Pre-Ordering a 2014 Chevrolet SS
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Stop by the Chevy dealer and speak with the sales manager. Give him a $1000 and tell him you want first crack at the first SS(s) he gets. If that day comes and you can't get together on price, or he doesn't have your color and can't get your color, he'll give you your deposit back. It just shows the guy you're serious.
If the GTO was any indication, you won't be able to "order" an SS at any point. Since a sunroof and color are the only choices, you won't need to. Once the cars are in production and on the boats, GM has an online tracking tool that will tell you exactly the cars that are coming to your dealership (and other area dealers). Once you see one coming you like, have the dealership put your deposit on that specific car.
If the GTO was any indication, you won't be able to "order" an SS at any point. Since a sunroof and color are the only choices, you won't need to. Once the cars are in production and on the boats, GM has an online tracking tool that will tell you exactly the cars that are coming to your dealership (and other area dealers). Once you see one coming you like, have the dealership put your deposit on that specific car.
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But since these cars are said to be in limited production, wouldn't it be better if we get put on a pre-order list or a waiting list if the pre-order process isn't open? This would probably depend on their allocation too. If it's a dealer getting 20 of them, then waiting might be safe.
Do you remember what the average allocation was like for the GTO?
It's only a limited production relative to the massive numbers of Camaros, Malibus and Silverados...Chevy's bread and butter cars. I assure you that if you want an SS it won't be too much trouble getting your hands on one. Not a lot of Chevy buyers are looking for $45,000 415hp sedans.
The main problem with a pre-order is that you surrender any leverage you may have had in the negotiation for price. What gets dealers moving on price is the idea that they'd rather make a little less profit on you than have you walk out and buy something somewhere else. That's over if you want to buy the thing sight unseen so badly you'd pay for some of it in advance.
I would just quietly track cars as they come into your area, and when one in your color hits, stop by the dealer and talk price. There will be plenty to go around. I believe around 18,000 GTOs were produced each year, and it took awhile for them to all find homes.
My car came in as one in a group of six. For a few months before then the local dealer had no GTOs at all. I tracked the car in for a couple of weeks but didn't move on it right away. It sucked letting it sit there on the lot and hoping it didn't get sold, but I was coming off lease on my prior car and I needed to wait a couple months. Then GM put a $3000 bonus cash offer on the car and that was more than enough to offset having two car payments for a three months.
I need to find that tracking website and post a link once Holden starts getting cars on the boats.
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Good advice here.
I like your point on not being able to negotiate and have the leverage you would have if buying the car off the lot, it's a mistake a lot of people make when pre-ordering. If it was a highly anticipated car like say a .... Stingray Corvette, by all means pre-order it if you know there will be a crazy rush and rather not wait 1/2 a year just to get another chance to get one.
Now on tracking cars, I think we should turn this into a community effort since many of us will be checking up on the status of the Chevy SS arrival. Might be time to start a thread on this
I'll also try to find that tracking website although I never seen it.
I've done a couple of factory orders from Ford and have always negotiated final price before they placed the order. I go through the Internet Sales Manager and I have it all in writing.
I don't see how buying the SS would be any different. Negotiate your price ahead of time, put your deposit down, usually $500, and wait.
I agree that doing a pre-order would be foolish as you most likely can't negotiate price. Just wait until the car is released and do a factory order if they can't find what you want on the lots.
I don't see how buying the SS would be any different. Negotiate your price ahead of time, put your deposit down, usually $500, and wait.
I agree that doing a pre-order would be foolish as you most likely can't negotiate price. Just wait until the car is released and do a factory order if they can't find what you want on the lots.
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A deposit, usually refundable is what I just might do. Like you said their about $500, rarely I seen deposits of $1000.
Another thing people should keep an eye out for are dealerships that won't do a refundable deposit but not make sure your a 120% aware of that.
Usually the greedy sales people will do this.
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In a way it's good there's not many options to choose from. Makes buying the SS much easier since you don't have to worry about which options will be best for you. Also it not being built to order allows them to make a serious push on producing these cars with minimal delay between when the customer orders it and when they finally get it. Cause if an SS isn't on a lot, all that might need to be done is shipping it from the location it's at.
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Exactly. Shipping will take longer than usual, so they'll just cram as many different colors as they can on one ship. It also explains why they chose not to offer the manual, even though it's already produced for the Australian models.
5 colors X sunroof or no = 10 combinations
5 colors X sunroof or no X auto or manual = 20 combinations
It's not like cars nowadays come with an overly large amount of options where it's so confusing to the consumer. You guys should look back at what GM used to offer, options for everything. Which I really do miss. You really could get the car exactly how you wanted.
And it really isn't a huge hassle for a factory to build one since they are setup to handle all configurations. Remember these cars will be lumped in with all the other Commodores being built, I highly doubt there is some dedicated line for them.
I'm sure not having options on this car is just saving GM money, definitely not for the consumers benefit. They are covering their a$$ if the car doesn't sell.
And it really isn't a huge hassle for a factory to build one since they are setup to handle all configurations. Remember these cars will be lumped in with all the other Commodores being built, I highly doubt there is some dedicated line for them.
I'm sure not having options on this car is just saving GM money, definitely not for the consumers benefit. They are covering their a$$ if the car doesn't sell.
I was told today that line production begins in mid to late April, and that first deliveries to dealers are likely to be in June sometime.
There is no facility for a dealership to place an order for one at this time, nor is any pricing to dealers available. Some dealers are taking cash deposits, but that's a speculative venture.
There is no facility for a dealership to place an order for one at this time, nor is any pricing to dealers available. Some dealers are taking cash deposits, but that's a speculative venture.
We need to know the size of the inaugural production run.We want a run of at least 15k cars if there's any hope of avoiding an unfavorable supply/demand imbalance. I heard the run was only 5k cars to "gauge interest". That's spread over 3000 Chevy stores...one or two per dealer is a guarantee of additional mark ups over MSRP.
I'm sure you'll be looking at dealer markups regardless of the run. At least for the first few months.
Yeah. It's a question of for how long. Fewer cars produced = longer period of dealer pricing insanity. The poor guys who first bought the 04 GTOs got hosed. Dealers were refusing test drives, and adding $5,000 market adjustments.
A year later, the 05's came with 50 more HP and were going at MSRP. No incentives on the car, it (and the Vette) was excluded from the Employee Pricing For Everyone promotion. Mid run in 05 they put the GTO into the promotion and knocked $3,000 off.
That was a Holden import with around 18,000 units per year shipped. I really don't feel like waiting another year and a half for the SS.
Holden only produced 30k Commodores in 2012.
Demise of Holden's Commodore and Ford's Falcon | adelaidenow
Demise of Holden's Commodore and Ford's Falcon | adelaidenow
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Allocation of just a couple of SS's will suck, 5000 Chevy SS's is also what I heard will be produced every year. Maybe if there is an increasing demand for it they'll bump that number up.
Would it even be possible that some Chevy dealerships won't get them at all - the dealerships that don't get much customers - and more to much busier locations.
Good read. Interesting that Holden let it slip that 2016 will be the last year for the VF before they retool the factory for another car entirely. Indications are that the next sedan platform will be FWD, which means the SS will at best get a three year run, like the GTO and the G8 before it.
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