Done.

[peterbra]

I understand all of those comments, and you are not wrong - it is the economy stupid, I get it. My real problem was probably my bad luck. I had to be towed to the dealer 3 times in a short period. Once I was towed there after I ran out of gas and it turned out that the gas gage was off, but I waited 5 hours before they figured that out. Then I drove 1/2 mile down the road to fill up, and the gears locked up and I was unable to get it out of Drive. Their mechanic drove over and couldn't get it fixed. Then the dealer asked me to get it towed back to them, 1/2 mile away. That after working on the car for 5 straight hours. I called SMART's main office and they couldn't have been any nicer or more understanding. They had me taken back, and arranged for a rental car at their expense until they fixed it.
I may be annoyed at the wrong people (Catena) and I may just have had a car with too many little problems, BUT smart company has been good to me and with their attitude I have no more complaints. Clearly the dealer prefers selling and working on his Lexus and Benz cars as their repairs are more than a new Smart.

[jmatero]

Another big plus for Scion's 2010 IQ... HUGE Toyota/Scion dealer network ad free scheduled maintenance.

[eqwalker]

Originally Posted by jmatero

Another big plus for Scion's 2010 IQ... HUGE Toyota/Scion dealer network ad free scheduled maintenance.

That is true.

If only the IQ wasn't so darn ugly....

[Twojjs]

Everyone who purchased or was to take delivery of their smart vehicle from the White Plains center was supposed to get a letter that the Ray Catena White Plains store was closing.



The nearest smart center from the closed down White Plains store is the smart center Manhattan about 25 miles, followed by smart center Fairfield in CT some 37 miles away and then smart center Smithtown and smart center Roslyn a 60 mile trip.

Catena's sister store in smart center in Edison, NJ. is nearly 60 miles away!

[Duckhunter]

Originally Posted by Twojjs

Catena's sister store in smart center in Edison, NJ. is nearly 60 miles away!

My nearest Smart center is 300 miles away.