smart center Orange Park - FL (Jacksonville)

[Chassol]

Just spoke with Mr. Tim O'Sullivan, president and chief executive officer of Brumos Motor Cars Inc. (our Mercedes-Benz and smart center dealer).

smart Center will be in the building between the new Mercedes-Benz building and Pre-Owned Vehicles building at the new dealership location in Orange Park, FL. The smart Center should be open by the end of January, 2008.

Very informative and straight forward. Docs fees will be $479.00 (he specifically advised their docs fees will be the LOWEST in the state of Florida) and smart hourly shop rate will be $100.00 (ouch) per hour. Dealer mark up on the cars is not that much versus what they have invested in the smart franchise and the supporting infrastructure.

Anyone that ordered from our area (Jacksonville, FL) will receive their car at approximately 12 months from $99 reservation date. I ordered my smart on 042807, also known as 1213 under the date scheme they appear to be using. He advised me I should see my smart the end of March or first part of April. He advised the vehicle should be built 60± days before delivery date. Vehicles being built in France, but shipping is from Germany. Our receiving port here in US just happens to be Jacksonville. The smarts are port prepped at the Mercedes-Benz facility (not at port area) here in Jacksonville.

The smart Center number is (904) 777-5900.

He was very cordial and took time to answer all my questions, which is pretty impressive when you realize he is president and chief executive officer of the entire Mercedes-Benz and smart center here in Jacksonville.

Hope this helps anyone here in Jacksonville and the surrounding area.

Best to one and all,

Chassol

[discodol]

I got this email from the Jacksonville\Orange Park dealer 2/2/08

Just a quick email to let everyone know that we are getting our first allocation of cars in on Tuesday (5th). I will be contacting those of you who will be receiveing your cars personally with more details for your smart. We should also have our demos for test drive as well as our vehicles for our showroom. All of you that have received conformation AND reservation numbers that I have contacted will be receiving your smart very soon and we will have more information about exact dates when our computers are up and running closer to Tuesday. Those of you who have yet to put down the $99 refundable reservation at smartusa.com, I highly recommend that you consider doing this as the wait time for vehicles is stretching out to 10-14 months nationwide. This is per smart usa, since all of the vehicles we will have will have been pre ordered. If you have any questions about the reservation process, when you can expect your smart, or any other information, please let me know.

Sincerely,


Alex Shelver
Mercedes-Benz Orange Park / Smart Car
7018 Blanding Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32244
904.253.7300
904.777.5900 ex 6766

[bobnyuma]

Originally Posted by discodol

I got this email from the JacksonvilleOrange Park dealer 2/2/08

Just a quick email to let everyone know that we are getting our first allocation of cars in on Tuesday (5th). I will be contacting those of you who will be receiveing your cars personally with more details for your smart. We should also have our demos for test drive as well as our vehicles for our showroom. All of you that have received conformation AND reservation numbers that I have contacted will be receiving your smart very soon and we will have more information about exact dates when our computers are up and running closer to Tuesday. Those of you who have yet to put down the $99 refundable reservation at smartusa.com, I highly recommend that you consider doing this as the wait time for vehicles is stretching out to 10-14 months nationwide. This is per smart usa, since all of the vehicles we will have will have been pre ordered. If you have any questions about the reservation process, when you can expect your smart, or any other information, please let me know.

Sincerely,


Alex Shelver
Mercedes-Benz Orange Park / Smart Car
7018 Blanding Blvd
Jacksonville, FL 32244
904.253.7300
904.777.5900 ex 6766

I had not recieved this e-mail but got a call from the dealer saying my car should be here in the next 30 +/- days. We'll see. Still not firmly decided on getting the Smart. Have a acre plot in mind to buy too, so funds need to be used carefully. Thanks again.

[jaxbchSmart]

this will be my dealer too! long haul though from jax bch. will put my car on a transporter this week from chicago.

[bmblbee]

I stopped by there yesterday.. If today's going to be a grand opening.. then they needed crews working all night. Putting up signage and finishing interior drywall it seemed.. Nothing was "finished" and the cars are still locked in some kind of impound yard on the other side of town. Go by the training center on southside blvd if you want to see your car locked away.

[jaxbchSmart]

i have a buddy who works for the new mb of orange park. he said 2 weeks ago that late january was the opening date. crazy how things get pushed back. in theory, i could get my car before they even open their doors, lol.
i am sure we will all look back at this time when dealers didn't have any demo cars or that they were not ready to open and smile. its is pretty cool that the idea of smart cars coming to the states is so new. i just got word that my smart will be on a truck from chicago tomorrow and could be here by sunday. pretty stoked.

[bmblbee]

yeah my friend is the "smart" technician... for mb of OP... Here's the latest info. Smart is now paying 1.8 Hours for dealer prep, alot more work and dealer warning stickers are having to be applied. 5 cars came into jax DOA. Shifters and computers. The license plate holder on the back isn't drilled. IE there's nothing to screw into. Factory calls for "valve adjustment" at 10k. His words... "if I can't hear it.. I'm not gonna check that ****". Said reliability has been a problem. I also spent some time explaining some basic nissan stuff to him and while I'm sure he's MB trained.. he's not swift. I'm not sure I feel I'd get good service from them if this is their attitude. Nothing against the mechanic.. I'd rather him be honest that BS me. If they're not going to pay him adequately to do his job then there's no reason being my other dealer is orlando which is scam city right now. I don't know about their grand opening but word on the street is that no cars showed up today.

[jaxbchSmart]

Originally Posted by bmblbee

yeah my friend is the "smart" technician... for mb of OP... Here's the latest info. Smart is now paying 1.8 Hours for dealer prep, alot more work and dealer warning stickers are having to be applied. 5 cars came into jax DOA. Shifters and computers. The license plate holder on the back isn't drilled. IE there's nothing to screw into. Factory calls for "valve adjustment" at 10k. His words... "if I can't hear it.. I'm not gonna check that ****". Said reliability has been a problem. I also spent some time explaining some basic nissan stuff to him and while I'm sure he's MB trained.. he's not swift. I'm not sure I feel I'd get good service from them if this is their attitude. Nothing against the mechanic.. I'd rather him be honest that BS me. If they're not going to pay him adequately to do his job then there's no reason being my other dealer is orlando which is scam city right now. I don't know about their grand opening but word on the street is that no cars showed up today.

ok thats scary. lol. interesting though. i would have to assume since its under the brumos umbrella they would make sure the standards are just as high as mb, porsche and their lexus stores. time will tell. thanks for the info.

[smartcenterJax]

Hello from smartcenter of Jacksonville. We will be receiving our first shipment of 41 smartcars in the month of February for retail. Just to clarify, smart has not changed their PDI hours to 1.8. It is still .8 hours. License plate holders are not drilled from the factory but there is a standard mounting process from smart to mount it. No big deal at all. If you have any questions, please contact us and we will answer your questions as quickly and accuratley as possible. Thank you and hello from smartcenter Jacksonville.

Randy, Alex, and Deniz

[bobnyuma]

Originally Posted by SmartcenterJax

Hello from smartcenter of Jacksonville. We will be receiving our first shipment of 41 smartcars in the month of February for retail. Just to clarify, smart has not changed their PDI hours to 1.8. It is still .8 hours. License plate holders are not drilled from the factory but there is a standard mounting process from smart to mount it. No big deal at all. If you have any questions, please contact us and we will answer your questions as quickly and accuratley as possible. Thank you and hello from smartcenter Jacksonville.

Randy, Alex, and Deniz

I must be honest. After reading all the treads and people comments, I am not overly happy getting the Smart I ordered. It would seem the dealers as usual need to feed on the frenzy of newness and we the customer must feed them. Any dealer only exists because of its customers. Over the years it has been felt by me that the dealer feels they are doing us a favor by selling a car to us. A lot of dealers have changed that attitude thankfully. But I dont feel good anymore about buying a Smart from the Georgia or Florida dealer association. I guess maybe I read to much here of the bad PR going on but hey there are a ton of dealers that are real hungary now to sell remaing 07 and the 08 on there lots. Not sure if I will get my smart, just dont have the fun I thought it would be.