Don’t shoot the messenger. Just posting something I found on another site. I thought it was an interesting while severely flawed perspective.

 

Turn and Earn is an allocation method. Here's the methods the C7 went through:
.I'd be surprised if the C8 went to Turn and Earn for 2021 given the large backlog of unfilled 2020 orders that rolled to 2021. The supply and demand are different now than they were for 2nd year of the C7.

 

Yes we will shoot you. You've posted this everywhere on Facebook and now here...

 

That has what to do with Corvette's?

 

How many new car shoppers are legitimately in the market for a 3 season, 2 seater, 60-100k sports car, would you say?

Far less than you think.

All allocations do is allow the dealers to play pricing / artificial scarcity games with the customers. Not at all favorable to the buyer.

 

If you do buy a C8 and order it stay way from Van's Chevrolet in Scottsdale Arizona, they will take your build and tell you when the car is scheduled to be built they will take a deposit. Then when that date comes they will tell you not to worry they respect you and since you order the car they don't need a deposit.. During this whole time they will assure you the car is at the build price with no mark up and the day you come in to pay for it they will add on 3k worth of garbage and outrageous markup like $225 for nitrogen in the tire, $595 for the two side window tint and $1395 for paint coating. And if you balk at these added items they will tell you they are doing you a favor of not charging you 25k markup and if you don't like it then go buy a car somewhere else.

 

Is this an example of alternative reality? They have been selling these cars since 1953. There has been an allocation system to the dealers since 1953. Now you are saying the allocation system for the C8 is nothing but a plot to raise the dealer's profit? Interesting!

 

Write a letter to GM, and tell them of the dealers that are overcharging. Tadge Juechter said that its not the way the C8 is supposed to be sold or marketed. GM is a volume company, and markups are bad for business. Just find a reputable dealer to order and purchase from. Flipper economies are signs of something much worse.

 

This is an explanation from a few years ago by Dave Salvatore, Manger at Kerbeck on how GM handles allocations (if you want to know in detail how it's done.)


When you place an order for a Corvette, some dealers will input your order into GM's order system as soon as you specify exactly what you want and put down your deposit (if they require a deposit). As soon as your order is entered into GM's order system, they can give you your order number. Your order will sit at 1100 until the dealer gets an allocation that allows all of your options/colors/etc. The dealer must also assign a priority number to orders in the system that tells Chevrolet which order the dealer wants orders picked up.

On the other hand, some dealers will not enter an order into the GM system until they actually have an allocation to which they can assign your order. Chevrolet may do a "sold order sweep" and send all sold orders to 2000 regardless of a dealers allocation. In this circumstance, if your order is not in, you could potentially lose out.

Generally, it makes no difference which method your dealer uses, as nothing will happen to your order until that all important allocation is matched to your order (this matching is done by the dealer). It can make a difference during times when production exceeds orders

Allocations are normally communicated to dealers on Thursday along with the nationwide constraints. The dealers allocations will specify exactly how many of what, with which constraints, they have available to them. Dealers have until Saturday to assign their orders to their allocations. This process is known as the "Dealer Order Submission Process" (DOSP). There is also a separate twice monthly "consensus cycle" when dealers agree to accept the allocations offered by Chevrolet. (My note: as recall that is done for Trucks, Camaro's etc, GM using the dealers buying history etc makes suggestions.)

Once your order is assigned to an allocation, your order will progress to 2000 by the following Tuesday. Once you are at 2000, you have made it past the whole allocation/constraint hurdle and you are on your way to having your car built.

Allocations have a TPW (Targeted Production Week) associated with them (the constraint reports show this TPW), but this is just an early estimate of the TPW. Your TPW will become more firm as you progress to somewhere in the 3000 range (again, I'm not sure the precise status that the TPW becomes fairly stable). TPW's are always on Monday's and it represents the best estimate as to which week your car will be built (sometime during the week that starts that Monday). Actual build dates can differ from the TPW. During start-up, it is likely that the TPWs will slip somewhat. When things are humming along, the actual build date can occur the week prior to the TPW.

Constraints can definitely impact the order process. First of all, you need to understand that constraints are given as the % of the particular vehicles nationwide will be allowed to have that particular option during that consensus cycle. For the sake of an example, let's pretend that Torch Red Stingrays are constrained at 10%. Nationwide, only 10% of all Stingray models will be allowed to be ordered with Torch Red. The percentage at any given dealer can vary from that nationwide average. A low volume dealer that only gets 3 or 4 allocations in a consensus cycle can't get .3 or .4 Stingrays that allow Torch Red, so they probably get zero. A large volume dealer that has 50 allocations can get 5 Torch Red, maybe more. Definitely an advantage for the larger volume Corvette dealers

 

Jerry, good post! Roll this one out as a direct quote of the paragraphs when you see someone with questions/complaints, etc. about the process. It's very clear, even if some won't like it (it's not theirs to change).

I'll add in for good reading by anyone Zymurgy's post #22 above. As he says, it's a process that existed for C7 but obviously the entire process has shifted (not changed necessarily) for the C8 due to initial start up conditions (my add: like Covid, second shift, worker strike).

 

^^^
Fact is the "large volume dealers" help GM out when the winter months come and fewer folks buy Vettes. GM's choice; layoff folks at Bowling Green or give some incentives for dealers to buy Vettes and push them in the market in slow sales months! Kerbeck typically has 200+ Vettes in Stock. I bought my 2017 Grand Sport when their winter discounts were in place! I got the same discount for my ordered "just for me made in BG" Vette (as all of my 6 Vettes have been) as they were offering for cars in stock (~17%.) Just look at their website and what they offer is what you pay beit for one in stock or ordered. May be some additional GM discounts for a few cars in stock.

They buy cars when most Northern dealers will NOT! GM does not have to layoff workers! Giving small or large Chevy dealers who buy few Vettes would kill incentives for folks buying at slow tomes and offering large discounts to push Vette sales. Would be “stupid” for GM to do that!

 

If only it were so simple as to keep ordering corvettes in the winter when others don't.

People not involved do not understand just how committed and capital willing the bigger Corvette dealers must be to play this game at their level. Not only are they fully committed to take every car, buy when possible from other dealers, and to dealer trade for them...they still have to sell them whether the market be good or terrible. I think it was MacMulkin who posted last year how much they were losing per unit to keep this flow going and anticipated doing so for more than a year. All of this based on faith that C8 sales would be good at a proper margin to make up for the initial investment.

This process has been going on for fifty years at least and the leading dealers come and go with time. Somebody in the organization has to have a passion for the brand, deep pockets, and long term commitment to win in the process.