Hey everyone...
I'm a new visitor to this site and hopefully a new owner of a Yukon/Tahoe some time this decade. I wanted to see what other people's experience has been with the dealership and how their orders have been handled. We just had our order cancelled and were told we would need to wait a couple of weeks for the 2023 order bank to open. We had already waited two months and never had our order accepted. Needless to say, we're extremely frustrated. I've spent the better part of the last two weeks calling every dealership within 1000 miles looking for orders that have fallen through and somehow every single one that exists has been sold, is reserved, or won't be built for at least another two months. It seems like some have had luck in getting reasonable service with reasonable expectations being set upfront. What I've gathered over the past two weeks after talking to probably 50 dealerships are the following:
1. GM is micro-targeting what features can be ordered by specific dealership based on I'm assuming market data of some sort. There are several dealerships claiming they haven't been able to order air suspensions for a year now. Meanwhile, I see several in-transit on GMC's inventory site that have air suspensions going to specific dealers. The same applies to the 6.2. I had a dealership tell me I can still order the rear entertainment package too...they're claiming their allocations make them one of the few in the country that can. Talk to them about what options are available the soonest...they're different for every dealership. Maybe this isn't a surprise to people but it was to me.
2. In the upper-midwest, there are a lot of very low mileage (< 500 miles) "used" 2022 Tahoe/Suburban/Yukon (XL) for sale at dealerships and used car lots. I talked to a buddy about this who has some insight and he said that he knows a few dealerships where the owner has buddies buying these up at discounted prices and reselling only to share the profit. This makes sense to me too based on some of what I've seen. Highly custom stuff...coming in one month and ending up on a lot two months later on the other side of market going for $10,000 or more above what it would've sold for new MSRP. They all deny it but I had one dealership refuse to sell to me with my supplier discount and this was the reason they gave me. They thought I was going to turn around and resell it. If you have a discount, bring it up early so they're honest and upfront with you about what pricing you won't get.
3. The rural areas seem to have the dealerships who care the most about customer service. We tried ordering in a metro area and were told upfront..."we're going to take a $1000 upfront non-refundable deposit, run your credit to make sure you qualify, and then when the vehicle arrives, we'll ask you and others to pay the whatever the market rate is on your vehicle." In essence, the price I was going to pay was going to depend on who bid the most for it. I've never encountered something like it and these salesman and sales managers don't seem to see anything wrong with it. I hope people aren't actually okay with this because it sets the example that this behavior is okay even though it's incredibly stupid and ruins it for everyone.
4. One dealer told me that if I didn't pay cash, they wouldn't hold the vehicle for me. Another wanted 10% over MSRP ($90,000+ for a GMC!!) and another told me that they had a vehicle...took my deposit...and sold it anyway because I couldn't make it until later in the day (was going to drive 400 miles for it). Thankfully, I was only 150 miles in when they were polite enough to call and tell me it had been sold.
5. They're intentionally populating publicly viewable inventory to drive people into the dealerships. I don't know how many times I've been tricked into thinking that a vehicle not in-transit is actually available. 1/50 are available in my experience...the rest are "spoken for."
6. Quarterly production numbers for both the Tahoe and Yukon seem to be down only slightly compared to where they were before the pandemic. Has anyone asked why sales counts being down 10% lead to a market that would suggest a shortage far more severe? I was told it's because they're restricting who gets what in order to increase lead times to make it appear as if there's a shortage when in reality...most of the vehicles are complete and sitting in a lot somewhere. Even delivery isn't as nearly as bad as everyone says it is.
Bottom line is that the dealerships that are gouging are allowed to no matter what GM says. GM wants it this way and is intentionally keeping stock artificially low. We're extremely disappointed and frustrated. We're either going to buy an Expedition/QX80 or cancel our cross country trip this summer/next. Anyone have any advice on how to get one of these without waiting a year for one and paying over MSRP, I'd love to hear it!
