Customer orders on early C2 VINs

[Wayne M.]

Annual new car introductions were usually held the first week of October, and kept under wraps prior. Plant production began the last week of August. I'm guessing that the earlier VINs (say, up to 2000 to 3000, depending on model year) could not have been ordered by the eventual new car purchaser. He/she wouldn't have had any spec's to base the order on; no auto reviews were yet on the news stands; dealer order forms were not yet released (?). How about the showroom brochures and the (big) dealer catalogs ?

So did this early production go entirely to pre-stocking the larger Corvette dealerships, for unveiling on the "big day" ? Did the dealers have any say in what inventory they received, or was it random ?

[Dick W.]

Re: Customer orders on early C2 VINs

I cannot speak for Corvette, but I routinely personally ordered a new car before introduction. I occassionally got surprised with a color change, but usually had by introduction day. The worst deal was when I ordered ten new pickups for the chicken factory, using the prior years paint code. The code was for white the year before, but the same code in the next model year was a tan metallic. Needless to say, I caught h**l from my boss.

[Terry M.]

Re: Customer orders on early C2 VINs

I had pestered my dealer (well he wasn't mine, but he knew a fish when he saw one) for the LT1 motor all through the 1969 model year. Part way through he landed me with a 1969 390hp in the color I wanted with some of the options I wanted, and some I didn't. His story was it was ordered before the strike and the buyer backed out. Fortunately I wrecked it.

The 1970 (#2161, Jan 29 build) was ordered by the dealer. It wasn't the color I wanted and lacked some of the options I wanted, but it had that engine. He landed me the second time. So that one was ordered for stock.

[William N.]

Re: Customer orders on early C2 VINs

My Dad was a district sales manager for Buick and the dealers were shown the new cars usually in the early summer, maybe a bit later and had the early order info by mid summer, so they could order cars and if a good customer wanted to place an order for a car early, they could pick most of the options. Of course 80 % of the cars were ordered for stock with the exception of cars like Corvette, which runs about the opposite. Well maybe later summer, but I remember him bringing a 62 buick conv, home from the zone preview about 3-4 weeks before sales and we had to keep it in the garage until he delivered it to the local dealer.

[Clem Z.]

Re: Customer orders on early C2 VINs

i would go to the dealer show with my dealer just to see what colors were going to be available. we would order a car as soon as the dealer got the go ahead. sometime they showed up in less than 2 weeks !!! some times my dealer would hold the order for a week or so because he knew i would change my mind about the color. i would get my car at midnite the day of the official showing because the dealers could not deliver them before that date