cg02175

I think it is really stupid for GM to charge customers the $995 destination fee if you are picking the car up at the museum in Bowling Green.

If you want to pick up a corvette at the museum you still have to pay the $995 destination fee on top of the $995 museum delivery fee.

Anyone else think this makes no sense? Maybe another way for GM to squeeze out another $1,000

Steve_R

If people are willing to pay it they'll keep charging it.

cg02175

I guess your right, but it seems pretty shady on the part of GM. I still don't understand exactly why someone should have to pay a $995 destination fee when the car is not even being shipped anywhere. On top of that we still have to pay GM $995 for the museum delivery.

green2000

They are put on transporters and unloaded at the museum. The destination fee is uniform no matter how far delivery is from the plant. I remember the old days when I could get delivery from Detroit to Toledo for $18. It was based on distance then.

cg02175

Even still I think the $995 museum delivery fee is more than enough for GM to put the corvette on the transport trailer and deliver it next door or across the street.

z51vett

The money for museum del. goes to the museum not GM it supports the museum. All functions at museum are paid for by donations including the new race track.

z51vett
Doug

Steve_R

Shady? No more than dealers demanding a markup above MSRP, which people are more than willing to pay. Or recently raising the MSRP by $3k because of its popularity, which people are willing to pay. It would bve shady if they hid it, but that's not the case.

GM recognizes that people are willing to pay a hefty premium to own one so they're taking advantage of that while it lasts. Nothing shady about that, and what any of us would do if we owned a business.

cg02175

Although some people are ok with paying the destination fee on top of the musuem fee and even prices over MSRP, I am not included in that group. I chose to pass on the the extra $995 museum delivery and do pick up at the dealership.

vetdude

...and let's not forget the ever-popular $200+ 'Dealer Processing Fee'.

Steve_R

My dealer tried to sell us some kind of "appearance package" for several hundred $$$ that included undercoating. I didn't say a word, just gave him a look. He dropped the subject.

Highway 61

You're talking about two totally different things here.

First, the $995 destination fee is paid by everybody whether the car is shipped across the street or across country. It's an average so everybody pays the same.

Second, the $995 for museum pick-up is charged by the museum for their time and what you get from it. If you don't think what you get from the museum pick-up is worth it. DON"T GET IT!!!

adamsocb

The destination charge and Museum delivery charge are not connected.

As previously stated, you pay the same transportation charge to anywhere in the continental USA. This is industry wide and may even be mandated by law. The reason is to make the delivered price of the car the same no matter where the customer lives. You will pay the same $995 destination charge whether you take delivery at the closest dealer: Campbell Chevrolet in Bowling Green KY (7.5 miles from the plant); the farthest dealer: Chevrolet Cadillac of Bellingham WA (2,449 miles from the plant); or the Museum (1.2 miles from the plant). Because of the maze of laws, rules, and regulations in effect, you simply can't buy a car FOB at the factory. Tesla is trying and getting their hat handed to them by the dealer lobby.

The R8C Museum Delivery option is not for transportation. It is to compensate the Museum for their costs, pay for the personalized plaque, and provide additional funding to Museum activities.

You need to think of R8C as a vacation or entertainment expense. If it is worth it to you on that basis great, if not then pick up the car at the dealer of your choice and save the $990.

cg02175

As mentioned in my previous post, I didn't get the museum delivery.

Modshack

As mentioned, it's a flat rate for the move.....A contract GM has with the Transportation companies... EVERY car moved by them gets the charge...

Thank the Negotiated agreements for that..

Chuck Mahnke

Please do a search, especially in the C6 forums, and you just might find the real facts regarding this. It has absolutely nothing to do with unions, Obama or Bush or anything else political.

PaulB

I have a problem with paying both fees. One or the other. Maybe the Museum people should just pick up the Corvette at the assembly plant and drive it from the plant to the Museum. About 1/2 a mile or 1 mile or less. Last year the Museum delivery charge was 1/2 of what it is today. Its just a way to get the consumer to pay more. And lets not forget the other usual charges, airline tickets, rental car charges, motel expenses, etc. I did my first Museum Delivery in 1998 and it was very exciting. I remember it like it was just yesterday. I still think everyone should experience it at least once if possible. But nowadays its just gotten way to expensive to do it more than once. Thanks, But No Thanks ...

Modshack

Puleeze...I'm not a basher and didn't imply anything political. Sensitive?...Perhaps I should have said "Agreements" with the transportation companies that have contracts with GM...I'm sure it's built into the agreements GM has with it's dealers as well to achieve equal pricing across the country. Franchise laws come into play here as well to keep everyone happy and out of court....

If this were a true free market situation a dealer would be charged by the shipping distance, not unlike Fedex , USPS or UPS do...

Kracka

Had the Museum Delivery replaced the destination charge, I definitely would have opted for it, but no way I'm paying $2k for delivery when it doesn't even include my transportation there.

OldSalem

The true reason for a uniform destination charge is to make it uniform fair for all dealers. In the old days the destination charge was based on the distance of the dealer from the factory giving the closer dealers an advantage in price over those based say for instance California. So it makes no difference if it's going 2 miles the the museum or 2,000 miles it's $995.
As far as the museum delivery charge like those have already said they are a separate non profit org. And the money goes to support the museum.
I chose to take museum delivery because it's my first corvette and might be my last. It's kind of a big deal for me so this will only help make it more memorable. I'm also a car guy by trade, so the plant tour is of interest to me.
Not to mention you have a team of pros doing the PDI.
But I can understand that it's not for everyone, to each his own.

Dave@Ciocca

Correct. The destination fee is mandated to be the same by federal law so that a dealer in KY doesn't get the car for cheaper then me here in NJ and I'm not getting it cheaper than Tommy in NH and he's not getting it cheaper then Tim in CA.

The law is that every car (of the same model) have the exact same destination fee no matter where the car is being shipped to. Corvette, to my knowledge, is the only car built int he US that has the option of picking the car up basically at the factory so this isn't an issue for 99.9% of the shoppers out there.

Dave