new member first post!!!

in sept., ordered new 2018 car with a nice guy....dealer out of state...good price!!!! also arranged delivery to southern ca...saves me a trip east......about a week later, got a "build week" of jan 15, 2018....i'm excited!!!!

then about a week later, read on corvette blogger that 2018 production ends end of jan....2019 production begins...nothing major changed as far as they know.

immediately, contacted my dealer and said i did not want a year old car (technically) 2 weeks after my car was built...i want the current year model which will be a 2019 model....nothing else changed....a wide body, 3LT pkg, yada...yada.....

he responded that order could not be changed...once in the "system" things start happening and car was going to be built and shipped as ordered......

again, i reiterated that i would not accept a 2018....not fair that chevrolet screwed things up by changing the production time so dramatically.........jan model change instead of the normal mid year....june or july......BS

guess he is trying to make this change...no luck so far....i really don't want to walk away from my $1000 deposit.....

ANYBODY EXPERIENCED AN ORDER CHANGE WITH CORVETTE...OR ANY OTHER CHEVY MODEL????? HOW DID YOU DO IT?????

 

Not sure you realize you posted in the C8 forum not the C7. You don't mention if the dealer has given you a copy of the Dealer Workbench order. Do you know your order number or events status code? Explained below:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...explained.html

If you have your order number you can go here and get the status code:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...read-1031.html

 

Are you speaking with the salesman or the general manager/owner of the dealership?

 

If the dealer is stuck with the car you ordered they may not let you just cancel. They don't want it any more than you do. They may let you transfer the deposit to a 2019 but not at old price deal you got on that one. Offer to renegotiate but this will be a little hard as prices are not out yet, so you have to base the deal on list price. If you push hard enough they may do a goodwill favour due to special circumstance.
I cancelled a 2016 C7 factory order and got my deposit back, factory hadn't picked up my order.
I just put a deposit on a Mid Engine Corvette, refundable if I cancel before I confirm the order configuration to go into the system. Really it's just getting on the dealers list for his allocation. (I'm 4th )

 

Moved this to C7 General.

Knowing your order status is critical to what can or cannot be done. Once an order is accepted by GM (status 2000), the dealer is committed to getting the car once it is built. Once the order hits 3000, nothing can be changed. Regardless of order status, an order cannot be changed from one model year to another.

 

What is "not fair"? You ordered a car. You made the commitment. You'll get the car you ordered. Contract complete. There's nothing illegal about changing the model year differently than you expected. If it really bothers you that much, be prepared to walk away from the $1000. I'm surprised the deposit was so little. Besides, you get a 2018 instead of a 2017! There is little difference and you can count them on one hand. The 2019 will be similar, small and incremental. The market knows that and prices will reflect that. It's kind of like getting engaged. If a prettier girl comes along, there's a wee price to be paid to dump one for the other.

 

How is this not fair? If anything a 2018 is better, less of them on the road. I really don't get this one.

 

^^^^^This


OP, I completely understand your frustration and I too would not be happy that GM pulled this major surprise. That said, at this point you have two choices. 1) Accept the fact you have a 2018 on order enjoy the experience and anticipation of getting a fantastic Corvette. 2) if you plan to sell it within the next two to three years then have the order canceled and forfeit your deposit. Having a one year newer model when you go to sell it in two or three years will easily offset the lost deposit. If you plan to keep it a long time then there is not going to be much difference between a 2018 & 2019.

 

I get it! His car new car automatically turns 1 year old 2 weeks after his car was built! This regardless if he keeps the car 1 year or 10 years! I would be pissed too!

 

On the bright side, chances are that at that time of year there could be incentives on 2018 cars where there won't be on 2019's. With that build week, the car probably will arrive late January to the dealer. If there are no incentives in January, perhaps the dealer can wait a few days into February on the final delivery paperwork and maybe an incentive or rebate will come out then.

 

You are not considering that both parties negotiated the purchase price in good faith, believing that this would be the latest model year available, only to find out that this assumption was false.

On the date of the purchase, the dealership was asking for a price based not only on it being a 2018 model, but also on it being the most current model year for sale. The purchaser was agreeing to that price based on the same.

If it had been a 2017 model on that same day, both parties would have had different expectations on the market price. The dealrship would have expected to sell it for less and the purchaser to also pay less.

By not clearly broadcasting this 1/2 year early date of January when 2019 models would be available, both the dealership and the purchaser, did not have the full and correct information to establish the proper market price. This borders on GM doing what is called a bait and switch where one thing is implied in the advertising but it does not turn out to be true.

If this practice of without warning, arbitrarily changing when model years transition becomes accepted, then future sales will likely be negatively impacted as purchasers will be reticent to pull the trigger without a deeper discount due to uncertainty. None of this is good for anyone.

IMHO, GM blew it and many (not all) who ordered a 2018 that will be produced close to the 2019 model switch over date are going to wonder if they got the deal they thought they were getting when they made their decision to purchase the 2018 model year.

What I am saying is pretty clear if you look at what dealerships were advertising in terms of discounts off MSRP for their 2017 models when the 2018 models became available to order.

At the time I ordered my 2018 MY, I received a 11% discount while those willing to purchase a 2017 MY on the same day I ordered mine were receiving 13-15% discounts for the sole reason that it was about to be one model year older.

While I am sure that many wealthy people could care less, I am not one of them.

 

But, when BUILT it will be the latest model. What purchase contract ever states how long that will or will not be the case. I don't see how any this enters in. OP's issue is with GM, not the dealer, imho. Good luck with that!

 

At the very most you're talking a few months here. This year they started the "new" model in June. If next year follows that you're talking four months. As I said, the market will take this into consideration. The difference between 2017, 2018, and 2019 is minimal. It's the same car. It's not like the old days when a 58 chevy was distinctly different than a 57.

The same thing actually happened to me. I ordered a car I picked up in April. To get MSRC I was forced to take bigger wheels and the small spoiler to make the car look like it had a Z51. It cost me an extra $3500 when all I wanted was MSRC. Lo and behold by June when they started building the 2018's they unbundled that whole issue and offered the MSRC for plus $1700. So the same car cost about $2000 less in 2018 than it did in 2017. Now I could claim the same thing. If only GM had told me they were going to do this I could have saved $2K, so it is UNFAIR that they withheld that information from me. So GM owes me $2K. Right? (No, I don't think so either.)

All "unfair" means is that you don't agree with the outcome. I've been involved in dozens of contracts and seen this kind of thing happen over and over. A contract is a commitment between two parties. It is being fulfilled according to the terms of the contract. And the thing is, the dealer also had no idea this was going to happen, and the contract is with the buyer and the dealer--not GM. Legally speaking, there is no case here. Surely the dealer is not responsible here, but he does have a contract between himself and GM, and that contract says he WILL take delivery of the car once it passes a certain point in the production process. And I'll bet you dollars to donuts that somewhere in the fine print it will say that GM reserves the right to "change specifications without notice." This is a slam dunk. OP can consult an attorney if he wants more proof. It will only cost a couple hundred bucks for the attorney to tell him exactly what I said here.

 

This is real easy...which is more important? The $1,000 or getting a 2019 rather than a 2018?

 

I ordered a 2018 GS in July from my local dealer. Found out about the 2019's coming in Jan 2018. Talked with my dealer who initially was unaware of the changeover, but checked with his contacts and confirmed the change. He also found out the order was processed and scheduled for production. GM rushed to process orders, through a sneaky move, as they anticipated orders would be cancelled. He understood my concerns and allowed me to cancel my order and guaranteed me the same price on a 2019. Many of the individuals who ordered from out of state "Big Boy" dealers have not been so lucky. I can't say it enough about at least giving you local dealers an opportunity to earn your business. Forming that personal relationship is so much more important than saving a few bucks. BTW my discount was within about 1% of the Big Boys and I didn't have to worry about shipping, hoping the car was without any issues, etc.

 

^^^ This....especially if there are not a lot of changes from Model Year to Model Year.

 

What "sneaky move" did GM make? The plant re-opening is not occurring ahead of schedule and production when it starts up will be at a lower rate than prior to the shutdown, meaning they will produce fewer C7s during the Nov to late Jan timeframe than they would have at the pre-shutdown build rate. Orders moving through the process will move at the pace of the factory. Why, because the production planning process drives the entire supply chain process. Just In Time (JIT) inventory is how the factory works. They don't keep large parts inventories as that increases costs.

 

No one is saying there is a legal case and no one is saying any dealership is at fault. Getting an attorney or pursuing anything would be a waste of time and money because as you say "unfair" is just too bad too sad.

The dealerships clearly were in the dark about GM's secret model year introduction plans as well as the customer base. In fact many dealerships who ordered a bunch of 2018s thinking it was going to be the current model year for them to sell for another six months are I am quite sure, not happy about this development either because they may need to heavily discount them when they are sitting next to 2019 model year starting in February.

The idea that if identical 2018 and 2019 models are sitting on a dealer lot, the dealer is going to have to offer a higher discount for a 2018 to sell it is well established in the real world. So if everything is equal on the cars, the only way I would want the 2018 is if I got a better price for it than I would get for the 2019. Its the same concept when one orders. If I order a 2018, knowing that a 2019 is right around the corner, I would want a better price to buy it assuming there is no tangible difference. That is my main point.

My other point is that both customers and dealerships are making large expensive capital purchase decisions based on faulty assumptions and if GM keeps pulling this, no one is going to trust them. I certainly won't and I am sure that many dealers are now also going to be hesitant to gamble making multi-million dollar supply orders on 2019s until they sell off their inventory of 2018s that they ordered believing that the 2019 Stingray/GS etc would not be introduced until summer.

I have learned a lesson on buying a Corvette and that is, don't be so willing to pay the higher price to get the most current model year because it can easily backfire on you. You can pay the higher price and still not end up with the latest model being sold. Instead wait and buy the more heavily discounted last year's model assuming it is the same car and save yourself a few $Ks.

For those of us with 2018 orders who paid full ticker, there is not much anyone can now do but wait and hope (and hope is not a strategy) that GM will give some additional discounts when we go to pay for them as GM is under no obligation to do so.

 

Local dealers in my area are a bunch of over priced dirt bags. I gave them all an opportunity to sell me a car and they wanted thousands more. There is no way those folks would ever be stuck with an unsold car by returning a deposit and letting me start over. No way! Plus their service departments aren't any good so that I am going to have to travel a hundred miles one way if I need warranty service.

No, I have had a very bad purchase experience so far because my order languished in limbo from mid-August to 11 October when it all of a sudden went to 1100 and then 3000 over night and my $2K deposit became unrefundable. The very next day word of the impending 2019s leaks out and when I asked if I could apply the deposit to a 2019, I was told no (and I understand why I was told no). So you are one of the lucky ones who were allowed to do what I wanted to do.

My issue is like others, that the timing stinks. GM should have made their 2019 MY announcement a few days BEFORE they did that national allocation sweep instead of the day after. As far as I am concerned, the only way they can salvage a situation that shows total disregard for their customers with deposits down on 2018s, is to give some incentives in January and February.

 

"What "sneaky move" did GM make?" They moved all 2018 orders to code 2000 and right after announced a six month move up of the 2019 which is unprecedented. That is a sneaky move.