Dealerships have officially become too big for their britches..
You might think that the dealer markups were a bit heavy on the average consumer's wallet, with some dealerships skyrocketing prices into the hundreds of thousands. But trust us, the newest method of delivering brand new automobiles is about to be just as ridiculous as buyers now have to compete for build slots on Corvette Z06 models. One such brand is Classic Chevrolet Sugarland in Texas which has allegedly been auctioning build slots to the highest bidder. Outside of blatantly disrespecting everything the original car was built for, this could mean some serious trouble for buyers.
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It's not even like they are selling the cars in advance and then building the Corvette’s to the exact specifications of the buyer. What's happening is the dealer is selling the rights to purchase the next Z06 for multiple tens of thousands of dollars, capitalizing off the extremely difficult process that they caused. All of this new information comes from a promo email shared around Twitter in which dealers brag as if it were some great deal that they are graciously offering to their loyal customers. In reality, it is simply yet another way for the sellers to get around the new policies at GM made specifically to prevent hefty dealer mark ups. Essentially it's a scam to rip both the buyer and manufacturer off while also protecting the dealership's name and legal status.
One thing that is pretty easy to overlook is the effect this might have on other cars, outside of just luxury sports cars. It's easy to say that nobody buys a Corvette because they are desperately in need of a car but if applied to a higher production platform, it could cripple the automotive industry severely affecting generations to come. For now it seems like the only way to avoid the ridiculousness is to buy used automobiles but that might not even be an option as the used market continues to be taken advantage of by the sharks who would do anything to make a quick buck. This is a plain example of greed on the part of dealerships and customers need to stand up against it by choosing private sellers and buying used but even then there might need to be some legal pushback to ensure this manipulation stops.