Drove from central Washington to the Seattle area to pick up our smart and saw zero smarts until we arrived at the dealership. Our first look at a 451 was about 20 of them on the lot! Picked up our car, entered bumper-to-bumper traffic out of the area and have driven about 400 miles since and the only place we've seen another 451 was on the dealers' lot. As far as I know, we have the only 451 in central Washington state, although there are two 450s (which the owners paid BMW money for)
Hadn't bought a new car in quite a while and the experience has not improved with the passage of time. While the staff was pleasant, most of them had started within the last couple of weeks and were still learning about the cars. While there was no added markup on the car, they did try to convince us that an extra $5,000 in "protection" was a very good idea and would provide peace of mind. (And would have us paying over $21,000 for a passion coupe...) We were able to resist the temptation, but did spring for the rubber mats, which we got and cargo cover, which they will ship when they get it.
Frankly, the exclusivity so far is kinda fun and keeps us from having to learn a wave or secret handshake, but my smile muscles are getting a severe workout!