ChevyChad

The car already has a VIN on it. No one is stealing windshields, and a windshield is also easy to replace. Aren't most VINs now days located underneath the windshield anyway, so if a thief were going to try and remove or defile the VIN, they would have to remove the windshield anyway. I seriously do not see any point of putting the VIN on the windshield. And as you said, thieves really don't care at all about that type of stuff. I see this whole thing as a 100% profit grab by the dealers.

Zymurgy

Yes. The dealer never gets possession of the vehicle with NCM delivery. Same is true with a courtesy delivery.

ArmchairArchitect

Decline it and any other add-ons/BS fees. If they refuse, tell them if they don't then you will leave scathing reviews with Google, Yelp, BBB, etc., get the local media involved, and take them to small claims court.

Mike Jesse

Wa. St. has a negotiable $150 doc. fee. I just tell them I'm not interested in paying them to do their job.

Walter Raulerson

Hendrick was charging $249 for nitrogen

bub

Prolly held off in case unit was dealer traded. I've had etch on run of the mill cars not even on straight....total PoS work. Total scam and dealer profit center. I never hear of any "theft recovery" on glass.

Your best hedge against this stealerhip BS is to go with a Forum dealer (I am personally a raving fan of MM) &/or go with RPO R8C NCM Delivery....NCM Delivery prep is legendary (also a raving R8C fan).

z06inVB

Still is

JerryU

Yep dealer tried to pull that on an SUV we bought for my wife! It was after the deal was closed (I thought.) Was told it was already done on all windows as a theft deterrent. I said thank you BUT not paying for it! Took a bit of a hassle and back in forth with the sales manager. BUT they finally agreed. In that case I threatened to walk and would have.

Frankly the dealer would love to have the OP walk! They can get $10,000 to $15,000 over MSRP. Apparently some don't understand that GM did NOT fill dealer inventory orders for C8s (they were not allowed.)

b4i4getit

They must be using the ultra pure spacecraft grade nitrogen. Very hard to get and expensive.

90sundevil

My guess is your dealer will tell you to accept the addon's or go find another car like mine, Van Chevrolet in Scottsdale Arizona did even when they said you would not pay a dime over sticker for the car and what you ordered from GM is what you will pay and hit you up with 3k worth of stuff I would never buy ever like $300 for nitrogen, $300 for door edge guards, $295 for door cups and $1400 for Zateck paint coating.

JerryU

^^^
Didn't say if you walked away after waiting a year or paid??? That Blue car in your avatar looks like you paid.

• Easy to give advise IF you didn't have one on order and waited a year!
• If you paid and giving advise to walk away that is useless and just makes the OP feel worse.
• If you walked away, that is like cutting off your nose to spite your face! You did exactly what the Dealer wanted and they got ~$15,000 over what you would have paid! With cars in this much demand not hard to find someone willing to pay ~$15,000 over MSRP for an instant car. IMO might make you "feel" better but foolish!
• Foolish to say you would "never ever" pay $300 for Nitrogen. That is NOT what the dealer is asking they want $2100 more profit it's that simple. If it bugs you to pay $300 for Nitrogen (etching, a quick spray "ceramic coating," etc) and just pay the $2100 or whatever! Sure the buyer should try to get some other things they want for the $2100 BUT they will have to be low cost options for the dealer like free washes, or free oil changes. BUT frankly I'd pay the $2100 just for the satisfaction I'm not going to let the sleezy dealer the ability to make $15,000 more and never go back!

Alea_Iacta_Est

This $250, $300 for Nitrogen fill is just crazy. Costco charges $12 a tire for nitrogen conversion, so $48 compared to $300? And, you can top off/refill with nitrogen for FREE.

On all of these add on services, the C8 puts you in a non-negotiable position. But on other cars, my wife's Jaguar is the last one where we were confronted with add on window tint, nitrogen tire fill and etch, all that came after we negotiated the "final" price, I basically said we would walk unless they honored the final price we negotiated. We actually got up out of our chairs and started towards the door. Before we could take a step, the sales guy said they would honor the price w/o the cost of all the add ons which were already on the car. But the lot was also filled with Jaguars.

Given the demand situation with the C8 at the moment, this isn't going to work.

JerryU

^^^
Yep, I did the same with the wife's SUV BUT I also had to say I would to walk away! That is exactly what the dealer would like in this case!

RACE U

Since the dealer is insisting on adding this item, I would tell them that you and they know that you won't walk away from the deal, but you and they both know that they are just trying to maximize their profit on this deal the item they are selling is a scam. It won't prevent the car from being stolen and won't even even get you a insurance discount.
AFTER the deal is completed and the car is tucked into your garage, I then would either call or go to the dealership and ask to speak to the owner. I would tell him that:
1) Their sales tactic is unethical and you only completed because you had to wait a year for the car.

2) You will never buy another vehicle them (they hear this all the time, so it wont matter.

3) You will tell everyone you know (family, friends, corvette club members,
online car forums/review websites, General Motors, and the BBB) of his/her dealerships unethical practices and to never buy a vehicle from them.

I would forget about the entire experience and enjoy your car.

bluan

With all these problems you guys describing, I wonder if we'd be better off buying a slightly used car (like 1 year old) from places like CarMax? I am not talking about buying C8 here (since we can only get new C8s right now), but just buying cars in general.

I bought my 1 year old Ridgeline truck with about 5K miles on it from the local CarMax last year, and the buying experience had none of these problems or issues that all of you described here - the extra fees dealers trying to piled onto the car, and scams they trying to pull on you. The price at CarMax was transparent before the deal is made, as they advertise the price openly on the website, and there's no negotiations of any sort - they show you the asking price, and you don't negotiate. If you don't like the price of a particular car, just find another similar one. There's no add-ons, no other fees, and no any bullshit during the purchase process. You just pick the car you like on the website, doing whatever the research you want to do, including checking the car's history record before you decide to buy, and then just call them to tell them that you want that car, and just walk in and pay the money, and sign the paper, and be done with it. They even had the car with a giant flower bow tie on the hood waiting for you outside the lobby when they hand over the key to you after you signed the paper. It was the most pleasant experience in all my car buying experiences over several decades. I can easily recall that many of my past car purchases from dealers, especially the one car purchases, dealers always trying to add something.

Even this time I bought my C8 from MacMulkin, who is an excellent dealer and no hidden fees, when I picked up the car at the local courtesy delivery dealership, while the saleswoman was a pleasure to deal with, the dealer sales manager still tried soft paddle selling me $2K ceramic coating package. When I declined, he immediately said they could do it for only $1K. I winded up politely declined and there's no more push from the sales manager, so it wasn't too bad, but I can easily imagine that for others buyers or at other courtesy delivery dealership, one may not be this lucky.

Of course, buying a 1-year old car isn't the same as a brand new car, but it's almost new or virtually new, and after you driving it for a few days, you forget about it has a few thousand miles on it, as everything inside looks new and feels new. At least that was my experience with my Ridgeline.

Plus, the price you pay for a 1-year old car is way below the MSRP price, so you are not paying something for a new car and get a price drop hit as you would have for driving a new car off a dealer's lot. Had I not buying the new C8 this time or had GM had not made the C8, I would only considering going to CarMax again buying a 1 year old Porsche 911 or Boxter, or a BMW Z4 for my next car to replace my 350Z.

In a year or two, one can easily get a C8 just like that with a few thousand miles, instead of facing all kinds of troubles including long wait, quality issues, dealers bullshit and scams, etc. I'd do that had I not wanted to get my hands on a C8 ASAP after seeing its reveal just to satisfy my impulse and urge. With the quality issue I am running into with my brand new HTC which winded up in shop only after one week in possession, and still facing the risk of yet even more quality issues to come (potentially valve spring bust), I started wondering if I should have just waited for a year or two to get a slightly used C8 from CarMax. Tell me what's wrong with this thinking...