📷: Corvette
With Corvette Z06 orders officially being taken, there was something astonishing that began occurring at various dealerships that sparked a lot of commotion amongst potential customers. Following a warning letter issued by GM North American President Steve Carlisle back in January, it was recently announced that select dealerships were engaging in practices that would reflect very poorly on GM. Those dealerships have been called out on forums, social media, and more.
Some examples include demanding a nonrefundable deposit as well as paying sums significantly higher than GM’s MSRP. Let’s break down some dealership examples below!
Dealerships That Played Dirty
Mac Haik Chevrolet in Houston, Texas required a $6,000 deposit (nonrefundable) that would be applied to the cost of the Z06 as a down payment. What’s even worse is that in addition to this nonrefundable deposit, the dealership added an ADM of $90,000. This agreement must be signed by the buyer, locking them into the deal.
Classic Chevrolet in Sugar Land, Texas went as far as to have multiple ADMs on the same car. This dealership ran an auction to win an allocation– the bidders weren’t even guaranteed the Z06 itself. This was just to enter a smaller bidding war based on how much money those individuals are willing to spend. According to CorvetteBlogger’s article, “The winner for the allocation spot will also be expected to purchase the Corvette with an undisclosed adjusted dealer markup.” This brings a whole new level to the phrase “pay to play.”
The third example we’ve seen was Rydell Chevrolet in Los Angeles, California. A previous buyer signed himself up for the Z06 after purchasing a Stingray from Rydell a couple years prior. After patiently waiting, and being told that the ADM for the Z06 was $100,000. He received a separate letter from Rydell stating that they would be ordering their first Z06s as dealer stock units that would be auctioned off through eBay. After that process, they would then begin customer-sold orders. It gets better…the dealership also asked for a $10,000 deposit on the Z06 orders.
These are just three examples of dealerships that were trying to, more or less, rob potential customers of obscene amounts of money, like they wouldn’t already be making notable profits off the Z06 sold at MSRP.
Despite these absolutely ridiculous markups on the already expensive Corvette Z06, Mac Haik received so much backlash and commentary that they have pulled back their markups and decided to offer their Z06s at MSRP. Mac Haik dealership General Manager Josh Potts posted on Facebook, stating:
“We are lowering all Corvette Z06 models we’ve ordered to MSRP. We didn’t intend to cause problems. We sold Stingrays at MSRP and customers flipped them so we decided
to sell the Z06 over MSRP. I understand and agree with how everyone feels. We will
contact all customers that have ordered one and lower it to MSRP. We will only take
orders at MSRP. Thank you all. We apologize for the trouble.”
General Manager
Josh Potts
Would you go as far as to pay these insane amounts to get the Corvette Z06? What would your plan be? Tell us below.
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