*Trip*

out shopping for a C6 and 3 out of 5 of them had dead batteries and they couldnt even open the cars to show them.....I asked how they get in and 2 said through the window....really?...so I showed them the cure......

Don Nolan

This happens a lot. I had a buddy get into a Corvette in a showroom and couldn't get out. He didn't know how to get out and the best part was, the salesmen didn't know how to get him out, either. So they had to make a phone call and find out how to open the door. He was stuck inside for about 20 minutes. Oh!! He ended up buying the car.....

billet racing

when we went to the local dealer to buy our latest Vette, the sales girl said the tops don't come off. Only on the convertables. bought somewhere else.

Jerry

z06inVB

My left over 2012 still had a 5k dealer mark up last month. Dead battery of course. Car was on lot over a year so they did match kerbecks price so I took it but hard to see how they sell any vettes

Knob Jockey

Had a similar experience when I was Vette shopping several years ago.

Dead batteries and inept sales people was the rule not the exception.

There was one Chevy dealer that had a very large selection of Corvettes, including C1's and C2's, and they were the only ones that had a clue and kept the cars on their lot fully functional.

Good Luck with your search.

TerryL

A few days ago the local dealer here had 14 Vettes on the lot. Wonder how many of those would start right up?

Flame Red

Forum Dealers exempted, most Stealership are dumb, obnoxious, and thieves. Got a fresh reminder of these facts because my kid wanted to buy a car recently. But they seem well adapts at lighting their customer's bank accounts!

If they were not such a$$wipes, I would be tempted to buy a new car ever couple of years, but no, they have to make it so unpleasant, arduous and contemptible that I hang on to my cars for 10-15 years.

Ketchum

GM has cut back on service reps. They use to show up monthly or more often and first thing they did was walk the lot writing down stock numbers. Then they wanted the keys to those cars and they checked them for dead battery and any other visuals including just being clean.

FortMorganAl

My thoughts exactly. I have dealt with over a dozen local dealers over the years and whenever I think of buying a new car my first thought is always what a hassle that would be dealing with ignorant sales people and slimy managers. My average is 15.3 years for a new car. Then I found forum dealers. Now I can think about how nice it would be to have a new car and leave the buying process as a minor detail in the decision.

BWF07

Many of the Chevrolet dealers have no clue about Corvette's, they simply sell them as any other cor on the lot because they have to. If you don't deal with one of the forum vendors, then I would check your area Chevy dealers and see how many Corvette's they have on their lot. If they only carry the minimum look for another. There are a few in my area that do sell a lot of Corvette's and have a select one or two sales people that you would deal with. The rest of that sales staff will not be involved.

Ketchum

A lot of Chevy dealers have nothing to do with Corvettes. Nothing. I'm sure they will order one but as far as any in inventory or working on them they don't.

HD_Rider

I bought my 2012 GS at perhaps the largest Corvette dealership in Oklahoma City and it was the worst buying experience I ever had.

The car was not as 'pristine' as they claimed it to be. One of the lower rockers was damaged where it was obvious some idiot in the service department allowed one of the swing-away arms of a two-post lift to hit it. Of course, the dealership claimed ignorance and denied all knowledge of the problem.

It then took them almost two hours to cut the paperwork for the loan, even though all needed information was provided to them days ahead of the transaction.

And to top it off, as I'm about to leave with my new car, they tell me, "Oh yeah, we don't have the #1 FOB for the car, but here's the #2 FOB which should be OK." I was about to cancel the whole deal when they came up with a brand new FOB from the parts department. I then stood there for another HOUR while I had to wait for their "most qualified" corvette technician with the needed equipment to program in the new #1 FOB. Once the tech was available, it took him ANOTHER 45 MINUTES to program in the FOB. And get this, after all that waiting, all he did was add it to the car as the #3 FOB! When I got home, I reprogrammed the car myself using the procedure found here on the forum.

Although the car is beautiful and I got it for a fair price, the dealership was by far the worst I have ever dealt with. And although the car has the GM warranty and the first two years of service for free, I am very hesitant to bring the car to any dealership for any kind of maintenance. Heck, I don't even want them adding air to the tires for fear of them screwing that up!

z51vett

I retired and worked for a small dealer selling cars. They knew nothing about vetts so all questions were answered by me I quit. A few years down the road they call my buddy needing help ordering a ZR1. This dealer use to sell 30 cars a month now they think they are going to knock a homerun out of the park you know over sticker.
z51vett

John Harry

Before I bought my '06 I called a local (non-GM) dealer and made an appointment to look at a used '05. The battery was dead as a doornail. I wondered how they expected me to test drive it. Such a poor impression I just walked away.

Several years before that my wife and I went shopping for a new Acura. Got in a demo and before we even got out of the lot the "check engine" and "check brakes" lights came on. Salesman said "Don't worry, it does that all the time. We've had it in the shop a couple of times but can't seem to get it fixed." I couldn't decide if that spoke worse for the car or the dealer. We left asap and bought another brand elsewhere.

Never-Enough

This stuff is all dealers not just Corvettes. Most of them are complete ahole morons.

N2TU

"leave the buying process as a minor detail in the decision."

So true! I hate the buying process but the forum dealers, especially Tommy, make it almost a pleasure....

Great forum!

dvilin

All the dumb dealers and as mentioned not restricted to Corvettes, but bottom line is there are even more dumb customers as the dealers are still in business and making money.

Landru

Bought a leftover '08 in March of '09. Battery dead. Should've seen 'em scramble. Bet they thought I'd change my mind.

They couldn't tell I'd have rolled that car out of their showroom, myself. Wanted it that bad.

orca1946

They just sell things -- last month they sold washers at sears!!

BigJoe

Apparently a common problem. My 2012 GS was also battery dead when they went to drive it over to us (the dealer has two locations and the car was at the other one.) I got a new battery out of the deal and have had no problems since...

As far as the dealer, I bought the car from the Fleet Sales manager and those guys don't do a lot of "sales shenanigans." Pretty much "Here it is, you want it? Good, sign here." I would have been done with the whole deal in a hour except for the battery issue taking an hour to get the car to me.