slief

I've had an order in with my local dealer for a little over a month. The car is supposed to go to production in January but the inventory manager has eluded to the fact this it's likely going to be longer than that which I am not surprised about. I figured it was going to happen. My deposit was only $1000 and completely refundable.

After having sold my 09 Z06 a month or so ago, I've been chomping at the bit and searching to see if I could find one that was white with Mag ride and the black mirrors and spoiler. Sure enough, I Kerbeck has one in transit with the options I wanted and then some. I was able to finalize everything today in what has proven to be a very simple process. The car should arrive at Kerbeck in the next couple weeks. Hopefully sooner at which point it will be a 5-7 day trip in an enclosed trailer to me here in So. Cal.

I'm starting to get real excited. White Z51, black interior, 7 Speed manual, Performance exhaust, Carbon metalic mirrors and spoiler, black rims, nav, transparent top and it even has comp seats which was not on my build plans. I'm not excited about the transparent top as I wanted to standard roof so I could paint it carbon metallic too but it's not a bad thing and easily tradable as I'm sure there are some that want transparent.

None the less, the more I think about it, the more I get antsy. It's going to be a long few weeks. I think I need to activate OnStar in short order so I can follow its travel.

Edit: I know some of you have mentioned your concern about me canceling my existing order. While I do feel bad about doing that, please note that my order hasn't been accepted by GM yet. It's still in limbo and likely will be for the foreseeable future. I have no contract what so ever with my dealer. The only paperwork I received was a copy of my build sheet. The same one you can print out when you go onto GM's site and start building a vette. Nothing was signed other than my check which I noted on "Refundable Deposit". I was also given an order number but that is it.

With the dealer giving me excuses like convertible production will delay coup production, holiday will delay production etc and not even willing to tell me how many people are ahead of me on their order list, I could be waiting a long time contrary to what I was originally told. They are also a small dealer who just bought out an existing dealer in my local city so their allocations are very small.

In the end, I've got to do whats best for me and this goes beyond a lack of patience. Given that pricing could change between now and when my car goes to production, interest rates could change too, I've also got an SUV that I need to sell that is costing me every month (payments) but I can't sell it until the new car arrives these delays can be costly. The SUV is depreciating every day I own it and based on the dealers responses, I suspect I would be waiting much longer than they originally told me.

Snorman

Congrats dude!
S.

pgway

Congratulations!
I would be following the weather forecast instead of OnStar!
Our weather on the east coast has been horrific!

Vetteman Jack

Congrats on tracking down a car you want that can be delivered sooner than at your local dealer. Great way to start off the new year.

Racerdj

Your story and mine are very similar except I found a car that just hit the dealership. Great news and congratulations

MikeC4C5C6...C7

You will LOVE this car. Congratulations.

thedofuss

so your local guy is willing to return your deposit, or not?

rpoz06

Awesome - you are going to love it! I must say that I was worried I would miss my Z but so far I have not. I hope your experience is the same - congrats on finding your baby!

Larry/car

Check your contract for damages. Being in sales there is/was an unwritten rule not to mess with other dealer's deals. I see this being violated over and over again. In the future I see large deposits and a damage clause where not only will you forfeit deposit but additional payment will be mandated.

drivestwin

I hope you enjoy your car for that extra month or so.

I also sincerely hope the original dealership is able to sell the car that you ordered exactly how you wanted it.

Personally, I think it is a raw deal to back out of a deal just because you don't want to wait. If the dealer is okay with it that is one thing, but if you ask someone to spend $50K plus to get you a car coming, and you back out due to just impatience, not to difficult to see the difference between right and wrong here.

Again, best of luck with the car.

Larry/car

These backstabbing deals will spoil it for everybody. I ordered cars previously by word only, now a deposit is in order with a damage clause (usually just loss of deposit). I see future damage restitution being considerably more costly. Consider yourself spanked!!!

slief

They indicated it was completely 100% refundable. I wrote it on my deposit check as well. They only asked for a $1000 deposit anyway. I also never signed any kind of contract. The only thing I was provided was an order number and a print out of the build specs.


I wasn't worried to much about missing the Z although it did hurt to see it drive off with it's new owner who was very excited. I sold the car knowing I was going to get the new one. As much as I loved my Z06, there will be no missing the Z once the new one arrives.

They promised I would have the new car by February and now are back tracking on it. I suspect it's more like spring and frankly, I can't afford to wait that long. My only car at present is a 2007 Yukon XL 2500 which I need to sell ASAP as it's only depreciating further. and costing an arm and leg in gas. I think they will understand under the circumstance and in all likelihood the soonest I am going to see the car should I wait is spring time. The order hasn't even been accepted by GM. It's just in the system waiting for their allocation to come up.

They don't have any cars on the floor, as everyone they ordered was pre sold due to their small allocations. I'm sure they will either change the order and bump somebody else up or bring it in and sell it at a premium like they did with the only floor model they had. The car I ordered was AW, Z51, Black mirrors and spoiler, black wheels, Mag Ride and NAV. It will be an easy sale as it seems to be the most popular option list and color combo.

While I understand your contention, I was clear when I ordered the car that I was doing so because it was slated to be produced in January which doesn't look good based on what the inventory manager advised me of. His reasoning has nothing to do with constraints either. He was saying that convertible production, holiday shutdown and other factors were going to be impacting the production date. These are things they should have known about when they took my order and coups are still being produced alongside convertibles so his comment about convertibles set off all kind of red flags.

I absolutely understand your position and in general, I do agree, however as I said earlier, I've got another vehicle to move and can't do so until my new one arrives. I committed to a deal based on delivery expectations and I'm now being told not to expect that and some of the reasoning that they are giving is not logical. I even asked last week how many orders they had in line before mine and they skirted that question. When I ordered my car, every other local dealer was telling me spring at the earliest. Sometimes, sales guys will say anything to get a sale. I suspect that could be the case here. Especially given some of his logic surrounding the reasons for delays. Never once were constraints mentioned which is something I would understand. I will be speaking with them tomorrow.

Larry/car

More and more dealers are writing purchase orders. A purchase order protects the customer and the dealer from unreasonable delays and the canceling an order by the customer without reason. In today's sales environment I wouldn't place an order without a signed agreement outlining expected delivery date and damages if contract cannot be fulfilled (force majeure). Forward to the future; I see a time when the customer will be required to pay in full prior to the dealer placing a custom order. Completely 100% refundable - what does that really mean? Yes I would definitely speak with your dealer before committing on another car. Your involved with two different state laws thousands of miles apart, be careful!

panerainovice

How does it work with California emissions? I also ordered a corvette out of state and the dealer ordering it had to specify it was for California emissions. I'm guessing since this order is already in transit Kerbeck didn't add that option?

slief

I will be speaking with my local dealer first thing tomorrow morning. Since I signed no contract, I don't think I have anything to worry about but will certainly be speaking with them. I don't anticipate any issues. Thank you for the insight though. I will update the thread once I speak with them.


As I understand it, all US bound C7's are 50 state emissions legal. Worst case a smog test and inspection would be all that is required for California. Yes, cars manufactured for delivery in California say Ca emissions on the invoice but near as I can tell, it's symatecs that avoid the need for an emissions test.

slief

I just got off the phone with my local dealer. They were completely fine with my cancellation and agreed that it could be spring before my car is available and understood my dilemma. No issues on my deposit refund either. Hopefully will have the refund check today if not later this week.

Stein

I purchased mine from Kerbeck and what a positive experience!

MThomas

If the order was accepted by GM and the dealer ordered it as a sold unit under your name the dealer may ask for a letter from you stating you decided not to purchase the car. This is for audits that GM does on every dealer. This keeps dealers from placing a sold order under a false name.

11B250

nice!

how do you activate the on-star? give them the VIN of the car? Wouldn't they need proof the car is yours or something? LOL

definitely something I'd wanna do! LOL

slief

Good question. I would need to contact them with the vin. There have been a few others here who have used OnStar to track their cars from the factory. I just need to do a search to figure it out. Search OnStar here in the C7 section and you should find some info on it.

Proof that it's mine won't be an issue. I already have the vin and wire transferred my down payment today. All the paperwork should be done by weeks end if not Monday although I already signed and email the sales contract back on Saturday.

Damn am I excited. It's going to be a long 2-3 weeks. Hopefully it will be sooner but it could be worse! My local dealer agreed that I could have been waiting until spring time and called me a couple hours ago to confirm that my refund check was being issued. Fortunately they were very understanding and had no issues with me canceling my order given the circumstances. They will most certainly get my future GM business. I've bough other cars from their predecessors and will be happy to do business with the new owners in the future.