Smart Center Laguna Niguel Out of Business

[SmartMadness]

This dealer was in a location that was very difficult to find and from my personal dealings treated the smart as an afterthought. MB was their main focus.

When I bought my first smart from them I almost walked out because of how rude their MB people where which I had to deal with when buying the car. The only reason I did not walk out is because I waited over a year for my car and they had it. If it was not for that I would have walked.

This was not a corporate store (from what I was told) and did not meet their numbers. Due to this it was closed. While it is sad to see, it was kind of expected. They did little to promote the car and seemed to show little interest in making it a success.

Over the next several months you will probably see more stores close that were doing a poor job promoting the brand. When the economy is great even bad businesses tend to make a profit. When the economy starts going down, the weaker business closes and the strongest typically survive. That is how it is with every business and I am sure that is the same with smart.

I doubt you have to worry about smart throwing in the towel. With this many cars in the US you won't have an issue getting parts or getting it serviced. If you ever do give us a buzz and we'll help.

[h20m0f0]

Well I have said it before and I will say it again.... I don't think Las Vegas will be around very long for the same reason Boris just spoke about. Except it's not MB it's Bently and Hummer's

[kitttie]

I too purchased my car from Laguna Niguel. Ironically, they left me a phone message today saying that my car is due for the transmission upgrade and to contact them. The message did say they'd be open until the 15th. I had the upgrade done at Cerritos quite a while back. I had good dealings with Laguna Niguel, but Cerritos is indeed closer to me.

[buellwinkle]

The MB dealer that it shares the lot with is probably one of the top 10 MB dealers in the country. They put Smart right up front so they had good visibility although it is a bad location. When they were Mission Imports (where the Jag dealer is now), it was a very good location with freeway visibility.

They did not promote the brand, even when I offered to have them be a sponsor for the Laguna Niguel parade, they declined (MB is a sponsor), did not even want to participate as an entry or part of the existing entry. Whats funny is they have their biggest marketing push for Smart in the past few weeks. I was getting like 2-3 emails a week from them. To me, their biggest problem was service, the worst service dept for both Smart and MB. So although very far for me, Cerritos is probably a lot better, can't imagine it's worse.

I'm sure we can count on Boris to get parts for us if Smart goes out of business altogether.

[pabille]

They did hit customers with a barrage of email ads weeks before the closing. Most likely it was to reduce inventory of both orphans and stocked parts.

[IH8OPEC]

So a sh*t dealer went t*ts up? I say good riddance!

Now all smart has to do is complete the mission and whittle the rest of these types of dealers out of existence and emplace dealers that actually want to sell and service these cars!

[BobDiaz]

I'm not sure if the dealer was S*** or not, but in hard times, the lower performing dealers are very likely the first to go. There's a good side and a bad side to this. As times get better, the better performing dealers are still around to catch the increase in sales. However, you have less dealers out there.



Bob Diaz

[jefferios]

...So now one is on reservation anymore?

Are Orphans still available!?!

[buellwinkle]

I'm waiting to reserve my electric Smart as soon as they are available even if I have to go to Canada to get one once they stop sending them to the U.S. Once the O.C. dealer for Gem went under, there hasn't been many new Gem's on the road and a Smart is like a Gem with a gas motor.

[smark]

Originally Posted by buellwinkle

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.

Anybody know a good Smart mechanic in South O.C.?

Looks like there's 5 other Smart dealers in the LA area.