I called 12 local dealers earlier in the year, only 3 were willing to sell an order at MSRP, only 1 lacked mandatory “add-ons” that jacked up the price, so that’s where I placed my order. Everyone also wanted at least a 1k deposit. Maybe if I call around again, those things have changed.
After learning how allocations and such really work I wouldn’t mind placing my order at every dealer so long as they didn’t require a deposit, and the price made sense.
I will say I did pay a 1k deposit. Getting for slightly below msrp. The dealers who don't require deposits are the ones with tons on the lists ahead. Because like you 1 person leaves an order at 10 places and walks on 9 which jams things up.
If I was a business I would require a deposit too to prevent such nonsense.
I wouldn't pay any markups either so stick to your guns there.
Good luck!
I called a very reputable dealer this past week and they were very pleasant to talk to. They were incredibly competitive based on price during the pandemic compared to other dealers and people were traveling across the country to take delivery.
Well, long story they said the estimated wait time for an order Yukon XL Denali gas with Max Trailering package would be 12-24 months. But they took my contact info to let me know of customer orders that end up not being sold.
I think that's a common theme with GM - a bunch of customers not taking delivery. I would imagine it's for a bunch of reasons to include the customer placing orders at multiple dealerships and taking delivery of the first arrival. Or it could just be the economy has deteriorated and interest rates have increased so much that people who aren't cash buyers are backing out.
Either way, this situation is a product of GM's ordering process where you're in a queue at the dealership level just to be placed into another queue at the national level. Ford's ordering process mitigates the need to place orders at multiple dealerships because you largely enter the national queue immediately. GM's process makes harder to gauge true demand.
Unless things change for GM, I will most likely order a F150 next since people are taking delivery within 3 months of vehicles priced 3% under invoice and revisit the full size SUV market in another 3-5 years.