My Dealer Called!

[sharonlee]

Originally Posted by spoons

I fell in love with the smart in Switzerland in late 1997, and have been e-mailing smart about once a year since then, to see if there were plans to bring it out in the US.

So, I've been on their e-mail list for several years, and have been watching the news.

But after 10 years of waiting, about 5 trips to Europe and inflicting my squeals and giggles upon my fellow travelers anytime a smart was spotted, my dreams are close to coming true.

I received the call from Kuni in Portland, who's handling calls for the Denver center until they're up-and-running. Mid-February is my target date.

Got my VIN, and crossreferenced it to a list posted on another forum. Turns out, Einstein arrived in Baltimore a month ago. Poor baby -- I hope he doesn't feel unwanted.....

He's starting out life as a metallic red cabrio with a silver tridion and being interior, but as soon as I can manage it, will give him a facelift to make him lime green with purple paw prints. Wheee!!!!!!!!

Thanks for info...so far, all the early reservationists I have heard from have seen the car in Europe. After reading yours, my wait since May doesn't seem so long.

[sharonlee]

Originally Posted by sisyphus

Hey, Fred. You give as well as you receive. Many thanks for all your input!

Sharonlee et al. Just wanted to note here that Ashlee, my smart center Bloomfield rep, followed up the e-mail with not one, but two phone calls. I missed the first one, so she sent another e-mail and followed up with a second call. CUSTOMER SERVICE! It wasn't enough to leave a message. She really wanted to talk to a human being - me!

I think I'm going to like this kind of treatment!

Sisyphus,

Good to know!!! Have been a little apprehensive about hubby accidently deleting my email notice. Thanks.

Sharon

[smart cynce]

Congratulations again on the good news about your smart. I am really loving the lime green & purple custom paint idea! That is going to be so unique!

[kmeinhold]

woo hoo - pick up my smart early next week!

[pepcan]

what is your res#?

[smartco]

;) After only a 10 year wait like Spoons, my wife and I will finally be getting our Smarts. Similar story to many others. Drove and fell for Smarts in Germany many years ago. Almost bought the conversions last year but just could not justify the 25K when the same cars were in a Berlin dealership for 11,000 euro's (approximately $15,000 and that included the VAT).

Received the VIN number's from smart specialist Cynce at the Portland smart center. They are currently calling for Denver Deliveries. Our cars are in port at Baltimore (one discharged 12-23-07 & one 1-10-08). The cars will be delivered in mid February which is when the dealership in Denver plans to open.

We will follow closely all of you who are fortunate to get you cars in the next few weeks.

[Pivosmart]

Hello John -

We should have all reservation holders contacted by May 1 (for all reservations placed in 2007). We cannot provide a VIN until you have configured your vehicle. Please contact me if you have not received a configuration notice by the end of February.

Thanks for being patient.

[Beth in L.A.]

I gave Universal City Mini (the North Hollywood SMART dealership) a call today to say hi and introduce myself. The GM, Anna, was very sweet and glad I called to say hi. She explained the next call I should receive would be to confirm the configuration, ensuring that I still want it and then the car will go into production.

This process makes it sound as if receipt could be way off in the distance.

I was under the impression, and again, could be wrong, but assumed the request to configure was the start of the production process.

Sort of based on what I've been reading here and my reservation # of 1186 I got the impresson that I should have the car within the next 4-6 weeks.

I saw an email where Ken from SC said the confirmation should have the vin, but now not positive.......

So........anyone really really know what the process is, having actually gone through with it..... thanks

Beth

[bmx43]

Originally Posted by Beth in L.A.

I gave Universal City Mini (the North Hollywood SMART dealership) a call today to say hi and introduce myself. The GM, Anna, was very sweet and glad I called to say hi. She explained the next call I should receive would be to confirm the configuration, ensuring that I still want it and then the car will go into production.

This process makes it sound as if receipt could be way off in the distance.

I was under the impression, and again, could be wrong, but assumed the request to configure was the start of the production process.

Sort of based on what I've been reading here and my reservation # of 1186 I got the impresson that I should have the car within the next 4-6 weeks.

I saw an email where Ken from SC said the confirmation should have the vin, but now not positive.......

So........anyone really really know what the process is, having actually gone through with it..... thanks

Beth

it really is quite scary how clueless some of the faces of Smart seem to be. they really seem to be kept in the dark about lots of stuff. kind of lame.

i never received any type of phone call to confirm a config. it did it and it was done. the car will be here any day. if you are an 1186 and have config'd, then your car will likely be here in Feb i would bet. you VIN should be available but your dealer won't have that until they get the list of cars that are coming for Feb. apparently, Smart is only providing small amounts of info at a time which makes the problem even bigger. scary.

[SmartCard]

Beth, you will be asked to configure in the upcoming weeks. This will result in your order being sent to the factory...probably within a week or so after being configured. NO VIN will be issued when you configure since VINs are only assigned to cars IN production. We don't really know how quickly your order is built once its in the system. Once your car is built, then it is shipped by boat, another couple of weeks, then finally to your dealer. Cars arriving at dealers now were configured in September, so one estimate might be 4 months once you confirm...but the process could speed up a little perhaps, but my guess - no less then 3 months after you confirm. Hope that helps!

edit: sorry...misread your rezo number - you have already configured long ago! disregard the above!