Three things needed to happen to get to the first consensus:
*do not order constrained items (auto or convertible)
*dealer needs to have an allocation and you order is part of it
*allocation needs to be accepted in that first consensus (you need to be sufficiently ahead inline and the dealer needs to receive the allocated spot for that first week)

Many things can be at play, maybe there is no allocation for you for the model year 2015 at that dealer, or maybe there is but you are not sufficiently ahead in line to make it to the first consensus, or maybe you are first inline and he has an allocation but GM did not give the dealer his allocation in this first consensus.

 

Claimed I was like #5 or #6 in line and a few of those wanted auto. So I would think Im in pretty good shape, said they had sold over 200 2014s so they should have got a decent amount of allocated Z06 cars?

 

Does anyone have a good number from anyone as to how many cars were involved with the first consensus??

 

The wait will be worth it

 

Every vette off the line goes through a short QC process, going through a suspension test cell and a intense spray room to look for leaks. Then it's taken for a test drive. Much of the first few weeks of production on a new model, and on random cars after that, there is a more extensive inspection with much more test driving.

During the normal production, a car would be released within a day or so for shipping. At the start of the model run, they hold on to them for 2-4 weeks. That way, if any problems crop up on more than one or two cars, the whole fleet can be checked for that problem before being released for shipping. It's much easier for plant employees to check the cars right there, than at hundreds of dealerships around the country. Any required parts are rushed to one location and installed prior to delivery, instead of customers having to bring their new cars back to the dealer. This year, the brake and airbag recalls happened when most of the effected vehicles were still at the plant.

As for where they park the cars, there is room for at least 1400 in the parking area at the plant. In 2014, at the start of C7 production, GM used a shipping yard just down the road in Nashville as an auxiliary parking and QC location, but it hasn't been required this year. It shouldn't be needed for the Z06 intro, because the plant parking lots can handle a good portion of Z06 production for the model year

 

There were 289 Z07 options allocated in the first consensus, according to the constraint reports given to dealers. At a 60% constraint level, that would suggest about 480-odd Z06s altogether in the first allocation.

That jibes with the idea that roughly 9-10% of the annual allocation would be released in the first consensus.