[SPDYII]

I'm new to this forum. It is a great forum and I have learned a lot. Their is a lot of fact here and a lot of speculation here. This would fall under the catagory of speculation.
I see a lot of people are expecting delivery of there cars in January. I also see that no one has received a call from their dealer yet to finalize their order. My understanding of the way this will work is that the cars are made to order and they don't start building the cars till they receive the order. It looks to me like time is growing short for January delivery, because the order still has to be made, and the car built, and the car shipped over seas, and the car transported to the dealer. Do you see what I'm trying to say? Unless it is not how it has been presented to us and they have already started to make cars with out the final orders. It is just food for thought.
I have a long time to wait. My number is 1394. I might see mine in 2009 if I'm lucky. I hope it's sooner.

 

[MicroNut]

A Theory

My understanding, based on what Roger Penske said at the recent smart launch, is that reservation confirmations (5000 to date) are being used to create the initial factory orders. Follow up from the dealers will take place as and when the dealerships are ready. At which point, either the customer signs a sales agreement and the car will be theirs when it arrives, or the customer declines and the dealership is free to offer the car to someone else when it arrives.

At this point, with such a huge waiting list, there is little risk to PAG or the dealerships with this approach. If the theory is correct, the very first customer cars are probably already built and on their way to the US, on schedule for early 2008 delivery.

Down the road, once all the dealerships are up and running and the waiting list has thinned out, this process will probably change. At that point, the customer might still initiate the order online, but would then have to sign a contract with the dealer within a few days and before the factory order is placed.

 

[cesarmor]

If it helps any, I called the Smart 800 number because I wanted to see if I coud change something in one of my cars. They told me that the order had already been submitted to the factory and the car was being built. This was 2weeks ago. I wanted to see about eliminating the PS since I do not think it is nesesary. If what they said was true and my car was already being built 2 weeks ago then I am sure it is finished and probably on the first boat over by now.

 

[Old smart]

It is my information that it takes 2-to-3 weeks from the time that an order (from anywhere in the world) is received by smart GmbH until it is processed and built and ready to move out of the Hambach facility. It would be interesting to know the time interval between when you confirmed and when the order was received by smart GmbH. But, that is asking too much.

 

[cesarmor]

Here are some approximate figures (from Memory)First one was confirmed in early August and second one about a month later. Both were already being built when I called 2+ weeks ago. This is what I was told but then again it may not be the whole truth. It does seem to correlate with what they told me at the road show that the first ones would be getting here as early as late December.