smart Orphans?

I’ve been a big fan of the smart city coupe/fortwo since it first arrived on the scene at the Paris Motor Show. Whenever in Europe I’d drag my friends and family all over the map so that I could spend some sitting in the coupe and roadster. After all the letter writing to Mercedes and “we’re coming/no we’re not” announcements, I was elated when it was finally announced that smart would indeed be coming to the USA. When the reservation program was announced, I hovered over my e-mail and plunked down my $99 to stake a place in line.

In August of last year, I was notified that it was time to confirm the model, color and equipment that I wanted for my smart. I selected a red metallic passion cabriolet with silver metallic tridion safety cell. I loaded up the car with pretty much everything except for the leather interior for a total of $18,050. A shipping charge of $645 brought the total to $18,695.

It’s January 2008 and my little fortwo has arrived at the dealer. Even though she is sitting on the lot, the dealer is still working out last minute details and is not ready to deliver any cars quite yet. In the meantime, I’m gripping with the reality that I may have to orphan my little car.

Several things have changed since March 2007 that have contributed to this realization. Firstly, my wife is about to deliver our second child. That would have been news to me back in March. Secondly the economy isn’t looking so perky and the idea of a $20,000 or “fun car” seems to be more and more like an extravagance I can do without.

Some buyers have been unhappy about the premium fuel requirement and the 2 year/24,000 mile warranty. I’m not so pleased about the short warranty, but neither of those items are deal killers. There are, however, other things weighing on my mind. Firstly, I always dislike buying first year cars. Even if the current generation fortwo has been on sale in Europe for a bit, the U.S. model has seen a number of changes. Secondly, financing and insurance is proving to be a bit of a challenge. My credit union has yet to make up its mind if it is going to finance smart cars. I think the answer will eventually be yes, but it might take a month or two for the CU to come to that realization itself. Thirdly, I think that the fortwo is a great candidate for stop/start, a feature already available on European models. I wouldn’t mind a few more options being available, such as leather in some color other than black.

If I do cancel now, my little smart will quickly be snapped up by another eager buyer. I’ll get my $99 deposit back and we’ll all be on our merry way. It’s really a hard decision for me because I’ve wanted that car for so long and having seen it sitting on the lot, literally with my name on a sticker, it’s hard to say no.

At various times smartusa has claimed between 30,000 and 40,000 reservation holders. The “opt out” rate that I have seen quoted is around 30%, putting the firm reservation holders counts between 21,000 and 28,000. However as any dealer will tell you, until there is ink on the contract all bets are off. In perhaps an early indicator, smarts that have already been delivered are not being bid up with wild abaondon on eBay. I'll be curious to see what the actual sales tally will be for smart in 2008.