Dealer fees..

[jwight]

Originally Posted by vanslam

Looks like the thread I started in General Discussion section was moved to Smart Car Community/News and Rumors/Delivery. Evil empire strikes again.

Evil? No, just trying to keep common threads in one place; it's easy to put everything in General Discussion, but then each thread becomes harder to find IMO. The dealer fees threads relate to the delivery experience, so that's where most ended up. There are a couple in FAQs as well.

[parnami]

Yeah, I know the guy who's moving the threads around is trying to be helpful by keeping the boards organized. However, the reality is, such activity often makes the boards unreadible with them running sluggishly and threads going lost, skipped over and thus, unread. I wish he'd just leave things alone.

[gamernotwatcher]

Hooray for the organization effort!!!

[meaux61]

You can find your threads with a search, or just look for Today's posts on the left...

Meaux

[smarTIKI]

Originally Posted by parnami

I wish he'd just leave things alone.

At the very least, if you're going to move threads around, you should leave either a permanent or expiring redirect in place. Especially for a board like this, that has a perplexing number of forums and sub forums. You're going to end up with members screaming "censorship," thinking their posts have been deleted, when, in fact, they've just been moved somewhere else. And, of course, tell people that their posts have been moved, and they may complain still, saying that if they wanted their posts in some other location, they would have put them there themselves. Ah, yes, the joys of administering a forum!

(I own and administer a vBulletin forum, myself.)

[parnami]

Originally Posted by meaux61

You can find your threads with a search, or just look for Today's posts on the left...

Meaux

Usually, I just click on the first unread thread and continue down. All this moving around creates gaps...skipping over some of those threads, something about which I'm unaware unless I happen to keep the window listing them open at the same time. ANNOYING!

[Chassol]

Addressed to:

Jeff@SenatorJeff.com - Senator Jeff Atwater, the next President of the Florida Senate.

earls@earlstewarttoyota.com - Car dealer in Lake Park, FL - http://www.earlstewarttoyota.com/.

If I were looking at a Toyota in Florida I sure know which dealer I'd go to.

Dear Senator Atwater,

I am writing you in regards to the dealer fees issue described at http://oncars.blogspot.com/.

Mr Earl Stewart is absolutely correct on this issue. It is nothing more than additional profit for the dealer. I have no problem with a dealer making a profit, but not this way.

You may wish to look at this forum for the new smart car, that is being sold in the United States starting this month - Dealer fees...

It covers the entire U.S. , but you will note that Florida dealerships are in the list several times and have the highest fees too.

I know the State of Florida might not like giving up the sales tax revenue on the fee, but that money I would spend elsewhere within the state - probably gasoline.

Some states have written laws limiting dealer fees.

It might pay your to remember buyers are voters and I for one do vote. There are a lot more buyer voters than their are car dealership owner voters.

You will find that I have included this entire email in the above smart car thread for one and all to see.

I am buying a smart car from the dealership in Orange Park, FL in March or April. I could use the $479.00 for car insurance, gasoline and many other use that help my family during this economic downturn that appears to be headed towards a recession.

Senator Atwater, please consider acting on this issue for your constituents rather than favored groups such as the car dealers who can afford high powered lobbyists and fat contributions.

THIS is especially disturbing - "quotes from the FADA magazine, Velocity, “Senator Atwater- to support his campaign for Senate because he has promised to help us again this year-goal is $50,000.” Dealers have already contributed $24,500."

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you will consider my request.

Best Regards,


Chassol

(Left my name & address out)

[scifiguy9755]

Meaux61:
SmartcenterAnnapolis, MD $100 max may be less as I havn't done paperwork yet. Document fee limited to $100 by Md law and is NOT required so can be negotiated. ;)

[jwight]

Per Kwagar's new post, Orlando has rolled their fees back to $499 and have sent him a refund.

[vanslam]

Yes here is his posting. Hey were is Sharonlee???

Orlando makes changes
I recieved a call this afternoon from Julie at the Orlando smart center to inform me that they have reduced their prep fees from $799 down to $499 and they will be sending me a check for the $300 difference. She also informed me that they will be picking up the smart 1 extended warrenty program to replace the one offerred to me which was twice as expensive. They are also no longer tinting windows unless requested by the reservationist.

I called Dave Schembri and thanked him for his support and action in speaking with the dealership.

My feeling now is that Orlando has made the necessary changes and are now at least competitive with most of the other Florida dealers. While I believe they made these changes under duress I am pleased that they have made them and pleased that the power of the people continues to work.

Thanks to all of you for your support as well as that of smart USA to correct this situation.

We could argue ad nauseum that this should never have happenned and that the Florida dealers continue to be too high in their fees but IMO the deal is over, they have made the changes needed and I can now move on too more important issues.

Thanks again to all of you for your support and thanks to Dave Schembri who acted on the information and dissatisfaction that I shared with him!

One down.....