My order placed two months ago at small local dealer with second wave allocations. Still Code 1100, base convertible, no constraint items. Wonder if the second wave of allocations have yet to be picked up by GM?
This allocation system leaves a lot to be desired. People, What is your dealers allocation cycle, first or second?

 

I ordered in June from a small dealer with an allocation of 3 coupes. I received the car in mid-December. You need to be patient. You need to find out how many allocations your dealer received and then what number you are of those available. I was number 3 of 3 and knew that going in so I had a wait (and was bumped at one point due to Z51 constraint issues). Trust me - when you finally get your car the memories of waiting will rapidly fade!

 

The "first wave of allocations" was described as for the first 6-9 months. I think they really only went around 6 months. The "second save" is for the remainder of the 2014 Model Year. These "waves" are not actual allocations, only estimates of the total number each dealer could expect to receive over the given time frame.

Actual allocations are done every 2 weeks in a process they call "Consensus".
Consensus is a process, it normally begins on a Thursday and endsthe following Tuesday, it starts with dealers being told how many of what modelcan be ordered, it involves several passes as the orders are matched againstallocation then against constraints and finally unused allocations are assignedto dealers willing to use them.
Every Chevrolet model is subject to consensus, and it is easy to see theprocess can be time/attention consuming.

So, if your dealer is saying you will be in the "second wave", you could be waiting a while. Small local dealers will have a very few allocations and they will be spread out over the next 4-5 months (through the end of 2014 MY production).

 

I am in the "first wave" for a small dealer that that had a confirmed vert allocation, I am first in line. My deposit was placed on 03.20 and my order officially placed on 09.09 for a Z51 with FAY, four months later it is still at 1100. What bothers me the most is that other dealers are getting Z51 verts for their inventory orders, while my "sold order" sits in limbo. I really do not want to receive my vert at the end of the 2014 cycle, just a month prior to the start of delivery of 2015 Vettes.
The end of January is my decision date deadline for going to status 2000.

 

If your order sits at 1100, it is important for you to understand that your dealer has not been given an allocation that they assigned to your order. Your order will sit at 1100 until GM gives them an allocation, AND they assign that allocation to your order. Simple as that. This is one of the frustrating parts of dealing with a small local dealer who may sell a very small number of Corvettes during a particular MY.

If I was either one of you guys, I would be on the phone to Mike Furman, or Tommy Jr., or Rick Conti, etc. These guys have a large number of allocations and will be straight with you on how soon they can get your order into the system. All of these forum vendors do as many out of states sales as they do in state. It costs you nothing to call and inquire. They might be able to get you in quickly and then your only decision is whether you travel to their dealership for delivery, or take delivery at the museum, or even have them arrange a courtesy delivery with your small local dealership.

If it was me, I would not be sitting there waiting for your small, low allocation dealer to make things happen for you. I was fortunate that my dealer had allocations and I was 1st on their list for a vert. Took delivery at the museum on 12/11.

Good luck!

 

I certainly agree and being a dealer person myself, I can tell you that too many dealers will tell you "it's around the corner" when they have no frigging idea when they will get one. An above board dealer will take no money from you, and create a list and when you name comes to the top, he then will take your money, do a buyers order and you will go from 1100 to 2000 in a week AS HE GOT AN ALLOCATION.

Even worse for a dealer to do is what the industry calls "de-horsing" a customer, which means they take and sell your trade NOW. Now you can't really get out of it, and you are at his mercy to get an allocation.

Never give them any money, never give them your trade. As you can find many dealers that will not do either. I had two here in S fla do that, they were not getting allocations, but they were honest about it....

 

In my particular instance, my turn came up but I wanted the Z51 which was just starting to be on constraint. My dealer gave me a simple choice - delete the Z51 or wait until his next allocation came up. I chose the deletion and had my car in October. Otherwise, I could still have been waiting for allocation and then Z51 constraint to be lifted.

This is truly a frustrating experience. As others suggest, you can go to a large dealer and get your car faster. If so, your local dealer sells one less car and his allocation will be reduced for the next time.

 

If only we knew then what we know now...

I would prefer to buy from my local dealer (I tend to be very loyal to the local economy); I am giving him three months to get my order accepted before I have a frank discussion with the Sales Manager and my salesman (2-1/2 of those already gone!). I suspect they are simply clueless about the process and not devious; they told me they had the largest allocation in the area when I gave them my deposit. I wish they operated as Glen describes above rather than taking the $$ and hoping they will get the allocation for my order.

Too bad we can't order directly from the factory! First come, first served!!

 

Why cant someone get out of it? What's preventing a customer from walking in after 10 weeks at 1100 and requesting their money back.

 

of course you can get out of it...that was a figurative statement...but it wiill not be to your liking...

 

My dealer seems to think my order will start to move in here in January. Even if the order doesn't move until February I'll still be fine. Car should be built in spring. There really isn't any benefit to play musical dealers, provably wouldn't gain anything.

 

I have said it in this forum, that I have no problem with receiving the car in April or even May, but if the order is not at 2000 by mid-March, that may not happen. Much past that, you are looking at a 2015 model. If the dealer admits that he doesn't know when (also could mean "if") he will get an allocation by the end of January, I intend to purchase my 2014 build from a dealer that can and will deliver the goods. Not sure where my dealer stands, but they have not been able to move a single Z51 order since late October, even though the constraint was relaxed to 60% then 50%. That concerns me.

 

Our dealership could be defined as a small dealership. We certainly haven't the allocation total equal to the large Midwest and East coast dealerships.

Dealers have exhausted their phase 1 allocations. Phase 1 allocations were distributed through consensus by November 4, 2013. On November 4, 2013 dealers were notified of their Phase 2 allocations. Phase 2 allocations are being spread by consensus for production thru the end of the 2014 model year. Dealers with Phase 2 allocations began seeing those allocations in December for January production. We are now consensing to allocations for orders to be produced in February.

If you have had an order request outstanding for more than 60 days then you might consider another dealership.

Most dealerships are like ours. We don't accept deposits and make promises until we consense for the next batch of allocations. We all know the total estimated number of allocations that we have thru the end of the model year and it makes no sense to me for a dealer to have an order sit for 60 or more days.

We have available allocations. I will have 1 unsold for production in February and 10 for production in March, April and May.

I hope that this helps....

 

Nice you won the Time dlr award, Ken....I know that's a big deal....

 

That is the best explanation on how the allocation /consensus system works I have seen. Seems to agree with what my dealer is saying. Hopefully my order starts to move soon. Sitting at 1100 has taken the excitement out of the process. I'm going to try and sit back and just enjoy my C4 convertible for now and wait.

 

Thanks for shedding more light on the process, Ken, much appreciated.
No wonder why you're a Dealer of the Year

 

for Ken and his dealership. While it's a small family dealership, Ken's knowledge and enthusiasm help him sell a lot of vettes each year. as he mentioned, he did not require a deposit until Chevy picked up our order. Unlike many dealers, he kept us informed of our status at least weekly, and more often when things began changing. He also didn't play any financial games, giving us the deal he promised on first contact. As he mentioned, he is not one of the biggest vette dealers in the country, he is definitely one of the best.

 

If it eases your mind at all, Ive had an order placed through Kerbecks since the first week of October and due to many constraints (Z51,Body Colored Roof, CF Dash) Im still waiting.

With the holiday shutdown, its added about 3 weeks to the wait. Orders should start going through and your status changed either this or next Tuesday.

 

I don't mind leaving a deposit if the dealer has an allocation. What really is upsetting is to be told they have an allocation, take the deposit and then are unable to order the car with a status different than 1100.

 

Yup on the deposit....heres what a small dealer (in vette sales) told me in fla:

"We have a list...when your name comes to the top, and we have an allocation for what you want, we will call you. then you come in and we will take a non refundable deposit, order your car and it will be accepted (2000) by Chev within 5 days, we will then run a pdf report of the status every Monday and email it to you"

perfectly acceptable to me....but their list was 6 months long and Conti built me the car in 5 weeks. And more important, when I called the small dealer and told him that, he understood, offered me courtesy delivery for $250 and asked that we consider him for my service needs...

now that's how it's supposed to work. The dealer was Autonation - Fort Lauderdale - The general manager I dealt with is Pete Small.