If I live on the west coast, and order a vette from an East coast dealer, does GM drop ship it to me and cover it with the destination charge? Or does GM ship it from KY to east coast, and then in additon I have to pay to ship it from east coast to west coast?

 

The destination charge is the same no matter where in the country they ship it. Even cars they ship across the street from the factory to the NCM for museum delivery.

If you are factory ordering from an east coast dealer you can have it "courtesy" delivered to a local dealer to you. You have to find one that will accept it and they will charge you an extra fee most charge around $500 but some have paid up to $1000.

If you are buying from an east coast dealer and it is already on their lot or in-route to their lot then you would have to pay for a private carrier or fly and drive it home.

 

Good luck with your purchase.

 

New Car Delivery or Destination Charges Explained (AutoTrader)

Let's get the bad news out of the way first: That destination charge listed on every new car's window sticker is something you'll have to pay. According to U.S. law, car delivery -- transporting the vehicle from port or assembly plant to dealer showroom -- is always listed as a separate line item on a new-car window sticker. Automakers may use different names to describe it, but it always works the same way, with buyers covering the cost.

Freight, delivery or destination charges ensure that the buyer pays equally to cover the cost of delivering a vehicle to a dealership, regardless of whether the dealership is nearby or far away from the vehicle assembly plant. For example, a Kia Optima buyer in Seattle is not required to pay more for the vehicle than a buyer in Atlanta, who's thousands of miles closer to the West Point, Ga. plant where the Optima is built.

Instead, Kia passes the cost on to buyers with a delivery charge of $800, regardless of where the seller is located. The fee is not included in the MSRP. Instead, it's typically listed as one of the last items on the window sticker, right above the total price.

Fees vary depending on brand or even model. Larger, heavier or more expensive models can be more costly to move for the automaker. That cost is passed on to the consumer through the destination charge. For example, a high-end luxury vehicle may require more careful protection before making a trip by rail or truck. Wrapping the car in protective film or transporting it in a closed truck adds costs, which result in a higher destination fee. Imported vehicles don't necessarily have higher delivery fees than domestically built ones, because only car delivery inside the U.S. is covered by the fee -- foreign automakers usually cover the cost of getting their vehicles to U.S. ports.

Although there's no getting around a delivery charge at the negotiating table, new-car shoppers can prepare for it -- and avoid surprise -- by considering it when researching vehicles. Typically, fees are about $700 to $1,000. Be sure to add that to a vehicle's MSRP when budgeting for your next new car. Upon negotiating a sale price, keep the delivery fee in mind to ensure a budget-friendly deal.

 

When your selling dealer orders your car, they can specify that it be shipped to your local delivering dealer. (This must be specified at the time of placing the order.) This in itself does not cost anything extra. The key is to make prior arrangements with the delivering dealer for them to accept a "courtesy delivery". Under this process, the delivering dealer agrees to handle your car's delivery to you on behalf of the selling dealer for a fee (typically $300 - $750). This fee is paid by the buyer in addition to the car's sale price (including destination), taxes, DMV, etc. For those contemplating a courtesy delivery, it's important to secure agreement from the delivering dealer in advance since many (maybe even most) won't do them.

Note that the above process is very different from buying from an out of state dealer and having the car shipped from that dealer to the buyer. In those cases, the car is shipped from Bowling Green to the selling dealer. The selling dealer arranges for the car to then be trucked directly to the buyer; the buyer pays the trucking company and the car can be delivered directly to the buyer's home.

 

That's it. I would only add that for courtesy deliveries, many of the Forum Dealers will be happy to make arrangements for you with a participating delivering dealer in your area acceptable to you.

 

If using the "courtesy" method of delivery, make sure you have asked what happens if you don't like the car(say, a bad paint job or car arrived damaged, or built not with the exact options you ordered, etc) and you refuse to take procession of it.

Typically, you have to pay for the car to the selling dealer, before you actually see the car at the delivering dealer.