Is the "first round" the entire first year of production?

[WillRockwell]

Help me with the math here. I have heard dealers reporting their allocations in a range from 3 to 15 cars, maybe more. There are 4200 Chevy dealers in the country. It seems to me that the total allocations pretty much meets the annual production total for Corvettes, which in 2016 was 30,000 cars.
So when I hear that the allocations are used, and someone is on a list for the second round, does that not mean that they're going to wait until the next production year for a car?

[TotalJabroni]

My dealer described the first round to me as the first 3 months, so most likely Jan-March. Second round would be April - September(ish). Then the 2021s would probably start rolling out.

My dealer mentioned that they had 17 allotments in the first 3 months, but 71 for the whole 2020 model year. So maybe your dealer meant they were getting 15 in the first 3 months?

[Gators2020]

Depends on the size of the dealer, some may have 15 allotments but all spread through the year. Some have 50 just for the first 90 days. It’s a question I’d ask your dealer

[WillRockwell]

My dealer has 3 allotments for the first round, but they are one of 6 in a large local dealership (Schumacher), and the other branches have their own allotment.

I would bet that almost half the deposit orders will back out on the 15th, and those cars will become available.

[Jljordann922]

So after reading this and the blog made by [email protected], I'm starting to think I won't even see this car lol.

Here's my question though, are reputable dealers holding deposits as "refundbable" until the Aug 15 date (or within 72 hours) when you choose to put your order specs in and sit at 1100, or is it still refundable up until the point your allocation is actually up which could be 3-6 months from now or more?

If it is refundable up to the point of your allocation being ready, wouldn't it have made sense to put a "refundable" deposit at multiple dealers and see where your order became allocated first?

[Gators2020]

So after reading this and the blog made by [email protected], I'm starting to think I won't even see this car lol.

Here's my question though, are reputable dealers holding deposits as "refundbable" until the Aug 15 date (or within 72 hours) when you choose to put your order specs in and sit at 1100, or is it still refundable up until the point your allocation is actually up which could be 3-6 months from now or more?

If it is refundable up to the point of your allocation being ready, wouldn't it have made sense to put a "refundable" deposit at multiple dealers and see where your order became allocated first?

I have a friend that did multiple deposits, but his logic is flawed because they all turn to non-refundable the moment pricing comes out and the order is placed.

For example, my dealer requires a $1,000 down payment which is refundable. However once pricing becomes available and they input the order, they require another $4,000 which none of is refundable. All obviously goes towards the cost of the car but it’s probably in place to hedge their costs for a car you refuse to take later.

The dealerships my friend signed up for had either no deposit, $500, or up to $5,000 refundable initial deposits

[Jljordann922]

I have a friend that did multiple deposits, but his logic is flawed because they all turn to non-refundable the moment pricing comes out and the order is placed.

For example, my dealer requires a $1,000 down payment which is refundable. However once pricing becomes available and they input the order, they require another $4,000 which none of is refundable. All obviously goes towards the cost of the car but it’s probably in place to hedge their costs for a car you refuse to take later.

The dealerships my friend signed up for had either no deposit, $500, or up to $5,000 refundable initial deposits

That's what I thought at first but I just spoke to one of the dealers from this forum again to confirm and they said it is refundable up until the order is actually placed, which isn't til your allocation is up.

"The deposit does become non refundable once the order is placed with allocation. When placed with allocation, the order is marked sold under your name and no changes can be made to it. We will give you a heads up prior to this happening. We will need you to confirm the order in prior to placing it"

Am I misinterpreting that?

If another dealer has the same policy, then in theory it would make sense to have 2 deposits.

[WillRockwell]

My $5,000 deposit is refundable up until 72 hours after pricing is released on August 15th. I intend to give them confirmation the moment pricing is released, that may help speed my getting a 2000 status.

[John]

So after reading this and the blog made by [email protected], I'm starting to think I won't even see this car lol.

Here's my question though, are reputable dealers holding deposits as "refundbable" until the Aug 15 date (or within 72 hours) when you choose to put your order specs in and sit at 1100, or is it still refundable up until the point your allocation is actually up which could be 3-6 months from now or more?

If it is refundable up to the point of your allocation being ready, wouldn't it have made sense to put a "refundable" deposit at multiple dealers and see where your order became allocated first?

Many states have state laws that override all, in that per that state’s law if your product is not yet “hard ordered,” but instead when you request your refund your product or service is on a waiting list, in that state, it is always refundable. Check your state laws or not to worry, instead have a deposit down with only one dealer, one that you trust.

[mpgxsvcd]

Don’t put money down at multiple dealers. That just isn’t a productive way to do business. Find a dealer you trust and commit to that dealer so they can commit to you.

My local dealer took a $1000 refundable deposit. He stated that as long as my options selected were semi normal that $1000 would be refundable all the way up to delivery. He said he will only require the additional 5% deposit for orders that are very unusual and would be harder to sell to someone else.

That is what a great dealer looks like. I have no need to put an order in anywhere else.

[ZORA 69]

Help me with the math here. I have heard dealers reporting their allocations in a range from 3 to 15 cars, maybe more. There are 4200 Chevy dealers in the country. It seems to me that the total allocations pretty much meets the annual production total for Corvettes, which in 2016 was 30,000 cars.
So when I hear that the allocations are used, and someone is on a list for the second round, does that not mean that they're going to wait until the next production year for a car?

I believe you will find different dealers with different allocations with different definitions of FIRST ROUND. WARNING WILL ROBINSON You are getting the equation confused. Only Albert Einstein could come up with the equation taking all dealers in the US into consideration and the number of cars produced in a year and have an equation that makes sense. There is a wandering variant to the formula/equation. AND THAT IS NO two dealers have the same allotment.

[bpost22]

The planned production for the 2020 C8 is 33,000 which includes planned overtime. In the past years
their planned production rate has typically been exceeded by 8-10%, which means around 35,000
might be produced. These production rates are below normal because the BG factory is still in some repairs. In 2020, the production rate is expected to be around 3000 C8’s per month, but probably won’t be at that rate until after holidays, so January. The engine factory has been setup to produce up to 40,000 L2’s for the 2020 C8. Every dealer has “planned” yearly allocation, but that can
change during the year, and dealers can buy/sell their allocations among other dealers. The actual production rates achieved can affect the final allocations. Allocations are typically determined based upon past sales history of that dealer, geographical location and dealer density (i.e. new dealers get an allocation). Some dealers have over 650 allocations for the year (not saying who, but you can guess) and some dealers may have only 8-10 allocations. By around 1 Feb 20, there will probably be 6,000-7,000 C8’s produced, shipped and available to dealers, assuming no production problems, supply chain schedules met, etc. By about October 2019, GM will have a reasonable idea of first round allocations. LT3, Z51 configurations may have higher priority for production (more profitable). There are constraints on some accessories that may dictate delivery schedules, including exterior and interior colors.
All this should tell us that accurate prediction of your delivery date is not possible.

[John]

Thank you bpost22. Very informative first post. Thank you for joining us here.

[John]

GM has a six page mathematically based formula, with line after line of the algebraic equations, to compute dealer allocations. I took some colleague math classes and by the middle of page two, I was totally lost. All I can say is no person short of Einstein (or an actuary or college math instructor) could figure it out. Of course, now that is all done by a computer in seconds or less. It is no wonder we have questions. Suffice to say it is based primarily on the concept that “you turn, you earn.” In laymens’ terms, it means you dealers that sell a lot of a short-supply model, earning us (GM) lots of money, we (GM) reward you will significantly allocation.

For the C8, the number of Corvettes sold in the last three year period, times some constant-for-all-dealer “less than 1.0 number,” was/is the basis for awarding C8 Corvette allocations.