After reviewing the information about delivery information for various people, I feel that the DDE is a big and positive step forward and is not broken, an insult, or one of the other negative comments stated. Smart USA is doing the right thing by getting this information out to the reservation holders. Sure those of you who reserved later in program or even 90 days after the start may feel you have to wait too long. However, you now have a 90 day delivery window, which a lot more information than you had before.
I reserved my car on the 8th day of program and until now I have not received any official information on when I will expect to get my car (no 90 notice, no VIN, or 30 delivery notice received by many others). Sure I got responses from my calls to the dealer and Smart USA, but they were always "it will be soon" and nothing more. From the DDE, I got the standard "its either in production or being shipped" in a 90 day window. I had hoped that the 90 window information would have been more definitive (i.e. it is now in production or it is in the shipping process).
For those of you that expected a FEDEX or UPS type tracking system, you should remember that these folks have a "package" in the system where they can make reasonable estimates of delivery times, but even these folks are late or lose a package. I think that the 90 day window is reasonable when you consider that the car has not been produced nor has a firm production date. It unreasonable to think Smart USA should give you a specific day or week for something that has not been built or has a firm production order.
Let us not forget, the French routinely go on strike, which could disrupt future production (i.e. trucking, rail, factory, etc. strikes are fairly routine in France). We are actually lucky now that France has a relatively new President and labor seems to be willing to set and watch for now.
So if you feel that you need to cancel your reservation "go ahead", you will either create an orphan for someone if you car is in production or you will free up a space for someone behind you. Will the orphans sell? Just look at the lists and length of the lists at some dealerships -they will sell as the supply is low and demand high.
For your information, my wife has her 30 day delivery notice for her car and she "one upped" me since she reserved 5 days after me and configured her car 10 days after me. Her DDE response says exactly the same thing as me, but we know her car is scheduled to arrive in Baltimore at the end of this week.
While I am not one of the people screaming about it, I definitely disagree that it IS in fact broken.
Look back at past Reserve to Config to Delivery times.... they do not correlate with an 18 month or more wait. As I have said before, hindsight is 20/20.
All good points. One other thing that occurs to me (just guessing here) is the possibility that with the dollar so weak right now the factory might be making more money on cars going elsewhere. I have read it would cost considerably more dollars to buy this car in Europe right now. If you were in France trying to decide where to send your cars maybe you don't want to make more for 2008. With the demand they are getting maybe it would make more sense to try to deliver a 2009 vehicle where they can move up the sticker price? I was surprised to see that my delivery window is May 2009-July 2009. I have a hunch it will be a more expensive car by then.
While I am not one of the people screaming about it, I definitely disagree that it IS in fact broken.
Look back at past Reserve to Config to Delivery times.... they do not correlate with an 18 month or more wait. As I have said before, hindsight is 20/20.
Last I checked, the DDE is NOT broken - seemed to work for me!
Now, if you're referring to the overall reservation process, well, yes...perhaps that has its problems.
Overall, the time from reservation to delivery in most areas is running around 12 months, not 18. Now of course there are problem areas, while the DDE data is still coming in, it is obvious that "demand" cities will exceed 15 months in most cases. Notable locations from the data are Annapolis and germantown MD, Irving and HoustonTX, Chicago, Atlanta, Florida, and the west coast. Obviously this emcompasses a good deal of the reservations (perhaps 50%?)
Currently it appears that most november (and some early december) configurations are "in production" with march to june deliveries. Overall, it appears that configuration to delivery is running around six months, however with larger variances in the most recent orders. For example, looking at configurations that occurred around feb 1, 2008 you can get a range of deliveries from may/july 2008 (KY) to as late as sept/nov 2008 (CA). The DDE for most March reservations jumps to late 2008 into 2009 and surely will be 2009 models by then. (I wonder if that jump includes time lost for summer vacation and model year changover period?)
I think that smartUSA felt pressured (by SCOA maybe?) to get something on the street and picked a roll-out time of "the end of March" (the bitter end). But perhaps they found that it was trickier to organize the data than they originally thought, and come High Noon PDT 31 MAR they had to release whatever they had, couched by disclaimers and conservative (g)estimates. With more time and better talent on the project they may be able to refine it as time goes on. Hope so. As the disclaimer invites, I will be checking into the DDE from time to time.
What makes me a little anxious with my AUG-OCT '08 window is AUG is the beginning of the French holiday season.
What annoys me is me local dealership was saying something like 3 months for delievery then I check the dde and is was saying lot longer. (November 08-January 09.) Which actually PO'ed me pretty good. If I have to wait 18 months from the time of reserving I think I might cancel it. I mean there are much better options out there with better gas mileage. When I reserved it said dealer contact in the the second half of 07. Now it is 08 and the only dealer contact I have had is me contacting them. If I had known it would take over 1 year for delivery it would have been a complete different story I think.
I reserved my car on 4/8/2007 and have a 1188 reservation number.
I configured my car on 11/13/2007.
The DDE says my car will be delivered between 1/9/2008 and 4/8/2008.
Today is 4/11 and I have heard from no one.
Any suggestions as to find out what is going on?
I have been offered 2 orphans - but my dealer is jacking up the prices on them by $3K on about $1K of product. I will not pay those inflated prices.
I still think that reservation holders should have first rights on orphans without being forced to take the unwanted add-ons.
Re: DDE
I don't think it is broken. I think it is a best guess, maybe it could be more accurate, but it gives us a window of opportunity. I suspect the later the reservation, the farther out the projection must be to allow for contingencies, but that also makes it less accurate.
My DDE was first - the no data statement. A day later it was 4/25-7/26/08. Then is started fluctuating over the next week by a day or two. Then suddenly it dropped to 3/3-6/1/08. I had gotten the call from my dealer that sometime in May through mid-June just prior to the drop.
Today smartUSA called to let me know the reconfiguration I attempted the first of the month couldn't be accompllished because the car was 'in transit' and that was okay.
I asked if smartUSA had a VIN and they didn't, but advised the dealer would be able to supply it - so I took a drive to the dealer and all they had was VIN Pending.
Not complaining, just adding information to the other posts. I think the attempt to communicate is good. Maybe it isn't perfect, but they are trying. Would I want to wait until 2009? I started, like others, a year ago. I think the car is worth waiting for. It isn't my only car, so waiting and anticipation in my case, is part of the process.
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