Glen e

Before you start feeling sorry for the little tiny dealer in your hometown the needs the service and needs the sales remember many of these forum dealers chose to do business a certain way, and have continued to do that and become strong. I know 2 forum dealers that are in small towns, and another one in Atlantic City, right? hardly a major metro and not a huge conglomerate that owns it. A dealer can choose how many Corvettes he wants to sell, he's just got to do it when things are down and he can get the cars, which is the way all the forum dealers became big ...it was on C6 sales, not C7.

Most of the small town dealers are still small because when they have the opportunity to gut it out and do the hard thing and take on cars and sell them a little profit, so that they can reap the benefits several years later in the allocation system, They choose not to do it. They'd rather just whine about the system and say it's unfair. It's not .

r00t61

I agree with Glen above.

Let's not forget that Kerbeck, Mac, and the other top dealers of today were trying desperately to sell '13 C6s that they couldn't even give away due to the global financial crisis + aging C6 platform. They toughed it out through those lean years so that they could thrive in the current fat years.

23/C8Z

Op. I cannot stress enough what a pleasure it was to travel 3.5hrs away to purchase not only my Z06 but a week later, my best friend's Z06 from Mike Furman at Criswell.

He's the man. The best in the country. Last Thursday

The Thursday before last. Even if I had to pay the same as kerbeck (which I didn't) I would travel there to buy it from the #1 corvette salesman in the country. If you're passionate about these cars then you should engage the entire experience.

It should also speak volumes about what my friend and I traveling that distance to deal with Mike means. See we have a good friend that owns a local chevrolet dealer and ALWAYS gives us everything in the deal. See these big vette dealers they can give even more with their incentives from chevy. That's the difference. That and the fact that Mike orders some great optioned C7's. Pretty cool and rare vettes (ours being 2 of on 43 Z06 with the Twilight blue design package). Mine is one of 8 made in shark gray (forever since shark gray is deleted).

See, just a little extra. Kerbeck good guys but pump them out run of the mill cars. Mike's cars are all over the spectrum including a collection of cool rarities.

Hope that helps, regardless if you don't buy from Mike he will still help you. He's that good of a guy (and enthusiast). Best of luck.

TBIRD57

be willing to walk if necessary!

Vetteman Jack

Sadly, a lot of dealers do not share that concept.

chronage

The Hendrick dealership down the road in Duluth has good deals though. That's where I got mine from (17.5% off msrp on a 16 z51 iirc).

sunsalem

My God...$88k on a GS!

Modern Musclecar

I went through this buying my truck last spring, I got a quote from a friend who deals in wholesale vehicle of all kinds new and used when I was shopping for my 16 Denali HD. I then went around to all of my local GM dealers to see what they could do, the best any one of them would do was $2600 off full sticker MSRP. My wholesale buddy got me $19250 off on the exact same truck.

Corgidog1

I don't understand the concern over service if you didn't buy the car at the dealership-many dealers make the bulk of their profits from service, and they get paid the same whether they sold you the car or not. If you are so concerned that they will not treat you well since you didn't buy the car from them, just buy em some donuts and they will treat you like a king.

Gunrun

I have my c7 1LT for 2 weeks and it's a monster . Finally going to register it today , the dealer called yesterday here in MO to pick it up.

MSRP was 60k, 2016 NPP. A8, battery charger, Z51 spoiler ( torch red), black wheels, carbon fiber emblems ( I think it's called that ) and I paid 50k.

roadbike56

I'm also from NC and found similar results from the local dealers. They were courteous, let me demo C7s, but when it came to price they wouldn't negotiate. I would have spent $1K gladly to keep it local, actually offered close to $2K. I brought in an ad from another dealer showing the price from the competition. They actually said "if that's the car you want go buy it." I ended up contacting Mike Furman at Criswell who beat the local dealer by $4400 (out the door) for a car with $2800 additional options.
At a local Car N Coffee, I talked with some other C7 owners and found I wasn't alone going out of state to buy. It's a shame, because we have some really good Chevy dealerships here that I'd be glad to do business with. (actually, I did help my daughter-in-law buy a used car from one of them.)

dvilin

John Ulrich

Exactly. My local guy takes care of me (11 Chev dealers to chose from). I give them the top marks on the customer service service surveys I get from GM. The service Mgr called once to thank me. Everyone wins!

Hoonose

Just so you know Seafive was a notorious blowhard, mainly on the PR&C forum. So you might get some funny looks!

Welcome!

Oh, I saved $8K going MacCulkin over local.

sunsalem

True.

Rebel Yell

It didn't take me long to understand that. Oh, and don't let them make an offer on your car. That'll just **** you off.

MSG C5

Too funny as I do that exact same trick! Whenever I have service work done, which is like once/year, I bring in a case of Krispy Cream donuts for the service team. They love it and I know my car then gets some extra TLC for a very small investment. Plus, I usually have 1-2 myself.

felkebg

I had a similar bad experience with Rick Hendrick in Buford. Their corvette specialist salesperson did not even try to do business on both price or trade. He was sitting on 20 C7s at the time. Wasted my time and like you, it was insulting to be treated so poorly when I had my checkbook in hand.

obxchartercaptain

DAMN ***** DAMN****DAMN .....Those local Chevy dealers trying to make some money. Everyone knows the're "STEALERSHIPS" Wow...some of you are unbelievable. Look, you can spend your money anyway you see fit. But, if these dealers go out of business where do you get your car serviced....These Vettes are rolling computers and you need the technology and the tools to work on them. Almost without exception the dealership is the only place where you can get it done. Yes, there are dealers that are unscrupulous....but most are pillars in their community and support lots of local charities. Most employ 50 to 60 people for the small dealer and over 100 for the large. I imagine if you "bargained" in good faith you could get a good deal. To walk in and say MATCH THIS isn't the way to do it, in my opinion.....

Hoonose

With the internet and since 1998 that is about what I do. I am willing to go a bit higher to buy local, but not $8K. Then when I come in for service the dealer already knows I gave him a shot.

For my early C6, the internet and this forum saved me $4K. $8K on the C7. With my C5 I didn't save as much, but was able to buy what I wanted not too far away.