I have been luking on the CF for a little over a month. I arrived at the CF after watching an episode of “Built in America” where the guy from Cheers took a tour of the Bowling Green factory. Thinking that to be very cool, I decided to check it out the Factory web site. It was there I found the CF link on the Web.

Over the Christmas holiday I read every C6 post on the CF. Wow!! What a wealth of information and great folks! Armed with the information I found on the C6 CF I started to think that the, here to for, impossible dream of owning a Corvette might be possible.

I went to the Corvette website and “built my own” C6 just to see what the going price was. Over the years I was quite sure GM somehow knew what my annual salary and financial commitments were, and then adding 25%, to come up with the Corvette price, resulting in Vette ownership remaining out of my gasp.

Then I saw the C6 segment show that aired on Spike TV that detailed how the C6 came to be. I think that was the point I decided I was going to go for it and take a serious look at making a 40 year old dream a reality. So I started to plan, had a look at the piggy bank, and read everything in sight on the C6.

Having made up my mind to purchase a C6, the plan I came up with was to find someone to hook me up with a GM in the Driveway (GMiD) referral so as to get the supplier pricing, find a dealer to take GMiD, and place an order for BG delivery of Millennium Yellow coupe. I would order it with the Z51 package (Z5I), (1SB) Ebony interior, 6 speed manual (MN6), Nav system (U3U), XM radio (U2K), transparent roof (CC3), and Factory delivery (R8C).

I started asking around some friends if anyone had any family that worked at GM with no success. I saw a couple of references to GMiD referrals on the C6 CF but didn’t feel comfortable coming out of the woodwork to ask for one. Under the heading of a recurring theme of, “I would rather be lucky than good”, I was chatting with a guy on my team at work and discovered that his grandfather was a retired GM employee and he would check out the GMiD plan for me. That weekend he called me up to ask for my info that needed inputing for the GMiD program. An hour later he called me with my referral number!! Mission accomplished.

I contacted some of the C6 sponsoring dealers about my desired GMiD order. All responded quickly, but were unable at this time to accept the GMiD plan. I then searched the web for local dealers to visit. Upon visiting my local big Chevrolet dealer, I was immediately approached by the nicest and easiest going salesman I have ever met (contrary to the nearby Corvette “expert”). I told him what I wanted to do. He advised that he was not a Corvette expert, to which I replied something like, “that’s OK, I think I know enough to be dangerous”. Explaining to him the order with the options I wanted, including Factory delivery, were contingent upon acceptance of GMiD pricing. I asked him to check with the sales manager to see if the would take the GMiD before we wasted too much of each others time. He disapperared for a few minutes, returned and asked us (my wife was with me) if we could join him for a minute. He took us into the Service area just off the show room floor. He pointed to a Mil Yel C6 and said we have your exact car in stock!!

Wow! I had not planned on that happening. It killed me to have to sit in it and look at all the cool C6 stuff and know that I wanted to wait to see mine built in BG. I declined that car and asked him to follow up with the General Manager on the GMiD deal. He promised to call me the following day after discussing with the GM my question.

As you might guess, the dealer General Manager (GM)declined the GMiD deal. So I thanked the salesman and started visiting all the local dealers with no luck. Based on contact I had with a C6 owner on the web, I contacted a Corvette buyer that has lots of experience in wheeling and dealing with Corvettes. He was quite helpful in sharing with me the “real world” of dealers accepting GMiD at this stage of the model year. Basically, he told me that chances were extremely remote I could do the factory order at this time in conjunction with the GMiD plan.

Reading all the CF info on constraints, production delays, and other issues, I began to rethink the priority of the “Factory Delivery” option. Then it dawned on me that the “exact” car I wanted was less than 20 miles away and If I could get the GM to give me the GMiD price and the GM Loyalty discount, the resulting savings would get me over my strong desire to take delivery in BG.

I called the salesman that had helped me earlier in the week to see if they still had the car as it did not turn up on the inventory when searched from the “build your own’ website. He said they did. I asked him to see if the GM would take both GMiD and GM L discounts and sell me the car in stock. He called me back 15 minutes later and said, “Let’s do the deal”!!!!

I told him to put a sold sign on it. Driving the car home was the first time I had ever driven a Corvette!! What a ride, absolutely incredible!! So with $7707.00 off MSRP, my dream car is sitting in the garage as I write this tale! Dream fulfilled!!

Details: service department ordered the diamond washer kit to prevent the loose pulley problem. Front license plate holder is affixed As soon as I figure out how to get it off without ruining the paint if will be off. (Anybody know how to remove safely?)

 

Great story! Many Happy Trails!

 

Congrats, great story.

 

Congrats and enjoy your dream

 

Great story, however.........it's just beginning!

Keep us up to date on all your new amazements!

 

Great story - I'm into my car (almost same specs as yours but with selective ride vs the 51) for about three weeks now and and just love it. It combines incredible performance, good daily ride, lots of gadgets and alot of wow factor. This is my first vette also and am so far delighted. The biggest difference in our experiences is iin the dealer - I ended up buying a new car off a CF member who in turn bought off ebay and then decided not to keep the car - also great experience.

 

Great story! Here's wishing you may miles of smile in your new C6.

 

Thanks everyone for the welcome. I'll keep you up to speed on the developments. I've got that after market purchase list I've started. Lets see, for the near term there is:
V1 bracket and remote wiring kit
Zaino kit
CoCo or Lloyd's floor mats
Vette visor stickers
CAGS eliminator
Exhaust Plate
Microfiber towels

What else?

 

SS inserts for the rear bumper. Saw a C6 in the Corral at the L.A. Auto Show with them and they looked sweet! Got my set ready to go!

 

Congratulatons. I enjoyed reading about your experience. Welcome.
Lots of great times ahead for you I would expect.

antoniopaolo

 

What a great story !!

Welcome to Corvette Heaven.

 

Great story congrats on the new ride I know you'll enjoy it I sure have enjoyed mine.

 

Great story
Congrats and enjoy !

 

Congrats on the new baby.

Now, on to the front licence plate holder.

What you can do, and somebody will correct me if I am out in left field, but if it is attached with double sided sticky tape, take a length of fishing line (25 lb test usually works) and wrap it around something so that it doesn't cut your hand, put it toward the middle of the tape and with a back and forth motion saw through the tape. Then take some Goo Gone or a similar product to remove the remaining tape from your bumper. Most of it you can pick off with your fingers before using the Goo Gone. Then clean and wax where the Goo Gone was applied.

I have also used Kerosene and/or rubbing alcohol and in very rare occasions WD-40 to remove sticky tape.

Randy

 

Great Buy! Ask the dealer what they used to afix the front bracket since most are dealer installed. Just hope the word "drilled" doesn't come up in the conversation.

 

Congratulations! My story is almost exactly the same as yours, with the exception that I did find a dealer who let me place an order with the GMID program. Funny thing is, this dealer is the closest one to my house. Only about 3 miles! It's supposed to be built this week, so I'm guessing I'll be going to pick it up at NCM in two to three extremely long weeks. Just wish that invoice would get to the dealer in a hurry so I can pay for it. With all the talk about dealers not accepting GMID, GMS, etc., I'm afraid they're gonna pull some last minute "stealer" sleight of hand on me!!

Enjoy!!

 

Thanks Randy. I'll give it a try.

Looks like we are in the same area. I live in O'Fallon, MO

 

Greystone,

Good for you on the GMiD and factory order. Glad it worked out. I couldn't refuse the deal I got, or I would still be trying for the same deal you got.
I'm going to vist BG this spring and take the tour as planned. I'll just drive my C6 there and back vs. just back.

 

Man, you lucked out so many times I refuse to dampen your post. Was going to correct several grammatical/spelling errors. Was also going to point out how much your experience deviates from many of us diehard Vette fans. I just can't do it. Let it be said that my first vette purchase occurred only after having placed the order at 3 (three) dealers, none of which could get the car, but I waited for almost a year before finally figuring that out. I then had to find it myself via delaer locator service obtained surreptitiously (which cost me lunch for a couple of vette fan dealership employees) but once it happens, you're in. And you're in.

Enjoy it. You got a pretty good price too.

 

What a great experience you ended up having, and what a cool combo. The best thing is that actually owning the C6 is even better than dreaming about it. Congratulations! You probably feel like the rest of us, we almost have to be pinched because owning this awesome car is a dream come true!