I think it is important in the buying process to buy from a dealership close to your home where you can get good service and get your car worked on. It does me no good to buy one from NJ when I live in IN. If I need it serviced....are the local dealers going to give me a loaner if I didn't buy it from them? Plus, I want to help my local economy!!!

 

Whos fault? GM's they are the one that developed the allocation system. There is NO benefit to this system for the ultimate consumer. It limits options, it stifles competition which increases costs, it impacts the customer service one gets from their local chevy dealer since they went across town (country) to make that 50k purchase and it makes it harder for the consumer to buy the car. Instead of giving rebates to sell Corvettes maybe GM should fix the above problems so the cars sell on their own

 

Further, how can anyone justify the failure to fill an 8 month old Sold order to a small dealer, while at the same time sending 17 unsold cars to the large dealer? There is something wrong if you find that to be a fair system to the customer, let alone a smart business practice. The fact is that there have been a number of people on this Forum alone that gave up and bought from another manufacturer.

 

Rick, you can answer this one. Years ago, when a dealer ordered cars from the plant, they did not have to pay the entire invoice amount,but only a percentage. This was called 'In Trust'. When a car was sold the factory or whoever handles the invoicing to dealers was notified and the remainder of the invoice was due and payable.
The point I'm trying to make is that a dealer that has a large inventory does not have as much invested as one would think.
By the way if a car was sold and not reported to the factor, it was called 'out of trust' and could cost the dealer it's franchise.
Is it still that way in todays world?

 

It seems to me that the company places the dealer in front of the person who want to buy the car. The person who wants to buy the car is the customer. Without customers, their will be no company.

 

I'll bet almost every car manufacturer works the same way. It isn't as noticeble when there isn't a waiting list for the cars. I have had occasions when ordering BMW's that the dealer told me he wouldn't have an allocation for that model for a month or so. And I bet it works for other industries also.
The direct customer of GM may be the dealer but the cars do end up in customers hands. If the big dealers weren't selling the cars they would not order them. I'll bet there are as many people that are happy that they walked into the big dealer and got their Corvette right away as those that are unhappy that their small local dealer couldn't deliver.

 

Not only did my dealer get all the C5s he could get his hands on and sold some at a loss to buid his C6 allocation. He then went out and got every C6 he could.

 

I bet you are wrong. Why would anyone in California (were they sell more cars than any state) be happy that they have limited options to spend $50k+ on a car. Or anyone else not near a big "vette" dealer. Just saw a commercial on tv the local mercedes/bmw/volvo dealer was advertising their exclusive "special" service reserved for only those that buy or lease from them -- they also said they would match any one elses prices. COMPETITION IS GOOD! GM has forgotten the customer comes first!

 

SMDIO;
Whats' the big problem here!! I ordered my C6 from a medium sized dealer on 12/16, & picked up the car on 2/17. Almost eight weeks exactly. Went to BG on 2/10 to see her built!.
I really don't understand your problem re:order date & delivery date. 8 weeks seems fair. Whats' up??

 

A lot has been hashed out here already.

A simple thing that GM could do is assign a status code to an order that indicates the dealer doesn't have any allocations available. The buyer would then know the truth and could look some place else. To make it even simpler GM could reject an order from a dealer that doesn't have an allocatoin. That way the dealer can't hand a customer an order number that will remain parked at 1100 (waiting for allocation)

By shutting off the current order shell game GM would be helping the dealers that do have cars. Buyers would know immediately who can deliver.

So why doesn't GM do something about this?

 

nice

 

Next time you are runnin' around with 50 G's in hand ...call me.

Whatta life.

 

I think enough time has rolled by since the C4 days and now GM should zero out the dealers allocations and start over.

Give all the dealers a chance at getting back in the race.

 

Dude, I'm not trying to offend you (and hope I don't) but you appear to be clueless about the ordering process. As I was, several years ago. When you specify exactly what you want (colors, options, etc.) that is a custom order. Eight weeks is *nothing* when you get exactly what you want. Some of us, myself included, went to a dealership, negotiated a price, placed a $1000 deposit, and waited six *months* before finally giving up the whole shebang. Some dealers simply cannot get a vette. This is what's called "allocation" and I agree wholeheartedly, it sucks. If you go to a major dealer, as it appears you have, you're increasing the probability of getting a car immediately simply b/c they order a bazillion of them and probably have one incoming that's close (if not exactly) to what you want. They also won't negotiate a similar deal to what you might have received from a smaller dealer. But they can get the car. They know this, and use it to their advantage.

What I ended up doing was getting my deposit back, having the sales guys at the dealership where I placed the original order run a search (I bought them lunch for the favor) and bought something very similar to what I wanted off the showroom floor 500 miles away. It didn't lack anything, just had a couple of extra options I wasn't interested in. Overall, unless you do Museum delivery, the vette buying experience can be at best trying, and at worst exasperating. It's a "limited production" car, even though the production is only limited by the number of buyers. At least, that's the load o' BS Chevy tells people. Boils down to keeping the price high by limiting supply... basic economics which means if you want a vette, Chevy has you by the *****. And they like it that way.