Wow... talking about throwing in the towel at the wrong time. Must not have been a Penske dealership, so mis-steps might have been taken.
This would be a far worse indication if this were a Penske dealer.
I picked mine up at Laguna Niguel. I was hoping to take delivery in Torrance but plans for that site were canceled. Now open, Cerritos is a lot closer to me for service.
For Southern California, Laguna Niguel was an odd location for a smart center. Located in the open spaces of southern Orange County where the average household income is quite high. By the average resident's thinking, there is no need to buy a car that is easy to park in small spaces, easy to drive in crowded narrow streets and is thrifty on gas. The wide open spaces around Laguna Niguel suffers from none of those problems.
Other areas in metro-LA do have those problems so it would be logical for just Laguna Niguel Mercedes Benz to stop selling smarts and just sell cars to a client base that wants E-Class and S-Class cars. Perhaps, maybe a C-Class for the daughter.
Not everybody in the OC is rich but unless your commute takes you north of the Orange Curtain, your mindset is generally not one to buy a smart. Even if you were an enviro-phile, you'd probably buy a Prius, Civic or Ford hybrid.
Could be that Laguna Niguel is too affluent an area, but it's was the only dealer in Orange County and there are plenty of congested O.C. beach cities (Laguna Beach, Seal Beach, Newport Beach) that are affluent yet can benefit from a tiny car and plenty of affluent parents that would buy their kids a cute little inexpensive car (albeit not my spoiled kids).
there are plenty of congested O.C. beach cities (Laguna Beach, Seal Beach, Newport Beach).
Sounds like my kind of commuter traffic congestion. Too bad I can't get a job there. I generally avoid those areas during the summers and on spring break weekends but a fall morning coffee in front of Huntington Beach Surf and Sport after a beach bike cruise is very appealing.
Their website, smartcenterlagunaniguel.com is gone. Still shows up on the smartusa.com dealer search but I hear that's going to be updated by the 15th.
Since I don't have my smart yet, I've been monitoring three dealers in my area.
smart center Lake Bluff is selling really slow, but they have a small inventory.
smart center Lincolnwood (aka Loeber Motors) - I see new Inventory, they must be selling...oooooh, they've got the same smart as Milwaukee does...2/1 chance!
smart center Milwaukee - is selling 1 per month (unless they're gettting $$$ from reservations), the smart I want has been sitting there for about a year.
Tough call, if they close up shop in your area, it could be a PITA to get warranty work. Service you can do yourself and parts you can mail order.
My biggest worry is not the local dealers, it's Smart USA. If they don't think it's profitable, they may pull out of the U.S. just like many foreign car companies that didn't make it here. We can then probably still get parts from Canada, but will our warranties be honored by MB?
I think it's cool if they pull out of the U.S. I remember when Triumph pulled out of the U.S. market in 79, so I got one dirt cheap. It was a blast to drive a rare car and there were plenty of places to get it serviced but that was car that was around a while.
What's funny with Buell closing it's doors this year is that sales of remaining motorcycles in inventory are actually better than ever.
Well, we have to let the smart sit in the US for a bit and we have to let non-MB mechanics have a go at some smarts if we ever plan to get service anywhere like normal cars.
But owning a rare car sounds really fun...it's one of my crazy ideas around the roadster...
But like someone had said earlier, smartUSA may be in the green, it's just the dealers that need to survive on very little income.
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