Q. Any car dealers/executive know about this?

[burtandnancy2]

I have ordered a Smart fortwo (Smart Car) and should get delivery in early '08. At this time, Penske is supposed to be setting up dealerships across the country. Does anyone know anything about how this is going. I get newsletters from Smart USA, but nothing new. Have any of you heard anything?

[BoatPI]

Thye have and I have drived smart cars in Canada. the gas ones do not give impressive mileage. Most up their are diesel and get about 70 mpg I believe.

[TheCarDudes]

My neighbor across the street in Havi has one. Haven't met them yet. Our principal who currently owns 9 other dealerships was going to get a Smart Car franchise. That was what I heard about 6 mos ago. Don't know the current status.

[RitcheyRch]

Always wondered when they would be available in the US. I know they didnt meet our crash standards. Drove in one while was working in Zurich many years ago and was a fun car to be in.

[Radioactive]

Burt ,I was doing some stuff for Sokolow the other day, He had some kind of Smart Car there, he said he was selling them. You should give him a call.

[burtandnancy2]

Robert, thats great news. What the name of his agency or do you know his business #. And thanks for the hot news! See you soon...

[Radioactive]

Colonial Honda 818-244-8674
http://www.colonialhonda.com

[Radioactive]

Check out the used vehicle list, there is about a dozen used ones (2005).
Link
http://www.colonialhonda.com/used_vehicle_details.htm?vehicleId=305893724046387 401ca3f82d4bd3de3

[PaPaG]

There are a few dealers currently selling used ones brought in with a set amount of miles and some of these dealers are saying they are new with only test miles...(bull crap)... I know the car biz so I confronted the salesman on it...he back peddled all the way back to the 1950's....Once he saw I was not going to back down with the questions and confrontation on new vs. used......so far we have 1 dealer in Vegas that has about 20 of them, they are mad though...they want 25-28k for them..I told them the dealer in Van Nuys Calif said they should have them sometime in '08 BRAND NEW not used starting at roughly 12-13k close to bare bones...either way we drove one just to see, they are not bad..40-45 mpg from what we read, the ones in Europe (turbo diesels) are getting up to 65-70 mpg.. would be great for a city grocery getter but I would be hesitant driving that thing at 80 on the hwy across the state...I think I want one just to park it nose in while others have to parallel park...(current law allows them to do so due to width and length of car) :D :D

[spectras only]

Burt , are you going to use this Smart car on the golf course ?:idea: :)

[Second "PLACE"]

I may be able to shed some light on this subject being employed by PENSKE. You are correct-Roger Penske has been awarded the U.S. Distributor for Smart USA. There has been alot of interest generated for this product. Locally, we will have a SMART dealer in Santa Monica, and West Covina, Ca.
Our Merdcedes-Benz of West Covina Retail Center will be adding Penske Smart to the property, scheduled for January 2008. You may recal back in April of this year, the media had alot of coverage on the "SMART" demo drive that toured the country. One of the stops for this tour was at our West Covina MBZ store. For this one day event, we estimated that over 800 people had an oppertunity to preveiw and drive the 5 vehicles demonstrated. Once they have exceded a specific test mileage while on this nationwide tour, they are then sold to other dealers. These are the "used" vehicles that are now being sold in the market.
I highly doubt Mr. Penske would invest this much time and effort into a product that did not have the potential for strong market sales. He tends to make well thought out decisions. We expect strong sales at both of our locations.

[spectras only]

I highly doubt Mr. Penske would invest this much time and effort into a product that did not have the potential for strong market sales. He tends to make well thought out decisions. We expect strong sales at both of our locations.
ICBC [ insurance corporation of british columbia ] had some concerns about its safety record , considering the number of SUV and trucks on the road . We had these cars on our roads since its inception , without being crash tested extensively. They fair well in a collision against other small cars .Toyota Echo has just about the same
economy with 4 seat capacity to boot , unless one gets a diesel model .
Some samples here >http://driving.canada.com/research/compare/compare.spy?cls=Passenger&id1=1065800101&id2=1065800102&id3=1065800103
http://wheels.ca/article/29504

[PaPaG]

I may be able to shed some light on this subject being employed by PENSKE. You are correct-Roger Penske has been awarded the U.S. Distributor for Smart USA. There has been alot of interest generated for this product. Locally, we will have a SMART dealer in Santa Monica, and West Covina, Ca.
Our Merdcedes-Benz of West Covina Retail Center will be adding Penske Smart to the property, scheduled for January 2008. You may recal back in April of this year, the media had alot of coverage on the "SMART" demo drive that toured the country. One of the stops for this tour was at our West Covina MBZ store. For this one day event, we estimated that over 800 people had an oppertunity to preveiw and drive the 5 vehicles demonstrated. Once they have exceded a specific test mileage while on this nationwide tour, they are then sold to other dealers. These are the "used" vehicles that are now being sold in the market.
I highly doubt Mr. Penske would invest this much time and effort into a product that did not have the potential for strong market sales. He tends to make well thought out decisions. We expect strong sales at both of our locations.
Good to hear it from someone that knows....what do you think about the prices? I have a buddy that is in the media and he took shots of the test drives in the san fernando valley a few months back and they were talking 12k+ but the dealers are trying to get 25 to 28k right now for the used ones. (they must have tested a ton of these things to be able to stock 20+ units at just one dealer, also some of them had Smart badges and others had Benz, whats up with that..) Fill me in..Thanks
G

[Second "PLACE"]

The crash test data that we reviewed was impressive, especially for such a small vehicle. Much of the structure and safety designs are from Mercedes-Benz engineering team. As for pricing, we are being told that the base models (No Radio or A/C) will start around 12-13K, with the cabrio version starting around 15k.
As for the retailers in Vegas selling the demo units, I can only imagine that they are trying to capitalize from all the hype with their high pricing. 20k sounds a bit steep for this car, however this may be an effect of the current supply and demand. In comparison, many have invested 12-20k in a Yamaha Rhino that has no A/C, and can't legally be driven on the highway with no problem.

[Second "PLACE"]

Some of the euro units had MBZ logos attached, however the later models will display Smart.

[burtandnancy2]

Spectra's, no, but Nancy goes to the grocery story at least a half dozen times a day, at 1 mile each way, and I keep asking her to take the Smart Car. This ought to add years to the life of her LS. We drove one, it was fun, had great A/C and parks nearly anywhere. Can't wait for our to arrive...
ps, how far north of Seattle are you?

[Ziggy]

City car is what it should have been called. I'd not be to crazy about hopping on the Interstates next to 18 wheelers with it...

[spectras only]

...
ps, how far north of Seattle are you?
Seattle is around 170 miles south of Vancouver .

[burtandnancy2]

Second PLACE, please check your PM's

[BEER&WATER]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s

[BEER&WATER]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5292341112610385808&q=Smart+car&total=1754&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1

[dirty old man]

PaPaG, I ran into the same thing. Its going to be a great "city" car in the Vegas area with the good A/C

[Dave C]

Ouch 70mph is fast. they concluded that the passengers would be dead in both cars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s

[dirty old man]

Yeah, but a good body show could fix the cars ha