Deposit Required When Ordering?

Well I have come across two dealerships that have invoice plus ad fees of 2% plus $1000 plus TTL to order one. I have not negotiated very hard and I am rethinking whether or not I should bother. Once the third shift gets cranking there should lots of these on lots. If I look at Fitzmall pricing on virtually any other GM vehicle, they are all a fair bit below invoice. IMO, the price of this vehicle has no where to go but down. History has shown when a hot domestic vehicle hits, it wanes pretty quickly and resale values drop like rocks. PT Cruiser, Chrysler 300, Escalade come to mind. In almost 30 years of driving, I have not bought a GM vehicle. I don't want to get stung now by the hype. It's a shame that my first visits to GM dealers are not the best experiences.

If I can't get this thing below invoice, I'll either wait or buy something else. I think by November these things will be below invoice and have incentives on them.

BTW, the dealer admitted that they were getting $3000 ADM, but not anymore. Full list for the ones on the lot. There was about 8 of them there. And you get nothing for the ADM, except maybe driving the vehicle a month sooner. My current works just fine, no rush to get gouged.

:ack:
Just had a conversation with the salesman that wrote the order for our Enclave on Friday. At that time, he said all the orders go in on Tuesday/Thursday -- so I thought I'd give him a call today to see if the order actually went in today. I was told that it had not -- it was supposedly "the next order to go in" but that others were ahead of it and there's no point in putting the order in the system because it wouldn't be picked up anyway until they have an allocation slot for the order. Then the next thing he mentioned was September allocation.

YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have tried to call the owner -- he's out for a while but I will try again later to get, if possible, the "real" story behind this conversation.

Do they have allocation or not?
Is my order being "shoved aside" because it is @ Supplier pricing -- and now that it apparently doesn't matter if the dealer allocation is for a sold order or stock -- that my order is being held until ???

The biggest problem with this whole deal -- whether to believe whatever I am going to be told. There's no way to check and independently verify that YOUR dealer has allocation while another does not but just wants another order waiting to be filled. Why go elsewhere when you have no idea of what's the truth anymore? I have no money down (we've done a lot of business with this dealer in the past), and I don't think money down would matter -- THEY control when the vehicle actually gets ordered -- THEY can tell us anything they want.

It's just this kind of stuff that drives me off the deep end -- pushing me ever-closer to NEVER buying GM again. I hope the morons (yes, GM execs, you guys are morons for letting this great opportunity get away from you -- read this forum and see how unhappy people are having to wait -- having your dealers pull this kind of crap) read these forums. It's the poor guys in the trenches like Don and Muddy that end up losing. They're trying to make the vehicles as good and as fast as they can. I feel sorry for you guys at LTD. My story is one of many out here -- we want the product, we want honest answers about vehicle allocation to dealers. Should I rip up my order and go to someone else? This just frustrates me beyond comprehension.

I think it was desgnconcpts himself that made the statement about GM changing their policy so that any vehicle orders counted as part of the dealers allocation.

desgnconcpts are you sure about that or could your dealer perhaps be blowing smoke?

It could be true as I get the feeling that things have really gotten tight over the last few weeks as far as Enclave deals.
When we ordered ours at the beginning of June ours too was considered presold and not included in the dealers allocation. However, when we picked up our vehicle, the sales person did mention something about how low their allocation was for the Enclave.

You're in the Chicago area correct?
I know a month ago it seemed like people were able to get decent deals on them in Michigan (like around Detroit). Maybe you can try using GM's vehicle locator tool to see if there are any cars that are close to what you want on the lot somewhere in Michigan. Then work the phones to see if they're still offering reasonable prices and tell them if so then you'll be in tomorrow (i.e. real soon) to close the deal.
If you can get what you want right away for about the same price and no fuss, it may be worth a day trip there.

However, I also wouldn't be surprised to find out that no one is offering anymore reasonable deals on the Enclave anywhere at the moment.

Netmag -- you are correct :thumb:!
I just got off the phone w/my dealer (NW Suburbs of Chicago) -- he patiently explained the entire situation to me and said that he would love to put in 1,000 orders for Enclaves but that he would never get them.

I think Axiama's guess is right -- GM is trying to limit allocation to the original dealer allocation (the owner told me some of the ways in which GM measures their business and ultimately uses these measures to mete out "hot" product like the Enclave. One mention was how many days vehicles were in inventory after order -- the quicker they sold something and "turned" it, the more allocation they would get).

So, what I was told is this -- there are 5 orders ahead of me. My order would not likely be entered into the system and picked up for build until September (he essentially guaranteed that it would go in in Sept) -- but said that there was a possibility of it happening in August -- IF (big IF) his allocation increased and/or the 3rd shift goes into operation and makes a noticeable dent in the backlog. He said he'd rather "underpromise" and have us be thrilled w/a quicker delivery vs promise it sooner and then have us pissed off at him, the dealership and Buick if it doesn't arrive for another 4-8 weeks. I also confirmed with him that the orders ahead are simply going to be entered into the system when he has vehicle allocation -- based solely on date -- not on selling price. He said each person worked out their deal with him/them and he wouldn't preference anyone based on anything other than date. He would, however, skip an order if an item would cause a hold on it -- and move to the next order in line so that he could at least get someone a vehicle. When I asked, he said nothing on our order (CXL FWD, 19" Chrome, Ent#4, Towing, Driver Conf, Lux Package -- Platinum/Ebony) would cause a hold. As an example, he said if someone ordered the White Tricoat -- that's on hold -- if he was able to order a vehicle and have it accepted per his allocation, he would move to the next order in line that would allow him to use his allocation slot to get a vehicle built.

Hopefully, this explanation may help others (evidently many of us) in the same spot of me. We're anxiously awaiting ours, but not expecting before November.

netmag said:

It could be true as I get the feeling that things have really gotten tight over the last few weeks as far as Enclave deals.
When we ordered ours at the beginning of June ours too was considered presold and not included in the dealers allocation. However, when we picked up our vehicle, the sales person did mention something about how low their allocation was for the Enclave.


However, I also wouldn't be surprised to find out that no one is offering anymore reasonable deals on the Enclave anywhere at the moment.

Click to expand...

I'm sorry, call me a skeptic, but this is mass market vehicle, not a limited edition hot rod. It may be tight now, but I am betting that it will loosen up very soon, especially as the third shift starts cranking. I refused to be caught in the hype. I'm not going to order one unless it's below invoice or with no deposit and the understanding that the price is negotiable when it arrives in 12 weeks. November through January are very slow sales months and they will be building inventory unless they cut production.

Besides if they come out with a 2008.5 model with a new tri coat color and cooled seats as some have suggested, all the better. I don't need a new car now and an inflated purchase price will depreciate much faster than my current ride.

I hope all of you waiting for many weeks get to see your vehicles soon. It seems GM botched the launch. They are trying to win new buyers to the brand. I am one of them. I had no idea what to expect. My last cars have been Lexus, Infiniti and Acura. So far my impression of GM has not been overly positive.