As Dave said above about dealers were given the chance to up their allocation. I remember in 1996 Kerbeck's had 200 1996 Corvettes in stock at one time.

My hat is off to George Kerbeck for rolling the dice and ordering that many cars for stock. This could have put him out of business if this gamble failed.

Some dealers wouldn't stock a C4 Corvette they only wanted sold orders.


It has been said many times "GM should build sold orders first before stock units" Here is the problem with that. Dealers will place orders and mark them as "sold" just to get the cars. When GM questions them about this the dealer can say my customer backed out and didn't take it.

GM has been around a long time and knows all of the tricks. The system may not be fair to some, but remenber every Corvette that leaves the plant is already sold in GM's eyes. GM invoices the dealer and is paid!!!!!!!

 

....our local dealer has an allocation of ONE (1).....their own people always buy the only one they get....I have had to shop at various other dealers for years(waste of my time)....I purchase a Vette every 12 mos or so , so I go to Indy....they won't deal because they can't get enough allocation(so they claim)....because of the aggravations getting Vettes bought, since 2000 I have squeezed 8 Vipers and 8 Prowlers in the mix .... I got tired of jackin' around with these cocky GM dealers....I asked a big GM dealer in Indy about discounting an 04 Vert last May.....his comment was "F*** you" and walked away....I did walk away....bought one from Les Stanford/Detroit in June with a $12K discount ....but the point is, WHY SHOULD I (read the customer) have to go to another state to get the car.....why not let the customer ORDER the car where they wish(close to home) , in a timely manner.....I have been in business for 40 years, my customers get what they want, when they want it,and where they want, at a fair price.....

....the allocation program seems to protect the largest dealers with plenty of inventory, they control the pricing, and the small hometown dealer that just might "do a deal" for a regular GM customer is squeezed out of the game tilll the demand slows down....again, the consumer loses....he pays more and travels further for the product.....sorta reminds me of the Hot Wheels "treasure hunt" crap....when I want a car, I want to make a phone call, get it priced and ordered....not have to look under all the hooks at Walmart to find it....


.....I also wanted a Chevy SSR......the dealers would not budge off MSRP plus.....now they are choked on these things with a 700 day supply in the pipeline and are dumping them in mass quantities at various auctions for $30K......maybe a different marketing strategy would have been more successful(let customers order them at their local dealer)....now that NO ONE wants these little trucks, virtually every small town dealer with a one car showroom has 3 to 5 of these things sitting outside in the snow......maybe the customers are finally getting tired of MSRP plus a market adjustment.....maybe the consumer is finally waking up....

.....I don't have any non Vette GM products in my own driveway or any of my business fleets any longer.....and I may have bought my last new Vette for a long time...at least untill something really changes ....making money shouldn't be easier than spending it

 

This is a problem now because the C6 is a new model, with a high demand.

If your dealer had wanted to sell 2004 C5s, he could have found tons of them at other dealerships that they'd trade to him. This would have increased his allocation. He knew he couldn't move that many Corvettes, so he didn't buy them from other (larger) dealers. He pays the price this year by not being able to get as many C6s. And since demand is so high, he can't get a C6 from another dealer either.

It all comes down to who is willing to buy the cars in the bad times being rewarded in the good times.

I think you'll find that your local dealer with a small allocation really doesn't care anyway. Even if he had 100 C6s, he couldn't move them. Your market just doesn't support it... even in these higher demand times.

He's more interested in selling his bread and butter cars anyway. A couple thousand in profit on each Trailblazer or $1000 in profit on an Aveo times 100 cars is much more profit than $6000 in profit on a handful of Corvettes.

Most dealers just want one or two to sit on the showroom floor. They price it at $10k over MSRP not because they expect to sell it for that, they want it to stay on the showroom floor because it's a draw. People come in to see the Corvette and leave in a new Impala or Astro Van. If someone REALLY wants to buy his showroom Corvette for $10k over, he'll gladly sell it for that. Otherwise, it'll sit there until it's time to get the 2006, and then he'll mark it down to move it.

Stephen

 

The problem is, they use that "franchising" you refer to both ways. On one hand, they dictate the terms they want to enforce, on the other hand, when they don't want to get involved with an issue they use the excuse "they are independent businesses". Which is it?

I work in an industry (for a wholesale supply company) where one very large manufacturer has "APR"s (Areas of Primary Responsibility). The franchise agreement says the distributors are not allowed to sell outside of that area, but distributors have been doing it for many years. They cannot enforce it.

 

I know my dealer does everything in his power to get Vettes and does buy from other dealers and actually takes a hit. Their allocation is growing and it looked like they bought up some Vettes in 2004. But it hurts people like me because they may take a loss on the 2004s and have to make it up.

 

There's one more point I think I should make. Every dealer knows how many Vettes they are allocated for the year. When they take your deposit they know whether or not your car will be built and appox how long it will take.

If they take your money then give you the run-around, it's very easy for them to blame GM or the "big" vette dealers for taking all of the cars, but he knew exactly where your order stood and should have explained it to you from the get go.