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How many times have you ordered a car that is not yet in production? This is not the typical car buying experience. Most people NEVER order a car. They just buy what is on the lot.
I have to say that as someone new to Corvette’s having never owned one before, this whole C8 experience has been overwhelming negative so far. I’m overlooking my dealer initially fumbling my deposit by forgetting about me because the initial salesman left allowing my deposit to fall through the cracks leaving me a month late getting an allocation build after several update requests. The new salesman has so far made a good effort though, but seems to know less then I do, which is NOT how it should be. I also give Tadge and company excellent marks so far for designing and building what I’m increasingly confident will be a great car and eventually an even better one.
My chief complaint revoloves around the manufacturer, primarily customer support and communication. To them, I give an F...
Oy vey. Now I’ve heard it all. The entitlement factor is off the charts! I suggest you cancel your order ASAP, get your deposit back and buy something else, ANYTHING else!
Dealers buy the car from GM. You buy the car from a dealer. Who is the customer of each? Most of what you are complaining about is information your dealer should be providing to you, not GM. Ask them.
asked and not answered... it’s a three stooges act, “I don’t know he knows, I don’t know they know, ask them” ... I think Bernie Maddow somehow morphed into the CEO of GM and is now running a Ponzi scheme with C8 orders ... they completely F@#k@d up the whole release badly it is muddled and amateurish...!!! Not ready for prime time and I suspect the cars won’t be either and therein lies one of my reasons for holding out until late 2021. Then when I pulled my order I had to call my bank to get them to retrieve my $1K deposit because the dealer didn’t give it back (and yes it is a refundable deposit) as most all of you know. That would be Rick Hendrick in Charleston, SC.
Originally Posted by Zymurgy
Dealers buy the car from GM. You buy the car from a dealer. Who is the customer of each? Most of what you are complaining about is information your dealer should be providing to you, not GM. Ask them.
I did ask my dealer about this type of info. Answer? They don't know. Why? GM hasn't told them anything and it sounds like I'm not alone from other's experiences here. Ooookay........ Hello, Mr. (or Ms.) Concierge?, Panfish here with some questions. Been there, done that and nothing to show for it. Not general accurate info that holds up (like this week's constraint info), nor specific info when I had a specific issue that they claimed they would assist me with. Again, I just guess this is normal. They've sold something like 30,000 of the things and you'd think I'd have a little more success at something with somebody, eh? No worries..........like Judge Smails said, "You'll get nothing and like it", LOL!
But hey....if I can pivot and save $20,000, it's worth it. I'm happy again.
So, you flat out believed your dealer? Just curious, is your dealer one of the "big three"? And those 3 cars you ordered - were they cars that were not yet in production? Once production starts the process goes pretty well (unless your dealer contact is clueless). I can't imagine how you are going to react if you wind up getting caught by real constraints that delay your order acceptance.
P.S. No i did not read your full rant. Way too long.
This thread for the most part lends credence to why Corvette should be its own brand. The “Chevy” experience is not what the typical Porsche or Ferrari buyer is accustomed too. The C8 Corvette buyer deserves better in my opinion.
I did ask my dealer about this type of info. Answer? They don't know. Why? GM hasn't told them anything and it sounds like I'm not alone from other's experiences here....
Originally Posted by Panfish
Where did I say I "believed" my dealer (or more accurately, my sales rep) about anything "flat out" or not? ....
You said your sales rep told you GM hasn't told them anything. Apparently you believed that. I'll ask again, who is your dealer? There are good ones out there that do have a lot of information and there are those that don't bother to read/understand what GM sends them. There are sales reps that understand the order process and there are many, many more that don't. I'm trying to understand where your sales rep falls on that scale (I have my suspicions).
I'm glad I bought my 19 Z06 and I'm also glad this crap is going on else I would have continued down the merry path of C8 ownership. Also, it got me off my dead *** to pursue the GT500 and find the deal I did. The other big problem for a lot of you folks will be your first year delivery may or will be in Sept / Oct of next year sort of right around when the 2021's will be looking at the street. So you may be taking delivery of a year old car - without the benefit of year end deals. The BS about the union strike can fly only so far, truth be told they (GM) were and are totally unprepared and most all the reps at all the dealers will tell you that.
I'm glad I bought my 19 Z06 and I'm also glad this crap is going on else I would have continued down the merry path of C8 ownership. Also, it got me off my dead *** to pursue the GT500 and find the deal I did. The other big problem for a lot of you folks will be your first year delivery may or will be in Sept / Oct of next year sort of right around when the 2021's will be looking at the street. So you may be taking delivery of a year old car - without the benefit of year end deals. The BS about the union strike can fly only so far, truth be told they (GM) were and are totally unprepared and most all the reps at all the dealers will tell you that.
Your assertion of some being unknowingly tossed into the 2021 bucket probably has merit. The worst part?
They'll be oblivious to the fact that train is going to hit them until just before impact.
I'll answer again. First of all, they don't sell a lot of Corvette's so I immediately picked up on that and expanded my information resources as I identified that as a potential drawback. Those resources? The concierge and........this (and the other) forum. It doesn't matter who the dealer (or salesman) is per se. Like I also said, I've learned more here about the C8 and Corvette's in general than anywhere else. I concluded my rep knew less than I did, but then again can never know what he might know, but isn't telling me. But, my points aren't about Corvette's or even car dealers or car salesman, instead about the concepts of customer awareness and support. That is universal whether you are selling Corvette's at $80,000 a pop or rutabaga's at $5 a bag. Also again, actually my primary criticism isn't the dealer, but about GM. IF we are supposed to get the info from the dealer who is supposed to be knowledgable (sic) about the product they are selling and they aren't getting the info from GM, what good is it? If the assertion is my issues have been a failure at the dealer level, why isn't Kerbeck or some other Corvette guru clued in about what's happening with this car and passing that onto their customers? Answer: They really don't know either. I'm more than familiar with TPW's, the build process codes like 1100, 3000/3300 or 6000+, etc., at least as represented so far, but unless you can know where you are there, it's of little value.
Trying to keep this as short as possible as I see more than a paragraph or two seems to short-circuit some people's wiring.
That's my whole point. Your dealer should be your source of information and the dealers ARE getting information from GM. Most dealers are not willing to post the information you are seeking publicly. That may be because GM considers the information confidential or it may just be that they don't want to get swamped by people that are not their customers. The fact that YOUR dealer is not aware of the information is not the fault of GM. It is the fault of the dealership management for not sharing the info, or the fault of the sales reps for not reading/comprehending the information.
Using your rutabaga analogy, who do you expect to communicate to you about those rutabaga's? The store you buy them from or the farmer that produced them?
That right there is the entitlement people are talking about. GM owes you nothing. Your order is with a dealer, your deposit is with a dealer, not GM. As has been said, should have gone with a better dealer.
That said, Chevy has said from the start I believe that the car will be available first part of 2020. That is still correct.
And probably the funniest is you say you're ordering a Vert, which they aren't even accepting orders for until first part of 2020...again, hasnt changed....
Mr. Panfish - part of the problem is of course with "the dealers" as some of the card carrying GM lap lickers have stated within this thread, (probably have GM tattoos). However, as with Ford and Dodge that doesn't take responsibility away from "the manufacturers" to make sure that those that sell their products aren't properly trained and educated and that information about something as important as this release and their completely new and redesigned product isn't distributed down the chain to alleviate the BS that's going on right now.
It's almost believable to think that GM deliberately misinformed and held back informative so they could point the finger at UAW workers as the excuse - as to why everyone's orders have been held up. Taking over 30,000 orders for a car your not properly equipped to build in the middle of UAW negotiations with the possibility of a strike looming - falls on GM and is shameful actually - not the dealerships. As a buyer who has bought and ORDERED from scratch most of my cars and trucks in the past +40 years I am a veteran when it comes to dealer and manufacturer SANFU's and I can tell you from my experience this whole thing just has a very odd smell...
Cabbage Patch dolls - bring back memories...? If you're to young to know what I'm talking about - Google - Cabbage Patch mania, or just Cabbage Patch dolls...
The next problem is the business of charging over MSRP - this seems to be getting very prevalent with all the manufacturers - Who again pull the Three Stooges routine pointing fingers at the dealers and dealers pointing fingers at the manufacturers - it truly is a joke. One thing is certain though, if I'm paying $80K for a car I'm buying the one that has limited production as in 1K units per year (Shelby w/760HP SC) vs the C8 (495HP NAT ASP for same $$$) with 30K units just the first year alone - if you get my drift ...?
maybe YOU should have advised GM just when the strike would be over so they could have given you better delivery times and ended that nonsense???
We do agree on Rick Hendrick however.
Interesting date since almost all of the scuttlebutt is that they aren't going to start building them until February. I also thought the big guns (dealers) would get theirs first and aren't they suppose to set them aside for 2 weeks before they ship them in case for some inescapable reason something isn't right and they have to correct the problem before shipment. Sorry this crowd has the bah humbug attitude because of the delays.
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