skorpion317

I sent an e-mail to a few local dealers last night asking them the following questions:

1. How many cars do you expect to get in and when?

2. Do you expect any shortages? Do you plan on hanging on to any cars for display? Will there be any restrictions on any potential buyers (test drives, etc.)?

3. What type of markups do you anticipate?

A salesman from Dealer A called me this morning. Here were his responses:

1. 7-8 cars for the time being. Most have been sold already. May 6th is the official "reveal" date, and he said all dealers should have their cars in by that time.

2. He did not expect any shortages. He said one car would be held for display. He said due to the popularity of the car, test drives will not be allowed, unless the prospective buyer puts down a deposit. That way they know the buyer is serious.

3. The salesman told me that normally, "this kind of car would be marked up $5,000, but the market won't support that right now, so the early cars will be sold at MSRP." He said that later, once the initial allocation has been sold and production ramps up, a markup would be coming.

I got the following email from Dealer B:

"The Camaro vehicles are ordered to customer specifications, with a non-refundable deposit. At this time, I believe there will be one on display, and I will have to check if test drives will be allowed.

Prices points are at or above MSRP, depending upon the package selected."

That last one is a non-answer, if you ask me.

Here is the response I got from Dealer C:

"I am in the process of identifying exactly what you're looking for and have a couple of clarifying questions:

1. Are there any colors that you would not consider?
2. Is a test drive important to you?
3. What options are you looking for?

Are you coming to the end of a leased vehicle contract?
The reason I ask this is you may qualify for an additional rebate."

They didn't really answer any of my questions, nor were the questions they asked really that relevant. They later sent this:

"We do expect the Camaro in soon. There will be one on display on May 24 th in Frankin Lakes N.J. at the car show.

A shortage is anticipated so we are starting with a $5,000 mark up."

That's more like it. I'm still waiting on a response from a fourth dealer. So far, Dealer A was the most informative. If they accept the GM Supplier discount, I may go there just because of the effort the salesman put in to answer my questions.