You’re endorsing what is exactly part of the problem.
If everyone places multiple orders, that’ll leave at least 1 dealer penalized during every transaction.
So rather the dealer hopes they are the buyer’s only order or will be able to get them their order faster than any other dealer, they’re just going to eventually do what’s in their best interest and sell the car immediately to someone as soon as it comes in.
At that point they may have 2 phone calls to make….
1. Hello buyer, your car came in. You have until tomorrow to sign or It’ll hit the lot and I can’t guarantee it’ll be there the next day for you. Im sorry but people have been ordering multiple cars through multiple dealers and I have to do what’s in my best interest because I didn’t know if you still were willing to go through with the deal.
2. Hello buyer, your car came in. Oh you’re no longer interested? And you want your refund back? May I ask why? Oh you already got the car from XYZ. Oh okay. Well I’ll be sure to process your refund.
If I’ve been fleeced by numerous buyers and i’m a dealer, why wouldn’t I do that? I did my part, I accepted your order, I submitted it when I could. It’s out of my hands.
Frankly - if you’re custom ordering a car you should have some sort of commitment to purchasing that car. I understand things change. Obviously if there are delays and you want to back out, you should be able to. But to submit multiple orders and then back out…it adds to the issue.
yeah not sure someone “backing out” of an order is even a minimal factor in the fact GM doesn’t have their ordering process worked out
Ordered an AT4 with the tech package and RSE the first week of December. I didn't even know that RSE was on constraint when we ordered. After a month of research, I asked the dealer in mid-Jan where we were at on the build. They said that RSE wasn't going to be available for the rest of 22MY and that it would either never be built or they'd try and process it as a 2023 model.
Ordered a basic Z71 tahoe 15 mins after they told me this. That Tahoe still hasn't been accepted 2.5 months later.
Also placed an identical Z71 order (that same day) with a different dealership an hour away and it was built last week.
I can be as committed to buying one as the next guy, but if a dealer can't even give a possible timeline of when to expect the vehicle when the order is placed, how committed can I actually be? I'm committed to buying it sometime in the next 3 - 15 months? Or maybe never if I'm like 99% of the rest of the population that doesn't understand constraints, allocations and TPWs so I don't know the right questions to ask?
First world problems for sure, but we have a 2021 AT4 that has been in the shop 17x over the past year. About 2 months past ready to get rid of it.
Until GM dealers are actually "harmed" by not selling to the person on the original order, I'd imagine that most dealers would PREFER the buyer to back out since most charge a market adjustment for Tahoes/Yukons on the lot...maybe the tide is changing in that regard. It I haven’t really seen any atahoes in the lot being sold for sticker. If/when GM starts to ding dealers for not selling to the person that placed the order, then dealers will need to place stipulations to protect themselves.
Ultimately it's GM's ordering process that is causing this mess; why in the world would they have it set up where customers can place orders that may not be accepted for months?
Ram's ordering system wouldn’t allow the dealer to place an order that has a constrained item. When ordering last year, my build was accepted in less than a minute and the dealer said they were telling customers to expect 16-20 weeks...some had been sooner and some later but that was the timeframe they were giving. My truck showed up in 12 weeks. Don't know what the other brands are doing but my local Honda dealer said that Honda doesn't accommodate customer orders.
End of the day, if you're wanting to order, unless your dealer can guarantee they have a current allocation, your just hoping you hit the perverbial "allocation lottery" by not placing multiple orders...just my opinion
