Then you haven’t seen anything yet! As reported on Jalopnik recently, the following story transpired which resulted in a car dealer attempting to shovel a $413,000 price tag on a brand new, yet to be build Corvette ZR-1. Despite putting down a deposit on the car over two years ago, one reader was told that to actually get the car, he’d more likely have to pay 2-4 times the MSRP of the ZR-1. The story goes a little something like this:
“I put a deposit down for the 2009 ZR1 about 2 1/2 years ago at “my” chevy dealer from whom I have bought many GM cars, including trucks, vettes. I have probably bought 15+ GM vehicles over the years. I was told 2 1/2 years ago that the price for this “iffy” car would be around the same ratio as the 5K overcharge I paid for my 2006 Z06.
I was called to order my ZR1 yesterday since I was #1 on the allocation list of this dealer’s 4 allocations. I was told that by the way the price would be between 2-4 times the MSRP. Tadge Juechter, the Chief of Corvette Engineering, has urged GM ZR1 dealers to respect the MSRP. I am very upset with the greed and disregard for customer loyalty in a down economy. Is there any recourse?”
I can’t say that I’m surprised by a car dealer doing this, as we’ve seen it before from other more pretigious marques like Ferrari and Porsche with their super cars. However, never before have we seen this from a domestic car maker. I hope that after contacting GM directly, the user will get some satisfaction, or else demand some satisfaction. I am all in favor of full on capitalism, but when a loyal customer puts down a deposit on a car that might not even exist two years ago, I tend to think they need to honor his trust with a reasonble markup.
Source: Jalopnik
Tags: Car Buying, car dealers, car maker, car prices, Car Selling, corvette zr, domestic car, gm cars, jalopnik
