Dealer Changes Course, Surprises C8 Corvette Buyer With $10K Markup at Delivery

This ‘family dealership’ agreed to sell a C8 Corvette at MSRP, but shocked a ‘Corvette Forum’ member at delivery.

By now, we’re all acutely aware of the fact that dealers are taking advantage of the fact that demand is far exceeding supply for most new vehicles and are slapping markups on the C8 Corvette. In a normal world, this practice would have ended by now, and GM would have produced enough Corvettes to satisfy demand. But this is not a normal world we’re living in at the moment, with supply chain issues continuing to wreak havoc on the car world. A Corvette Forum member recently discovered this the hard way when he went to take delivery of his new C8 Corvette, and headed to the forums for advice on how to handle the situation.

“I ordered a Ceramic Gray Matrix 2LT from Classic Chevrolet in Bellevue, PA a few months back,” said Eric Mirosavich. “When placing the order, I asked about leaving a deposit since the dealer was charging MSRP and no markup. The sales manager stated ‘we’re a small dealership, we don’t take deposits as we treat everyone like family.’ Well, the car arrived and now they added a $10k markup. The sales manager stated that he never told me they would sell the car for MSRP and since the market hasn’t changed they now need to add $10k to the purchase price. He told me that he could sell the car to someone else for more money, and he didn’t need to feel bad if I didn’t want it. GM customer service says there’s not much they can do except send the dealer an email. Anyone have any suggestions?”

Unfortunately, this type of situation has become more and more common in recently months, and there isn’t much recourse. “Pay the extortion or start over with a reputable dealer,” said Zymurgy. “I’m glad I’m not related to this dealer if that’s how they treat ‘family.’ Unfortunately, your story is not unique by any means.”

However, this is one critical step that the OP missed when he ordered the car that could have prevented this from happening, as C8J points out. “If you didn’t get a signed order agreement…I have NEVER ordered a car, not just C8, without a full priced agreement. And that goes back to the ’70s. Otherwise it is no different than purchasing off the lot at whatever deal you can negotiate to or walk away from.”

Many point out that there are plenty of dealers out there charging MSRP these days, so perhaps the best way to handle this situation is to merely walk away from the deal. “This has absolutely nothing to do with what the dealer will charge you. OP, walk away. This is not two years ago, plenty of places can get you your car at MSRP,” said Mr Snappy!.

It’s likely the purchaser in this case has been waiting a while for his car already, and waiting even longer seems like an awful byproduct of a greedy dealer’s attempt to change course on a verbal agreement. However, the folks in this thread are 100 percent correct – the best way to deal with this now is to walk away, and hope that no one else is willing to pay this exorbitant asking price.

Photos: Corvette Forum

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