http://www.autoblog.com/2014/10/20/a...pments-report/

 

Interesting. Bet GM isn't the mfr who paid the extra $M to ship by truck, given the experience so far with the Vettes going to the West Coast.

Not to excuse the rail companies, but the car companies could have built delivery time guarantees and penalties in the rail delivery contracts. No mention of that in the story.

Taking 40+ days from build to deliver isn't the end of the world, but it certainly annoying and not customer-friendly. It just looks bushleague

 

Considering that most cars being delivered to dealers are not ordered by Customers it is only a big deal for the manufacturers and the dealers. I don't even know if you can order a car from a Toyota dealer. I looked at them a long time ago and when they didn't have what I wanted on the lot asked if I could order a car they said NO, a Customer special order would take many months longer to get than the cars that were preconfigured. I never looked at a Toyota again since despite their reputation they really didn't seem to be interested in seeing that I got what I wanted.

Bill

 

These delays are not limited to autos. Due to the massive increase in crude oil shipments coming out of the Bakken Oil Basin in Canada and the Dakotas almost every industry is experiencing these delays. Grain shipments are running up to 40 days behind, you name it it's running late! There is more money in oil right now. Everything else is taking a backseat.

BobD

 

Mine has been on the train for about a month. Arrived in Toledo on 9/27 and scheduled for arrival to Mira Loma, CA on 10/24 at 9:30 PM. I found a picture of my rail car ETTX700826 so this is all I have to look at for now.

 

I have a similar issue, my 2LT was built on 9/26, made it to Toledo on 9/30 and is supposed to be in Portland (who knows). How did you find out where youe Vette actually is and get a pic of the rail car it's supposed to be on?

 

That pic is a riot and sums the anticipation up quite nicely. Lol my car was to be courtesy delivered near me and it ended up going to les Stanford where I bought it. I google earthed the dealership to try and see my car on the grounds. Took a screen shot and sent to salesman asking y my car isn't sitting on transport truck ready to go!!! Gotta stalk the joint to buy a 75k car. Lol ps. Found out my car was at original dealer by connecting onstar and saw it sitting there.... Sent a screen pic of that to salesman too.

 

My salesman Dennis Tap sent me my railcar number ETTX700826 and now I am tracking it along the way.

I did a Google search and found a picture. You can try these web sites and see if someone uploaded a picture. There are actually people that do this, can you believe it.


http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/

http://www.railcarphotos.com/Search....&Search=Search

 

Unreal.

 

My car was ordered in July. Original order neglected to include MRC which I had requested, and error was caught too late to correct, so car had to be re-ordered. My car was built on 9-10, and scheduled for museum delivery on 9-23. Then the QC hold. Museum unable to assure delivery when contacted on 9-15 prior to departing for COTA on 1st leg of trip to BG ($1400 in non-refundable tickets bought in May). Had planned to go from races on to BG. Airline, motel, and car rental reservations all had to be changed/cancelled and had to make one way tickets for two to Austin into round trip.

Then because couldn't do a second trip, I had to request GM to divert car to dealer. Museum never told me that car could be delivered on schedule, or within a day or so, and that if delayed they would cover extra day or two in a motel. That would have been the right way to treat a customer who just bought and paid over $72, 000 for a car.

Nor did anyone inform me that car would ship by rail, and that it would be in transit for over a month. I was able to get rail car number from CSX (that was very hard to do, and no one at GM was at all helpful). I tracked car. It was shipped on 9-26 or 27. It sat for 2-3 days at a time at various locations too numerous to recount. It arrived at final rail yard 5 days ago and dealer just informed me an hour ago that it hasn't even been offloaded from rail car yet!

If GM wants to ship inventory cars this way, that's between them and their dealers. IMHO for someone who has bought and paid in full over $72, 000 for a car to be treated this way is despicable.

Up until the first of this year, Corvettes were shipped by car carrier and arrived at dealerships within a week. I was invited to participate in GM's owner forum, and I intend to take this rail shipment issue up. In the meantime, I believe everyone who has been impacted by this should write to GM to complain.

 

Amen! Mine was shipped the same day as yours, supposed to be in Portland, only 40 mi. from Salem where I'm going to pick it up. I'm your wingman if you need cover.

 

Thank you. I have a contact in the upper levels at GM. I am somewhat reluctant to vent to him about this because he went to extrordinary efforts to get my car re-ordered and expedited so it could be delivered in conjunction with my trip to Austin for the races. Then it was also him who arranged to have car diverted. I believe the person who needs to hear from us is whoever it was that made the decision to start shipping Corvettes by rail. If anyone can provide that info, I would appreciate it. I might just write a letter to Mary Barra. If I do, I will post it on this forum and try to figure out how to collect other signatures on line. Maybe the forum administrator could assist in that effort.

Cordially,
Sharpseadog
A Retired Army Vietnam Veteran

 

After this month and half wait I hope I get one that is as good as my 2009 Z51 was, I realy hate buying a new car and having to go back to the service department due to problems.

 

My car is/was probably on the same train as it shipped on same date. I think the CA bound cars were hooked up in Portland for the trip south.

FYI, my car arrived in the rail yard in Kent WA at 0400 Hrs Friday, and as of yesterday afternoon, still hadn't been unloaded. Let's see, sits for over 3 weeks...could it be they have a car load of cars that have dead batteries?

I wonder how many of the electrical problems some these cars are having are related to improper jump starting?

BTW my car was supposed to be museum delivered on 9-23, but missed due to "stop sale quality problem". Not knowing about that, I traded in my 2012 on 9-17, and paid for car in full. So I have been without a car for 6 weeks, and paying $40 per day, plus insurance since 9-23 for a car I have never seen.

 

I was heading east this past Saturday on I-40 in New Mexico when a UP train passed heading west with a bunch of auto racks. I tried to see what was in them, but most appeared to be empty. Also passed by the UP auto terminal in Santa Rosa, NM; lots of auto racks there with a bunch of automobiles on the ground, but I didn't see any C7's.

I did see this load of Vettes though. I feel sorry for those guys waiting on these Corvettes to be delivered. Rail car left St Louis in 1963 and they still haven't been delivered.

 

You get it posted I'm in. Or perhaps her office e-mail address.

 

Interesting, my 2LT was finally delivered to Salem late last night. The dealership called me this morning. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. If anything is interesting concerning this sojourn I'll report.

 

Hope it's not Capital Chevy...

 

Corvette needs to go back to truck shipments only. Like they did with the launch of the C7's.

I saw yesterday in TN a jack cooper truck carrying what appeared to be volts or similar in TN. I thought Jack Cooper was so far behind with corvette shipments.

 

One Point you may want to cover when you attend GM's owner forum is Sharpseadogs assement of the dead battery issue.
After sitting for weeks I'm sure that many of the C7's have dead batteries. Having the cars improperly jump started by some yard jockey, may very well do damage to some electrical components.