Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

[Keith L.]

Other than a dealer transfer, are there any other ways a car would be sold at a dealer other than the one on the tank sticker?
My 70 LT-1 was sold new at Central Chevrolet in Atlanta. The tank sticker is 22-57? Kentucky zone. The last didgit appears to be a 9 but not sure.
The original owner said he was at the dealer just looking when the LT-1 was delivered. He didn't have them get the car for him. He said no one knew what it was when they unloaded it. He bought it that day. That was the first week of April. The car is a A22 build. It had to be somewhere for a couple months. I asked him how many miles was on it and he said if it had had more that 1 mile I wouldn't have bought it. He may have exagerated a little but my point is it didn't have hundreds of miles on it.
What are the possibilities?

[Chuck S.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

In my opinion, there is likely no other possibility beyond dealer "transfer".

In today's world, it would be clear: dealer in Possum Scratch KY has an allocation for a rich boy's sports car and little local buyer interest (Chevy pickups are the hot item), while dealer in Atlanta has lots of rich boys looking for Corvettes and no allocation. Solution: Possum Scratch dealer wholesales freshly delivered LT1 to Atlanta dealer, and delivers it by flat-bed truck with 00001 miles.

It's done all the time for import brands that set their own production schedules with most-popular option slates regardless of "orders" or demand.

[Tom H.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

It is common practice now, to do a "drop ship" Order the car from one dealer, have it delivered to another. Customer picks car up at the delivering dealer. That's one way. Here's another.

I remember back in the 90's we would also have Corvettes diverted from other dealers.

Meaning dealer X had 5 Corvettes at the plant awaiting shipment. I, as dealer Y would work a deal with zone managers to purchase the cars. Those cars would still have dealer X on the window sticker, but were delivered to me, right from the plant.

Don't know if it was done that way back in the 60's and 70's, but I remember doing a bunch of them that way. Especially 93 ZR1's. Still doing it today. Got one last week with another dealer's name on the sticker. Delivered right to us from the factory.

[Dick W.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

I remember back in the 90's we would have Corvettes diverted from other dealers.

Meaning dealer X had 5 Corvettes at the plant awaiting shipment. I, as dealer Y would work a deal with zone managers to purchase the cars. Those cars would still have dealer X on the window sticker, but were delivered to me, right from the plant.

Don't know if it was done that way back in the 60's and 70's, but I remember doing a bunch of them that way. Especially 93 ZR1's. Still doing it today. Got one last week with another dealer's name on the sticker. Delivered right to us from the factory.

That was done in the '60's. I bought a couple of vehicles that were diverted before shipment. Dealer X picked up a $100 or so and never saw the car, paperwork, anything.

[Tracy C.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

...in Possum Scratch KY...

Hey Chuck...I saw a Possum Scratch one time, but it wasn't in Kentucky. It was in Kansas and just before I blasted him. He was about to get into our chicken coop...

Good to see you post. It's been a long time with no Chuckie on the board.

tc

[Wayne M.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

It is common practice now, to do a "drop ship" Order the car from one dealer, have it delivered to another. Customer picks car up at the delivering dealer. ......

Tom -- sounds like you and a few others on this thread speak "dealer lingo".

Did a title search with AZ motor vehicles 28 years ago on my '65 coupe #014xx and this is what I got back: (brackets are my comments)
------------------------------
Vehicle was obtained with MSO by Fletcher Jones Chevrolet (a Phoenix dealer)
They re-assigned MSO on 12-4-64 to Professional Leasing, Flagstaff AZ.
Title # 36333xx, issued 12-23-64, open sign-off to Morris Motors

(Morris Motors was the leasing arm of a Flagstaff Pontiac/Buick dealer -- they told me that they started this company in the fall of 1964).

Morris Motors then reasigned to James R Sxxxxx on 2-24-66. James R Sxxxxx applied for title # 4343xxx.
----------------------------------------------

The James R. Sxxxx person was manager of the local Pizza Hut, and tells me he was the first owner of the car; [actually lessee], and bought it out from the lease in early 1966.

What does "open sign-off" mean. Would you quess that this car sat for a few weeks at the Phoenix dealer ? Weird thing is that the first owner (J.R. Sxx of Flagstaff) did not order the car, so it might have been a SOLD Phoenix dealer order being rejected by the buyer [I'm guessing].

[Tom H.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

Hard to say exactly what happened. Obviously the car was shuffled a bit before the ultimate purchaser got it. Let me study the sceneroi a bit more.

[Steven B.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

It is common practice now, to do a "drop ship" Order the car from one dealer, have it delivered to another. Customer picks car up at the delivering dealer. That's one way. Here's another.

I remember back in the 90's we would also have Corvettes diverted from other dealers.

Meaning dealer X had 5 Corvettes at the plant awaiting shipment. I, as dealer Y would work a deal with zone managers to purchase the cars. Those cars would still have dealer X on the window sticker, but were delivered to me, right from the plant.

Don't know if it was done that way back in the 60's and 70's, but I remember doing a bunch of them that way. Especially 93 ZR1's. Still doing it today. Got one last week with another dealer's name on the sticker. Delivered right to us from the factory.

Tom, is this the same as your scenario 2:

I ordered an '84 from a Colorado dealer as soon as the orders were accepted by Chevy. My dealer did not get the car as it was diverted to a Denver dealership for display instead of my dealer. I did not get the car as by the time we found out from Zone where it was diverted someone else purchased it from the Denver dealer.

Thanks!

Steve

[Tom H.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

Tom, is this the same as your scenario 2:

I ordered an '84 from a Colorado dealer as soon as the orders were accepted by Chevy. My dealer did not get the car as it was diverted to a Denver dealership for display instead of my dealer. I did not get the car as by the time we found out from Zone where it was diverted someone else purchased it from the Denver dealer.

Thanks!

Steve

It could happen that way. Usually GM won't step in and divert a sold order like that, but it can happen. I had a black coupe ordered for stock, back in the 90's. GM called and said they were diverting it and replacing the order with a twin car that I would get several weeks later. Turns out Dale Earnhardt got the original car.

I would say some behind the scenes monkey business went down with your order. Possibly somebody else offered a lot more more money for your car and they got it instead of you. Hard to say. Might have gone to a Denver Bronco !!

The difference between my scenerio 2 and your deal is, I was getting cars diverted to me that nobody else wanted, your order was just the opposite. 84's, back in 84 were like gold.

Here's my quess, and it's only a guess. Your dealer may have been a small dealer who could not get an 84 order placed. They made a deal with the Denver dealer to get the car from them. When the Denver dealer found out he could get way more for the car, he kept it and sold it for more money. It has happened to me many times. ( Pace Cars, Grand Sports, ZR1's ) Not saying for sure that's what happened, but that could be one scenerio that would be a possibility.

Did you ever get a new 84 ??

[Ronald L.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

Dealer swaps are quite common, were.

There were few dealers that did not do this. Reedman Motors, largest dealer in the world in their heyday is one that did not do swaps because of the sheer volume of vehicles they sold. It is not clear if they pulled in cars from other dealers, but swaping out because they could not sell was a distinct no.

[Michael D.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

...I saw a Possum Scratch one time, but it wasn't in Kentucky...

We may not have a Possum Scratch. We've got High Hat, Black Gnat, Uno, Monkeys Eyebrow, London, Paris, Versailles, Cadiz, and a Texas. We've got a Madisionville, but it's not in Madison County. Ditto for Hopkinsville; it's not in Hopkins County.

[Ronald L.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

And the best trucks are made in Lousiville!

[Keith L.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

Thanks for the info guys. I will order my shipping info in OCT> to verify the tank sticker info. I am waiting on the original owner to come up with an invoice to verify the date he bought it. If his memory is correct a little over two months passed between the time the car was built and it arrived at the dealership. He said it was on a big rig. He was there when it was unloaded.

[Michael D.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

And the best trucks are made in Lousiville!

AND the Corvette is built at Bowling Green.

[Anthony M.]

Re: Shipped to dealer vs selling dealer

There are a number of possible secenarios for this vehicle to get to your dealer with another dealers delivery code.

It could be the back end of a swap where the Kentucky dealer needs a car from your inventory for a customer and you say OK but I want the LT1 in exchange.

Kentucky dealer could have fallen on hard times. Placed on finance hold (inventory exceeds credit line no more vehicles other than sold orders) by the floorpaln source forcing the GM zone to divert stock vehicles in the order bank to other dealers. GM may have suspended the dealer for other violations. The floorplan source may have repossessed the inventory for out of trust violations and had GM buy back the new cars.

Kentucky dealer may have been overstocked and sold some vehicles to other dealers. Many times specialty vehicles are sold for dealer cost + premium to any dealer willing to pay the premium.

Bottom line is dealers do many things to get rid of or to obtain vehicles with other dealers. As long as it is another franchised dealer almost anything goes.