NYC members, who's out there?

[dennyrex]

Thinking we should see who's around in the NYC area, maybe if there's enough interest, we can get our own sub-forum.
What are your thoughts on parking, congestion pricing legislation, etc. Seen the Manhattan showroom yet?

[dennyrex]

re: congestion pricing (NYC plan to charge $8 to vehicles entering Manhattan below 60th street, loosely based on existing Stockholm, London, etc. plans).
the UK smart site (which might give us a hint of the future or a leg up in the lobbying efforts) says-
"The smart fortwo's low fuel consumption makes it environmentally-friendly and inexpensive to run, but it could also save you even more money in the future. Under the current proposal the London congestion charge could be banded using CO2 in early 2008. With emissions below 120g/km, the smart fortwo would be exempt from the charge. Lots of other towns are planning similar schemes, so no matter where you are based a smart fortwo could start to make even more sense."

[rrrucke]

I'm a joint Chapter Member of NJ & NYC so count me in. I would love a break on parking, tolls & gas. Where do I sign on the Petition? :-) Thanks, Regina

[ladybugb]

A break on ez-pass/congestion pricing would be great. I'm very much looking foreward to parking my Smart in all those half parking spots in my Brooklyn neighborhood. btw, I'm a 1416 and have not gotten a config email yet.

[cooltoys]

Just got my car today from the Manhattan Dealer, I am told that it is third one they have delivered. Great people, process and facility are still a little rough.

Love to band together, especially if we can try to negotiate with parking companies like Central Parking and such.

[dennyrex]

>Just got my car today from the Manhattan Dealer

Contrats, first I've heard of!

>Love to band together, especially if we can try to negotiate with parking
>companies like Central Parking and such.

I hope so, but think it might take some show of strength in terms of numbers, critical mass as they are so fond of saying. which has been slow to build. This is an area though that we should be able to get lobbying assistance from PAG & the manhattansmartcenter. I have seen garages that have Vespa specific spots, so how hard can it be? ;-)

In the mean time, the NY Auto show is on March 21-30, six weeks out, at Javits Center, down a couple blocks from the Manhattan dealer. If we have enough deliveries by then maybe we can parade past Javits and meet up at the dealer. Then there's French car day, on (probably) July 13th, that should be a really good time to join the parade there, as the only French (manufactured) car currently sold in North America.