Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

General topics relative to the Caprice and associated vehicles. For items not fitting into other sub-sections in addition to general chat.
cal30_sniper
Posts: 103
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2016 1:17 pm

Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by cal30_sniper »

I'll try to keep this from being a rant, but I'm pretty disgruntled right now and would like some input from the community members that have been at it for a while.

I saw that the local Chevy dealer down the road was putting a 20% off deal on their 2016 Chevy SS, so I figured I'd cruise down and take a look at it today. I've driven G8 GTs, GXPs, and Caprice PPVs, but this was the one member of the imported Holden family I hadn't seen up close yet. I was genuinely impressed with the car, but I liked the look and feel of the GXP better inside and out. Dollar for dollar, the low miles Caprice PPV I looked at was the hands down winner.

I asked the salesman if they knew of any 2014 or 2015 Caprice PPVs that might have been languishing on the lot either there or at any of the other dealers nearby. His response was "Why would you want to buy a Caprice?" After trying to explain to the young buck that the Caprice was essentially the same car, on a stretched wheelbase, with a powerteam that was only a cam swap and tune away from being the same as the SS, the older salesman came out and started regaling me with stories of Brembo brakes and future collectiblity.

The young salesman was nice enough, and had agreed to sit down and see if he could find any PPVs in the dealer system that might have been sitting for a while. While my wife and I were sitting in his office, I overheard the older salesman (who I'm guessing was the manager) berate him about even offering to help. It went something along the lines of "We are NOT even going to begin trying to sell him a Caprice, those are for municipalities only, period." He then came by the office, and started running the same spiel with me. I told him there were many instances of these cars languishing on dealer lots, and being "sold" to local departments for the weekend so they could be moved off the lot as "used" cars to private owners. He said they did not have any Caprices, and furthermore, he wouldn't be helping me find any Caprices, both because he could not send them into private hands, and he couldn't make any money of helping me find someone who might be willing to.

Needless to say, I left in a bit of disgust. I don't want or need to spend $40k on a new SS. I already have a vehicle that has passed the 40+ year collectibility test, that I can lavish time and effort on and enjoy on the sunny weekend cruise. I want a daily driver, that I can use unabashed and put 200k trouble free miles on, while still having a powerteam that I trust and know how to work on.

Where are you guys finding these PPVs that are lurking on dealer lots? Aside from just calling dealer after dealer, is there any way to locate these cars? I've read numerous stories of people talking Chevy dealers into turning year old Caprices into used cars and then selling them to the public, but my experiences at this dealer at least were the complete opposite. Is there a method to success, or is purely a matter of luck with these things?
-2011 Caprice 9C3: Mirage Glow Metallic, 63k miles
-2011 Caprice 9C1 (Gone)
-1973 Firebird Formula, restoration in progress
-1986 K30 Suburban 8.1L/NV4500, the toy hauler and wheeler
smwalker
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Re: Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by smwalker »

Being a former GM employee I can say what you experienced is on par for what the general public gets. We got to deal directly with our local fleet salesman at each dealer and they being on salary generally were way more helpful. They would search the auctions, GM resales and call in favors with other fleet salesman to get you what you want.

If I had to deal with consumer salesman it is safe to say GM would never see a dime from me. Now that i am a former employee you could not get me to deal with a GM dealership on a consumer level.

If that happened to me I would write a nice letter to the VP of sales for the dealership and tell them their salesman just refused to take $25,000.00 from you because he did not want to punch in a few keys on a keyboard.

All that being said try emailing the fleet salesperson for any dealership that has a vehicle you may want. They are really the only people that can do much in terms of massaging the rules around Caprices, if they can do anything at all.
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
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elc32955
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Re: Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by elc32955 »

There's a few ways you can find them. One that's the most simple is to try the quick AutoTrader search in the links section. Many times if a dealership has a car in stock, the sales computer system that's linked to the inventory system at bigger dealerships automatically creates an AutoTrader entry, even if a vehicle is fleet-only. I've called on a few of those types of cars before, the worst you get is someone that says "we can't sell the car".

Next, try to find a dealership that does law enforcement fleet sales, not just any old bowtie dealership. Look up the state bids for your sheriff's association, state police, etc... and see who the awarded dealers for Chevy are. There should be a fleet contact for those dealership(s) listed on their website, just try calling them & see what they say. Again, the worst they can do is say "yes we have them, no you can't have one".

GM has regional Law Enforcement support representatives, sometimes they'll be sympathetic and tell you if they know of any stagnant inventory sitting at a dealership. The lists of those names & contact numbers are on the GM fleet website. Remember, these guys are responsible for multi-state territories and may or may not return your calls. But, it's worth a try. If they give you a hard time just tell them you were brushed off by the sales staff at XXXX dealership and wanted to reach out to help dealers move inventory they're stuck with, or something similar. They're all at least 20-year GM employees - the guy for SE US is closer to 35 years. Again, a phone call never hurts and you may just get lucky. Be very, very nice to these people.

Dealerships sometimes do advertise these cars on a variety of car sites especially if they're trying to move them. Occasionally you see listings on Ebay, Craigslist, a lot of the national listing scalper sites carry car listings as well that dealerships generate lifted from their websites. Just browse a few of the more popular sites and see what happens. Fingers doing research find cars.

One other suggestion. If certain people at a dealership were really nasty asshats to you, don't be afraid to get on http://www.dealerrater.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and detail your experience for other members of the public to look at. Before I purchased the current car my wife drives I was looking around at Chevy Cruze diesels for a bit and had a really negative experience at a local Chevy dealership. I tightened their used car sales manager right up with a nice detailed review, got a call from the dealer personally a week later to apologize for my dealership experience. Many GM dealers watch the ratings & reviews on this site very closely, if you detail how salesman John Jones told you he's not going to make any money from your sale and sent you packing out the door with cash still in your checkbook... yada yada yada..., you might just get their undivided attention. And keep someone else from dealing with the jerk.

Good luck!
Eric
System Manager and your tour guide for the day. 2015 Caprice w/LFX, former NC DPS staff car. Partial hybrid G8/SS/Camaro SS interior mods, SS MyLink radio upgrade, 2016 Camaro V6 rims, GMPP Malibu chrome exhaust tips, otherwise bone stock for now.
cal30_sniper
Posts: 103
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2016 1:17 pm

Re: Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by cal30_sniper »

Thanks for the good advice, gents. I will have to take some action and follow up on some of those tips. I've about exhausted myself searching the net over the past few months, and I think I've got pretty good tabs on all of the used stuff that's moving in the Eastern U.S., the one nut I haven't been able to crack is the new stuff still sitting on the dealer lots. I know there has to be a ton of 15 MY stuff sitting out there, and at least a few '14s left.

Sadly, this isn't the first time I've gotten this kind of treatment, either at dealerships or elsewhere. Whether it's the baby face and small stature, or my penchant for manners and trying to be nice and respectful to folks, I often get brushed off and not treated seriously. The insane thing to me is, my wife and I literally have the money sitting in a savings account, and we still couldn't trouble the guys to help us out because we weren't interested in financing their precious (and probably very difficult to sell) SS.

I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around the whole fleet only sales thing. It can't be a small number of people out there that desire a nice, simple, solidly built 4-door sedan without all the frills and bells and whistles that tack on an astronomical amount of price and complexity. My brother ran into the same thing when he ordered his Challenger Scat Pack recently. The idea of a "stripper" car or a base sedan has certainly gone out the window in American auto manufacturing. I guess they wouldn't be able to sell all those gussied up Malibus and Impalas if there was a viable low-cost alternative available new to the public.
-2011 Caprice 9C3: Mirage Glow Metallic, 63k miles
-2011 Caprice 9C1 (Gone)
-1973 Firebird Formula, restoration in progress
-1986 K30 Suburban 8.1L/NV4500, the toy hauler and wheeler
CrashTestDummy
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Location: Pearland, Texas

Re: Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by CrashTestDummy »

IFF you belong to a Credit Union, get pre-approved for a new vehicle, THEN go talk to a dealer (probably a different one than the most-recent experience). When the vultures circle in, let them know you're pre-approved for a new car purchase from your CU. They'll usually point you directly at the fleet sales guy, since they handle most pre-approved. That's been our experience, at least
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
2012 Caprice 9C1
1992 B4C 1LE Camaro
2018 Tahoe PPV (her car)
1995 DGGM Impala SS
1985 Firebird - 310 LS1 C Prepared autocross car.
1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge
And some others
Do YOU have my SPID?
iboughtonetoo
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Re: Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by iboughtonetoo »

Caprices are fleet sales only. dealers do not receive training nor incentives on them. They don't care about them. And correct, GM will NOT let them sell it non fleet. They cannot sell you one. They cannot order one for you nor can they ship one for you. Its not the dealer, it is GM policy. So unless you see something on their lot and inquire, you are out of luck.

My dealer bent backwards to sell me my Tahoe, which subsequently got hijacked by the wife but that's another topic. Find a dealer that isn't stupid and work with them on something they have in stock, on the lot. If its not on the lot or they just got it there, they wont care much. Its how the process works. They want to move vehicles they have.

A dealer will also want to finance you as they get a cut of the APR... Unless your credit is junk, no reason you can't get 3.9% apr or lower on anything they have there. Gl getting better than that from 3rd party on a used vehicle. If you work it right you will often get further cut off the price if you finance through them, way more to cover any apr charges over the life of the loan vs 3rd party bank
2015 0 days in service. Carpet, factory SL delete. purch @ 86, nov 2016 hit 13000. yeah!
http://i.imgur.com/W52rR3H.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
cal30_sniper
Posts: 103
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Re: Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by cal30_sniper »

iboughtonetoo wrote:Caprices are fleet sales only. dealers do not receive training nor incentives on them. They don't care about them. And correct, GM will NOT let them sell it non fleet. They cannot sell you one. They cannot order one for you nor can they ship one for you. Its not the dealer, it is GM policy. So unless you see something on their lot and inquire, you are out of luck.

My dealer bent backwards to sell me my Tahoe, which subsequently got hijacked by the wife but that's another topic. Find a dealer that isn't stupid and work with them on something they have in stock, on the lot. If its not on the lot or they just got it there, they wont care much. Its how the process works. They want to move vehicles they have.

A dealer will also want to finance you as they get a cut of the APR... Unless your credit is junk, no reason you can't get 3.9% apr or lower on anything they have there. Gl getting better than that from 3rd party on a used vehicle. If you work it right you will often get further cut off the price if you finance through them, way more to cover any apr charges over the life of the loan vs 3rd party bank
All I was trying to do was get them help me find a dealership anywhere in the area that had some Caprices on the lot, they refused to even search whatever fleet sales inventory was available in the region. I realized that they wouldn't want to ship a vehicle to their lot that would be next to impossible to sell, but as far as I can tell, someone not affiliated with the dealer doesn't have a means of searching for the location of fleet vehicles, only vehicles available from the normal inventory.

I've already been pre-approved with both of my banks for auto loans, but I'm really not interested in financing. I have the money available, so I don't understand paying interest on something when I could just buy it outright, interest free. I imagine that's going to make me less popular with the dealer since they can't prey off of interest from the loan, but it's the same to the dealership whether I pay outright in cash, or finance through my bank and pay interest on the loan to the bank over several years.

I still very well might be able to make a deal on the 2012 that I'm looking at with 18k miles on it (assuming any concerns I have on the apparent accident history are properly addressed). If not, then I reckon I'll start calling some dealers in Raleigh or Charlotte. I would think that the larger dealerships have a better chance of having some of these cars on the lot than the local ones do. That's all I was trying to get some help with at the local dealership before I got snubbed.
-2011 Caprice 9C3: Mirage Glow Metallic, 63k miles
-2011 Caprice 9C1 (Gone)
-1973 Firebird Formula, restoration in progress
-1986 K30 Suburban 8.1L/NV4500, the toy hauler and wheeler
iboughtonetoo
Posts: 43
Joined: Thu Dec 31, 2015 11:47 pm
Location: GAWGA

Re: Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by iboughtonetoo »

Yes they will not help you locate anything that is fleet sales only; it would be pointless, you can't buy it. Thing is there probably are none anyway that can be sold to you. Don't think chevy dealers buy used department vehicles and what not. I tried every trick to get them to sell me one, 5 states across. No dice. Went through at least 20 dealerships... I know how you are feeling.

Keep looking. You will eventually come across something such as an order cancellation/return they can unload as you technically are now buying a used car, even though it was never titled. That's how I got mine through a chevy dealer. Just dumb persistence and patience to come across the right sales team.

Do what I do. Finance with them, and then after 2-3 months pay it off directly to the lender. Profit :) You also pump your credit and loan history for the future
2015 0 days in service. Carpet, factory SL delete. purch @ 86, nov 2016 hit 13000. yeah!
http://i.imgur.com/W52rR3H.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Rjimpala
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Re: Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by Rjimpala »

Last time I checked, stingray Chevy in Lakeland had one sitting ready to sell. However the recall hasn't been done. If your really interested in it, let me know and I'll give you the ppl to contact. It's a 9c1 alto gray.
2011 Karma 9c3 never in service, Setina trunk tray, trunk floor mat, H&R springs, skid plate, leather shifter, g8 rear seats, tint, rear spoiler, side markers, Holden badges, shark fin antennae, capriceV trunk emblem, series ll & afm emblems, red tail tips, lighted vanity mirrors, black headliner & pillars, G8 light switch, red light window switches, g8 gas pedals, powdered coated colored hubs, g8 matching color steering wheel & color interior strips & center ring.
1996 DGGM Impala SS
cal30_sniper
Posts: 103
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2016 1:17 pm

Re: Questions from a discouraged Chevy Dealership visitor

Post by cal30_sniper »

That's the point though, there are ways of selling them if the dealer is properly motivated and they've been sitting there long enough. With Holden closing up shop next year, I'm sure the few departments that were still seriously considering ordering new ones are cancelling orders and going to Ford. It's just too hard to maintain a fleet of these things as hard as spare parts are about to be to get for them.

RJ, thanks for the tip. I just shot you a PM for more details. If things continue to go sour on the current guy I'm talking to, I could easily see myself making a trip down to FL for that one.
-2011 Caprice 9C3: Mirage Glow Metallic, 63k miles
-2011 Caprice 9C1 (Gone)
-1973 Firebird Formula, restoration in progress
-1986 K30 Suburban 8.1L/NV4500, the toy hauler and wheeler
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