Who's on the C8 short list to get one of the 1st batches?

[C8-wannabe]

Leno?

Rick Hendrick?

[John]

C8-wannabe, thanks for asking a very good question.

Clearly, the person who bids the highest at the Barrett Jackson auction for the first delivered one, will benefit. I think Mr. Hendricks has a history of getting the earliest one.

However, GM, does not beyond that, have, as they did in 1953, a “celebrity importance” list which automatically moves those orders to the head of the production line.

Sorry for my long winded answer below, however, for lots of reasons, being in the 1st batch(es) might or might now mean everything in terms of delivery schedule. I am on a short list, but having drawn the short straw and well as the long straw for previous Corvette deliveries, it can mean little and has meant little to me in the past in predicting my vehicle’s delivery, as follows:

Let’s suppose you are dealing with a totally honest dealer, whose word is gold, and when they tell you that you are on his/her top three ME ordering list, well, all that means is that you have passed the first hurdle.

But there are so many more potential ones which can interfere with your Corvette arriving as soon as possible, . A couple of personal examples that can help illustrate things can go south so fast and the reverse.

First, the issue of constraints:

* I was #56 on the 2006 C6 Z06 (first year of the mode) ordering list at Kerbeck. Got that from them in writing once they cashed my deposit check. I ordered chrome wheels, for I had seen the polished ones on the show cars, and their polishing was hideous, e.g., some spokes beautifully shiny, the next one dull, etc. Ahead of me on Kerbeck’s priority list were tens and tens and tens of folks who had ordered the polished wheels. When the first batch of 100 sets of polished wheels were submitted by the supplier to GM for an initial review (brand new supplier to GM), GM rejected every wheel in the batch, so my order #56 went screaming passed all the constrained polished wheel orders. It literally was made in week three, when by initial ordering priority it should have been about week 9 or 10.

* The number of different constraints on the 2014 Stingrays averaged 12 the first couple of months, so if you ordered an item which was constrained, and you were not willing to forego that option, even if you were # 1 at even the top three dealers, your order will be placed on hold until that option is available to your dealer.

* Dealer allocation size can matter, for example with your being # 1 at a medium, “# 20 in size in the nation” allocation dealer, and there is a partial constraint for visible carbon fiber removable roofs, with GM only having enough to fill 50 of those orders in the first month, I.e., your order might be held up, as GM most often rewards its top allocation dealers, and might give all those 50 visible carbon fiber roofs to their top ten selling dealers.

Second, issues of delayed options, colors or special edition late introductions:

While the consequence of your order being delayed is the same, the reasons are different as to why your order did not become a first delivery batch when you thought it probably would have been.

* You ordered the 2020 “Special Edition Model (only 500 going to be made); however, often special editions are delayed introduction.

* Let’s assume at the reveal, GM introduces a brand new replacement color called, “Candy Apple Red Metallic.” New colors often have delayed introductions.

* GM introduces brand new “mini-fridge option” for the the ME; it was supposed to be available at the very beginning of the model year, but for whatever reason, there are manufacturing issues.

“BAD Stuff” happens:

* A fire at a supplier, and in fact this happened to member Buzz on one of his C6 orders, delaying his Corvette’s delivery for two months;

“GOOD Stuff” happens:

* Sometimes good stuff happens where your order within a dealer’s priority list in not in his/her top five category, but everyone ahead of you wants “option X” except you, and you benefit from their bad luck in those ahead of you having one or more constrained product or related delays.

* Sometimes you have a guardian angel, and without even asking you, your order gets pulled forward.

Initial “Quality Control Hold” (QCH) has messed up the sequence of shipped cars:

* We believe that as is often the case, a brand new generation of Corvettes will have a longer-than-usual, on the grounds of BGA, quality hold, e.g., not typically two weeks as is typical, but I am personally thinking it could well be four weeks. So going back to the C7 QCH hold, where when it was released, there were roughly 1,500 completed, ready to ship in their white traveling suits, sitting outside in massive rows and rows of parked cars.

Let’s just say that it was not a case that they shipped the first completed ones in that order; and thus lots of folks who knew they car was build the first week, got it later than others built in week three. Wonder if GM has a way to not have this happen this time around. (I will inquire.)

* Another shipping issue is your luck or your bad luck depending where you live, for those in roughly 2/3’s of the country closest to the Plant, get their shipped by transporter, while those who live on the West Coast, for example, have to wait for their cars to first got by transporter to the CSX railyard in Toledo, OH, then get put onto an available auto rack, travel by train, get unloaded, wait, get re-loaded onto a local transporter, etc.

[John]

All the above withstanding, IMO, I still believe it is an excellent idea to “position” one’s order in the best way possible to maximize the chances of it being with the right dealer, in the right circumstances, to positively maximize the chances of getting your ME order formally accepted by GM as soon as possible.

[TtiME]

thanks for that John, very important to know. Well I'm on Mike's list for the 2nd model, which I'm assuming will be the Z06, but who knows how far down the list I am, I didn't even ask so I wouldn't get my hopes up!!

[John]

TtiME, you have done the opportunity maximization I posted about, in this case going with a really excellent, highly experienced salesperson at the third largest dealership in the world, e.g., tremendous allocation.

[MidEngine]

So putting this together, it is a combination of pre-planning and also luck. And a lot of that luck is each of us choosing our options and colors before we know which ones are constrained or not.

[Shadow]

I have poor luck on lottery tickets, not that buy them but very infrequently. Maybe I will get lucky on what I want is not constrained.

[John]

Which brings us to the two-edged sword called flexibility. While it would seem to be good to be flexible in our option and color choices, for we know darn sure that there will be more than just a few constraints at the beginning, if one is flexible to get their car past the constraint gate, that would first seem to be a good idea, but what if you were to consequently get your car a month sooner, yet thereafter every time you saw one in the color you really wanted, you felt sick at heart, e.g., ****ed at yourself for compromising to get your order accepted.

For us, once we make up our color and options choices, we tend to stick with them and just grit and bear it, try to have patience, and wait for our choices to no longer be to be constrained.

Of course, going with a top allocation dealer is one way to maximize the shortest waiting time of need to grit and bear it.

To us, the biggest kick in the teeth would be if Buyers Tours were not available for the first month or two of ME production. And I know for others, needing to wait for the HT convertible to start production, if it were delayed, could be their biggest struggle.

[Frenzy36]

thanks for that John, very important to know. Well I'm on Mike's list for the 2nd model, which I'm assuming will be the Z06, but who knows how far down the list I am, I didn't even ask so I wouldn't get my hopes up!!

I have never heard or was told there were different lists for different models. GM has not even acknowledged they are building one yet. So what is up with the Different Lists???

[JB]

Who are you guys using for a list...?

mclaulkin?

[WBT]

This might not be the place for this but I can't help but wonder. When will the C8 be introduced to the public? There have been rumors that it would be in Detroit in January 2019. I would think that GM would have announced by now if Detroit was the place for the introduction of the car. It looks to me like the car will be shown sometime in mid 2019. I wish GM would announce when the car is going to be introduced.

[TtiME]

I have never heard or was told there were different lists for different models. GM has not even acknowledged they are building one yet. So what is up with the Different Lists???

You are right, technically nothing is confirmed nor known about different models. However going on the idea and basis that the C8 platform is ME one can safely assume multiple models and the model after the base likely being the first performance variant and Z06. It cost me zero to get on his list for the 2nd model so no harm no foul to me.

[TtiME]

Who are you guys using for a list...?

mclaulkin?

Mike Furman with Criswell Chev.

[John]

This might not be the place for this but I can't help but wonder. When will the C8 be introduced to the public? There have been rumors that it would be in Detroit in January 2019. I would think that GM would have announced by now if Detroit was the place for the introduction of the car. It looks to me like the car will be shown sometime in mid 2019. I wish GM would announce when the car is going to be introduced.

The good news is that the production schedule for the 2020 ME is on track, and if it parallels the C7’s introduction, I.e., the first customer cars will be delivered around the very end of next September.

However, there is no relationship between when the car is going to be revealed and its production start, e.g., they reveal could be mid January in Detroit@NAIAS, or mid-April in New York City@NYAS without effecting customer deliveries.

Our impatience at seeing the car however, is another matter.

[Boomer]

Who's on the C8 short list to get one of the 1st batches?

Looks like some folks on the forum have their orders in now. Depending on "batch" size they gotta be near the first.