CandyVette

I ordered my Stingray vert on Oct. 5. I was the third of 3 definite vert allocations. My order includes Z51, comp seats and carbon fiber dash. I have been at 1100 since this time with no end in sight. The other two verts ordered have since been delivered, though they did not have constraint items. My sales guy has sung the same song for months: it could be any day now, you are number 1 to be made, blah blah. Can someone please tell me what items are still on constraint? I keep hearing conflicting stories on these threads about what is and what is not on constraint. I've read that I am not at 2000 because my dealer is small and doesn't have an allocation. Not true--my dealer is Rick Hendrick's City Chevrolet who sells more Corvettes in Charlotte and probably North Carolina than anyone. I have been assured that my car does have an allocation. What is the hold up?

Zymurgy

No, you car does NOT have an allocation. If it did it would be at 2000 or beyond. In order to assign your order to an actual allocation, that allocation must have all ordered items available. Z51 and FAY are still on constraint. Not completely unavailable, but limited availability.

Mecholova

screengrab from another forum

bgood

Having only 3 vert allocations is rather low. Being the last of the 3 puts you at risk of not getting a very if you have a 'must have' constrained item.

I live in NC and have talked to 4 dealers here. After discussions with the dealers I placed an order with Mike Furman. The big dealers like Criswell have a much higher allocation which gives a much higher chance of being able to get a constrained option.

I have a friend that placed a Z51 vert order in October at a dealer in Fayetteville. They had an allocation of nearly 50 C7s and he is still waiting as well.

The allocation for my order came open in January and I am now at status 3100 with a TPW of 2/17.

Larry/car

I think my car is on constraint. I think we on the forum really don't know or understand the GM side of things. I am sure orders are held up for various reasons during consensus not related to allocations or constraints. Assembly line capability (example: paint color) part availability, and yea (!) preferred dealers. I have decided to wait it out, just because I can!

CandyVette

Thanks for the input. I just got off the phone with the sales manager, who said that except for the first 2 or 3 Stingrays ordered with Z51, the rest are still waiting. He said I definitely have an allocation (I cannot believe that a sales manager for a major dealership would fib to me about this), and said that they have been in constant contact with their zone manager about this holdup. He is going to contact him to see if he can give me a timetable about when my car will be built and will call me back. He said the Z51 customers are frustrated, as well as the dealership.

It looks from the constraint report posted above that the carbon fiber interior and Z51 are still on constraint until at least mid-March. Guess I'll get to wait some more.

toddwill

My Z51 vert with carbon fiber is in my Garage since November...as mentioned above you should go to at least 2000 almost immediately.

(ordered 8/29 officially, went to 2000 within a day or two...delivered in November.)


I would check with one of the forum dealers...something seems fishy with your deal. I got mine from Rick at Columbus Vette, I think he has Z51 verts in stock for sale? I think I saw another dealer already got a premier convertible.

Larry/car

My dealer has been talking with the Zone Manager, too. My dealer also claims he has an allocation, I believe him. Your stuck order confirms there is some kind of whatever going on. This is for the GM representative reading our posts: GM loyal customers ( 10, 20, 30+ years) are getting screwed around with our orders and some of us will remember when the next sedan is purchased. I'm not going hundreds of miles to acquire a car, nor should I have to. It is time to get this backlog fixed!!!!

Larry/car

The forum dealers can't fix, nor do they want to fix, they want to capitalize on our misfortune. It is a GM thing, I have said enough!

markk1

Candy, IMHO, I seriously doubt that the Z51 constraint will improve much above 50% for the remainder of the MY, and the same goes for the % of available visible CF components. Might be more likely that the visible CF will get better over time, but as long as GM can sell cars with non-constrained items they really don't have a lot of motivation to increase production of the components needed for Z51 or qualify more CF suppliers (which is a lengthy and time-consuming process in itself). My thinking is that GM will keep supplies coming at the current rates (while working to improve the visible CF quality) until the buy rate settles down (first model year excitement in the entire sports car community jolts the system), then they will make adjustments. Just MO.....

Your dealer may have been promised allocations, but my understanding is that until they get one that includes all the constrained options on your order, you get passed over for someone else's car that meets GM's production needs for that period, unless you change your order to meet the allocation. Hopefully, your Sales Manager can convince GM to get him the allocation you need. I have been told by a Chevrolet (relatively small) dealership Sales Manager that he was able to get an extra allocation for a Z51 that was not initially available because he had so many at 1100 himself.

Zymurgy

Larry, this is totally incorrect. You remain in denial. They only order hold up other than allocation or constraint would be your dealer not assigning YOUR order to an allocation.

"Assembly line capability (example: paint color) part availability" is the very definition of constraint. Preferred dealers? You mean the ones that have historically sold more Corvettes? Yes, the more they sold in the past, the more allocations they get. There are a number of us on the forum who DO understand how the allocation process works - you just choose not to believe us because you don't like the answer.

HalfMoon

Larry, this is like the 9th thread that many of us have told you, so I hope it sinks in this time. Please read it slowly a few times.

If your dealer had an allocation that fit your non-constraint order your car would be sitting at 2000 or beyond. He is bending the truth at best and telling you he is supposed to have an allocation sometime in the future, but he does not have it today.

~Stingray

Can someone please explain why we still have items on constraint? I understand simple economics to the point where the current supply cannot equal the demand, but what I don't understand is why GM has not made any efforts to improve production or acquire another vendor. So many people have canceled their order because of waiting. This seems like horrific business sense as they are literately loosing customers.

Larry/car

Guess I'm in denial? This process makes no business sense. First I'm not upset, this process seems odd. First the dealer came after me saying he has three allocations one for a convertible. Ok decided to order, which was placed on November 11th with the knowledge this was a second phase allocation. On December 17th my order was re edited, proof the order is in the system. That is where the order sits today. My dealer says he has a second phase convertible allocation. He claims an allocation exists, yet this dealer and evidently many others don't have a clue when the order will get picked up. Now I heard replies from forum members that the order isn't reality until GM picks it up (2000). Well if it isn't reality why was the re edit accomplished. Seems strange for a business (dealer) trying to make a profit and they have no idea if the order will be produced let alone when/if it will arrive to be sold. How in heavens name do business manage cash flow with no idea what inventory is coming or when. If this system was in place when I ordered my C6, I must of gotten lucky as I had the car in six weeks. I have placed aircraft orders from Cessna Aircraft to be resold, that process was a no brainer, order placed, assigned a production start date and estimated completion. I knew exactly when the aircraft was going to be available for pick up, barring no unforeseen problems. What am I missing, seems there is an actual allocation period/date assigned (dealers have told customers order needs to be placed the next day) to the allocation yet no one admits to it. If this is the case it makes sense. The random hit miss ordering system I'm told about doesn't. Certainly not a business model. I must of missed something (allocation is entry ticket then waiting at store to be let in to shop, stores full now so wait?) = the system currently in place. Wonder if all dealer ordered cars are handled this way.

Glen e

And how do you know they have not "made any efforts"?

Setting up vendors for CF runs is not like stamping out brake calipers.....

It is bad business but I'm sure GM is working as best as they can to clear this up.....it's costing them millions per day, I'm sure....

Zymurgy

Larry, this has been explained before. Chevy told every dealer how many Corvettes they could expect from the beginning of the second wave of allocations (around mid-Dec through the end of the model year. These are NOT actual allocations. Allocations occur during consensus cycles. These start on Thursday and end on Tuesday. During each consensus, Chevy tells each dealer how many coupes/verts they have for that consensus, how many Z51's they have, how many FAY, and so on for any option that is constrained. The dealer can then assign a customer order (such as yours) to one of their allocations in that consensus IF the order and option availability that the dealer has are a match. So, if you want Z51 and the dealer has no Z51 availability in that consensus, then your order cannot be assigned to that allocation. So, they assign another customer's order (that doesn't have the constrained option) to that allocation or they build a car for inventory, or they can give up the allocation and another dealer can take it.

All orders with GM are done the same way and have been for longer than I can remember. If there are no constraints, and overall demand is below production capacity, then 6 weeks is about normal.

fdxpilot

Your dealer does have unused allocation. That's not a lie. However, when he gets his next allocations, if the constraints are the same, he will need to get 2 convertibles to have a decent chance of one being a Z51 (50%.). Then, he needs at least 4 to get the CF dash (25%.) put those together, and he may need to get 8 convertible allocations to assure a decent chance of getting your order as it stands. Or he may luck out and his next convertible will allow both the Z51 and CF dash. He can't tell until Chevy actually sends out the consensus for that period.

go4kj

I too live in the Charlotte, NC region. I too looked locally for ordering my C7. After reading about the ordering process that GM adopts I decided to go with one of the large forum dealers.

My advice to you is simple, if you can't get a straight answer from youre dealer, cancel your order & go with one of the large forum dealers. Good luck

ssidekickbp

A constraint riddled order will NEVER go through even with an allocation. They will pass your car up for another customers if you are not willing to give anything up. That's just how it works. A dealer must use an allocation for a a car which can be built or he loses the allocation.

HalfMoon

This isn't really true, but may seem like it with smaller allocation dealers.

Its a numbers game and a dealer that gets many allocations can get you a constrained car. My forum dealer was able to get me a matching allocation 2 weeks ago and move me up to 2000 with constraints and I dropped nothing. Z51 was not an issue, he got a lot of those, but he only got 3 exposed carbon roof options and 2 carbon dash options. My order was already at the front of the line since I had been waiting awhile when those items + the comp seats (and Z51) were very few and far between.

If you were to look at his, and other big dealers orders that were now coming in for sold orders you would see they still had constrained item cars coming in, just not a lot of them. The biggest issue was the roof and dash where for awhile there were 0 parts available nationally.

Here is another example of what a big allocation dealer can do for you: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c7-g...ick-conti.html