Does anyone know the approximate yearly allocation numbers for the biggest dealers, including our forum ones? Is there a link that publishes this info? From Bob Stall, a local dealer in San Diego, one salesman said 300, and one said 450. I read that Kerbeck was 2,500.

 

I would love to understand the allocation system. I ordered my C6 in August 2004 @ $1700 less than MSRP. In March 2005, the dealer tells me GM will not give him a vette. He sold two last year. He was able to get his buddy dealer to sell me a car already in production and change to my specs, but now I pay MSRP. GM stock is going down and I am not suprised.

 

There's an explanation of the allocation system in another thread, but I don't think there's information available publicly what allocation the large dealers have.

 

In my opinion it is a messed up system which is not great for the consumer and is not good for the dealers either.

Here is my personal opinions on the matter based on my very limited experience:

As a consumer you can't just walk up and buy a car from any dealer. Well OK, you can, but you will never truly know when your car is going to be built. The dealer can say he has allocation for the car, and will do so mainly cause he does not want to lose the $50,000 sale. But as a consumer you have no idea if they are telling the truth or not. And assuming they get an allocation at some point in the future you have no idea when it will be. And I doubt you will ever be able to verify from another source if the dealer is honest about their allocation or not.

From the dealer standpoint they are in a tough position as well. They don't want to lose your order by telling you the truth that they are only going to get X amount of Corvettes this year. They don't want to tell you their projected allocation typically because if it is only 1 car in the next 6 months they know you will walk out and they will lose the sale. So they have to put on their best game face, and do what they feel the must in order to convince you to place the order with them. Then after the deposit is placed they must tell their best lies, and try to invent plausible stories for as long as they can in hopes you won't cancel your order.

And when they finally do get an allocation, some dealers will bypass your order and use the allocation to order a car for stock, especially if they are allowed to order one which is in hot demand such as a Convertible. This is a gamble on their part. They size you up and judge whether they think you are a pushover. If they think they can feed you the line about allocation not coming up,yada, yada, yada, and feel you will not cancel your order, then they will order another Corvette for stock especially if it is a Convertible so they can get one to sell on the showroom. And having one on the showroom will help them to sell even more. If they waste the allocation on your coupe then they lose the ability to order the convertible and will have only your coupe sale. If they use the allocation for a Convertible for stock then they will for sure sell that Vert, and may still be able to string you along and end up with two sales. And if the Vert is on their showfloor other people will see they sell Vettes and they may get additional orders too. If they use the Allocation on your vette they have your sale taken care of, but will lose the opportunity for additional sales. So they are put in a position where it is in their best interest to not waste the allocation on your coupe. Instead they will wait for another allocation and if the allocation does not allow them to order a Convertible, then maybe they will place your coupe order them.

So the system forces the dealers, especially smaller ones, to make some tough choices since they get limited amounts of Corvettes.

These are not likely to be issues with the larger forum dealers however as they tend to sell lots of Corvettes and get in return lots of allocations. From what I have seen the forum dealers tend to be more open and helpful to the customers and treat them with respect rather than trying to manipulate them.

My suggestion is to not put yourself through the hassle of dealing with the smaller local dealers. You are better off finding a Corvette which is in stock somewhere and buying it even if it has an option or two you don't want. You will save yourself lots of hassle, aggravation, and waiting.

For more information on allocations check out this thread:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...11&forum_id=74

 

Waiting is half the fun.

Support your local dealership, provided you are comfortable with what they are telling you.

Don't contribute to the formula of the bigger dealerships get bigger and the smaller dealerships get smaller.

Buy local.

I waited and have a grat time dropping in and talking with my dealer about the car. They really car about me, the customer. Maybe I got lucky, but not all car dealers and dealerships are bad.

 

Here is my .02

I think that sold retail orders should be built first before any stock orders.

Any Chevrolet dealer big or small who has a customer order should get that car built.

This is why GM is going down the drain, because they don't have car people running the company.

 

I'd like to find out how to get a list of dealers that DON"T use up their allocation... I wonder how that can be accomplished..

 

Waiting is half the fun? Are you kidding?

 

The system may not be a good one but without it there wouldn't be a Corvette now.

 

I plan on ordering an '06 A6 with Z51 as the only option. I'm sure none of the dealers will like that. On KERBECK's site I didn't see one without 1SB.

 

I like the local small dealership.(Rogers Fore Chev in Lenoir City Tn. ) Good honest folks who wanted to sell a vert to me but GM would not give them a car with a paid for order. He went out of his way to find a car for me even though he did not get credit for the sale. Integrity wins for future sales. My vert will be a museum delivery May 5, 2005

 

i don't really know or care how the chevy allocation system works all i do know is that it is not beneficial to thev consumer and isn't that who you're trying to please? and as for me i'm never ordering a car to be built from gm again if i can't find it in someones invertory or used i'll just do without it. i

 

I've said this many time myself. I always end up ordering.

 

I agree....I've been sitting on an order placed early Jan/late Feb on a Z51 coupe and still stuck at 1100. This is completely ridiculous. GM's been mired with problem after problem and they just can't seem to get anything right. This allocation system needs to go.

 

Very true!

 

It is amazing that on the one hand they have all of these "sold" orders that they are not building, yet they are trying to stimulate stock orders with a $1,000 rebate. Does anyone wonder why GM is losing money and market share?

 

It is a mystery to me.

The only thing that I can believe is.... certain parts, for some options are in short supply, but the assembly plant itself has capacity. So we need to get the part suppliers moving....