Elevation crew cab standard box

Whistlingwings · May 11, 2020

Contacted the local dealer today in Southern California regarding a white crew cab standard box, 4x4. She was unable to locate one within 1000 mile radius. It sounds like my options are to wait it out and see if one pops up, or order one how I like it.

if I go down the ordering route, she stated I will get any incentives etc that are available in 3-4 months when the truck arrives but was unable to tell me what they would be. Are dealers more firm on price when the truck is ordered?

after pricing this out on the gmc site, it came out to $46K. What would be a reasonable price to pay with the 5.3L (assuming I went this route)

Edited May 11, 2020 by Whistlingwings

AdamAT4 · May 11, 2020

Ordering is usually the best way to go unless your are impatient.

I ordered my last truck and you get the current incentive's at time of order, but if GM ups the discount when the truck arrives you get that, if incentives are dropped you'll get the original deal. One way to look at it is, that's most most you'll pay for a truck.

How many times have we bought vehicle then a few months later a better deal happens.. in my case I bought my AT4 with every possible option and that was most of the AT4s in stock so I had no reason to order.. a few months later they have 0% with more money off. I got 0% but with a discount from preferred pricing, but I could have got preferred ($8600 off) and GM has 5k off and 0% so that would of been awesome

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Duramax3oh · May 11, 2020

Another option if you can find one at another dealer is to see if they'll honor that deal and have it shipped to them (you'll probably have to cover the shipping fee).

Here's a 5.3L in Houston, Tx for $46K for reference

https://www.beckmastennorth.com/VehicleSearchResults?make=GMC&model=Sierra 1500&year=2020&bodyColor=White&trim=Crew Cab Short Box 4-Wheel Drive Elevation

Edit: noticed it was a short box and not standard, my bad.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Duramax3oh

tinbad · May 11, 2020

1. First time I hear that dealer will let you order and apply the current incentives, for any brand. From my experience, whatever incentives apply at time of delivery are the ones you will get.

2. Therefore, I always negotiate the price before incentives. When I ordered my TB with standard bed (for same reason that none were available with the options I wanted). I emailed all 20 dealers within 50 miles and ended up with the one who offered the best price ($1000 below invoice and before any incentives available at time of deliver). I’m sure they still made a killing as TB trim was very popular and maybe for yours you can negotiate even more off invoice at time of ordering.

3. Either way, make sure you have it in writing. Come delivery time the dealer tried to pull a quick one by putting a price on the paperwork that was $500 more than what we agreed. Luckily I had the email saved with exactly the price I would pay (I spelled it out exactly.. it was something like $55,125 before incentives..) That the salesperson confirmed in the email.

4. Make sure you inspect the truck fully before signing the paperwork. I asked to not wash/detail the truck as I was going to take it straight to get ceramic coating applied. Because the truck was so dirty I didn’t do thorough check and there was paint defects I had to later take back and have them repaint part of it. Had I checked better I could’ve refused delivery. Not that I would because of a few paint defects but another forum member had a wrong door installed and that would definitely be a red flag for me.

5. Do your research and due diligence, if one dealer doesn’t want to play ball, find another one. Get exactly what you want or keep looking and don’t settle for less.

Good luck!!

Duramax3oh · May 11, 2020

12 minutes ago, tinbad said:

5. Do your research and due diligence, if one dealer doesn’t want to play ball, find another one. Get exactly what you want or keep looking and don’t settle for less.

Well said, especially this part. In the market environment we're in right now I just have to assume you have a little more leverage.

Edited May 11, 2020 by Duramax3oh

Cpl_Punishment · May 11, 2020

38 minutes ago, tinbad said:

1. First time I hear that dealer will let you order and apply the current incentives, for any brand. From my experience, whatever incentives apply at time of delivery are the ones you will get.

2. Therefore, I always negotiate the price before incentives. When I ordered my TB with standard bed (for same reason that none were available with the options I wanted). I emailed all 20 dealers within 50 miles and ended up with the one who offered the best price ($1000 below invoice and before any incentives available at time of deliver). I’m sure they still made a killing as TB trim was very popular and maybe for yours you can negotiate even more off invoice at time of ordering.

3. Either way, make sure you have it in writing. Come delivery time the dealer tried to pull a quick one by putting a price on the paperwork that was $500 more than what we agreed. Luckily I had the email saved with exactly the price I would pay (I spelled it out exactly.. it was something like $55,125 before incentives..) That the salesperson confirmed in the email.

4. Make sure you inspect the truck fully before signing the paperwork. I asked to not wash/detail the truck as I was going to take it straight to get ceramic coating applied. Because the truck was so dirty I didn’t do thorough check and there was paint defects I had to later take back and have them repaint part of it. Had I checked better I could’ve refused delivery. Not that I would because of a few paint defects but another forum member had a wrong door installed and that would definitely be a red flag for me.

5. Do your research and due diligence, if one dealer doesn’t want to play ball, find another one. Get exactly what you want or keep looking and don’t settle for less.

Good luck!!

To your first point, when I ordered my Tundra, I got the incentives at the time of ordering. I asked the dealership several times and they were very clear on that point. They had a really good cash discount when I ordered that wasn't still being offered when my truck was delivered.

Booger T · May 11, 2020

38 minutes ago, tinbad said:

From my experience, whatever incentives apply at time of delivery are the ones you will get.

That's the way it has always been for me also. If dealer honors incentives that were available at time of order and they are actually less at time of delivery he is the one eating the difference not GM.

Whistlingwings · May 12, 2020

2 hours ago, tinbad said:

1. First time I hear that dealer will let you order and apply the current incentives, for any brand. From my experience, whatever incentives apply at time of delivery are the ones you will get.

2. Therefore, I always negotiate the price before incentives. When I ordered my TB with standard bed (for same reason that none were available with the options I wanted). I emailed all 20 dealers within 50 miles and ended up with the one who offered the best price ($1000 below invoice and before any incentives available at time of deliver). I’m sure they still made a killing as TB trim was very popular and maybe for yours you can negotiate even more off invoice at time of ordering.

3. Either way, make sure you have it in writing. Come delivery time the dealer tried to pull a quick one by putting a price on the paperwork that was $500 more than what we agreed. Luckily I had the email saved with exactly the price I would pay (I spelled it out exactly.. it was something like $55,125 before incentives..) That the salesperson confirmed in the email.

4. Make sure you inspect the truck fully before signing the paperwork. I asked to not wash/detail the truck as I was going to take it straight to get ceramic coating applied. Because the truck was so dirty I didn’t do thorough check and there was paint defects I had to later take back and have them repaint part of it. Had I checked better I could’ve refused delivery. Not that I would because of a few paint defects but another forum member had a wrong door installed and that would definitely be a red flag for me.

5. Do your research and due diligence, if one dealer doesn’t want to play ball, find another one. Get exactly what you want or keep looking and don’t settle for less.

Good luck!!

So you ordered via email and negotiated a price (below MSRP) that you would pay. Also, you would receive any additional incentives that were offered at time of delivery?

the lady I spoke with on the phone said I could order and receive any incentives that were available at delivery. She said nothing about pre-negotiating a price on top of incentives...

tinbad · May 12, 2020

1 hour ago, Whistlingwings said:

So you ordered via email and negotiated a price (below MSRP) that you would pay. Also, you would receive any additional incentives that were offered at time of delivery?

the lady I spoke with on the phone said I could order and receive any incentives that were available at delivery. She said nothing about pre-negotiating a price on top of incentives...

I went to one of the local dealers first to take a test drive and decide which options I wanted. Then I went to Chevy site and configured the truck exactly how I wanted it. Then I emailed all dealers within <50 miles explaining that I wanted to custom order a truck with $xx,****** MSRP (exact MSRP of truck before incentives) and asked for the best out the door price, excluding current incentives (as most confirmed that current incentives couldn’t be guaranteed at time of delivery). It’s important to send to as many dealers as possible because most will respond with ”come check out this XYZ random other truck we have that is perfect for you”, completely ignoring that is not what you want or give you some other runaround to get you inside the dealership. However a few (usually ones that are hungry for sales) will actually respond and give you an offer and say something like I can go $xxxx below invoice or we can give you $xxxx discount on MSRP before incentives. Whatever they say, make sure you reiterate in a response so they can’t give you any bs. Negotiating on invoice price is pretty common as the invoice price is set and can be looked up online (not to be confused it’s not the price dealers ACTUALLY pay for it as that price is usually much lower and depends on other agreements the dealer has with the manufacturer like holdback, etc.) So I would usually calculate the price myself and respond “So based on your offer, I will be paying $xx,****** for the truck before any incentives that apply at delivery, correct?”. After I received a few responses/confirmation I took the lowest price and went back to the original dealer where I test drove the original truck to allow them to earn my business. They actually matched and took a $1000 refundable deposit over the phone. Then they sent me the order sheet to confirm all the options. I didn’t set foot in dealership except for the test drive and until the truck arrived ~8 weeks later.

Correct, I received incentives at time of delivery - they where actually slightly better then when I ordered. I feel like 4-5k on GM stuff is pretty typical unless the first few months of brand new MY, however right now, due to Covid they are even better (6k or more). Altogether I got ~18% off MSRP which was not bad for a custom order at the time. Either way it’s worth to always shop around and let dealers work to earn your business.

tinbad · May 12, 2020

Since I’ve never heard about being able to apply current incentives to custom orders I also wonder if that’s something that a dealer takes care of on their end or that certain manufacturers allow it? I thought that was why these offers usually expire at a certain date, in order to push for sales in that month/quarter/etc. If others can chime in I would be curious to know how it works. in my experience dealing with brands like Audi, BMW, Ford and Chevy, I’ve yet to encounter a dealer/brand who offered that to me. On contrary, that’s usually how they try to sell a car from their lot: you can order one but we can’t guarantee current incentives will apply when your car comes. Of course it wouldn’t be the first time they would lie to steer you into something they want you to buy...

AdamAT4 · May 12, 2020

Since I’ve never heard about being able to apply current incentives to custom orders I also wonder if that’s something that a dealer takes care of on their end or that certain manufacturers allow it? I thought that was why these offers usually expire at a certain date, in order to push for sales in that month/quarter/etc. If others can chime in I would be curious to know how it works. in my experience dealing with brands like Audi, BMW, Ford and Chevy, I’ve yet to encounter a dealer/brand who offered that to me. On contrary, that’s usually how they try to sell a car from their lot: you can order one but we can’t guarantee current incentives will apply when your car comes. Of course it wouldn’t be the first time they would lie to steer you into something they want you to buy...

When you order a truck or anything that's the purchase date, you make a deposit and sign for the vehicle then, if you payed more because an incentive is gone when the vehicle comes in then you are being robbed.

If you order at no obligation as in no paperwork or deposit well then of course you wont get the current deal at time of order.

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tinbad · May 12, 2020

50 minutes ago, AdamAT4 said:

When you order a truck or anything that's the purchase date, you make a deposit and sign for the vehicle then, if you payed more because an incentive is gone when the vehicle comes in then you are being robbed.

If you order at no obligation as in no paperwork or deposit well then of course you wont get the current deal at time of order.

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That has certainly not been my experience. Maybe it depends on the state, but in CA, the “order” is nothing else than a loose agreement between you and your dealer. Nothing obliges you to actually buy the car when it comes in and technically nothing obliges the dealer to sell it to you (although they usually will). From what I understand, most states even have laws where any deposit must be fully refundable and the dealer cannot force you to actually purchase when the car arrives.

Maybe when we say incentives we’re talking about different things. I’m referring to incentives as the rebates that the manufacturer (not dealer) provides that can be looked up online (either through their site or other sites that keep track of them). Usually the dealer receives when making a sale during the specific period the rebate runs.

Of course the dealer can still provide their own discounts on top of anything offered by the manufacturer but for those incentives I’m pretty sure the dealer is bound by the dates that the manufacturer sets to actually receive them. Anything else I’m pretty sure they will be eating out of their own “profit”.

spizike9 · May 12, 2020

2 hours ago, AdamAT4 said:

When you order a truck or anything that's the purchase date, you make a deposit and sign for the vehicle then, if you payed more because an incentive is gone when the vehicle comes in then you are being robbed.

If you order at no obligation as in no paperwork or deposit well then of course you wont get the current deal at time of order.

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You’re the only person I’ve ever heard say that the dealership will do that. I’ve spoken to probably 15 dealerships and none agree with what you’ve said. They will all agree on the dealer discount aspect but ALL of them have said that you get the incentives from the manufacturer that are available upon delivery. I’ve had some tell me you can lock the incentives once you have a VIN number on the vehicle but others have told me that’s a lie.

Whistlingwings · May 12, 2020

14 minutes ago, spizike9 said:

You’re the only person I’ve ever heard say that the dealership will do that. I’ve spoken to probably 15 dealerships and none agree with what you’ve said. They will all agree on the dealer discount aspect but ALL of them have said that you get the incentives from the manufacturer that are available upon delivery. I’ve had some tell me you can lock the incentives once you have a VIN number on the vehicle but others have told me that’s a lie.

this is what I was told today by the local gm dealer

AdamAT4 · May 12, 2020

Must be a US thing, here in Canada to do a factory order that seems to be the only way to order it.

You could factory order an odd ball truck and not take it, then the dealer would be left trying to sell it. So I'm very surprised you can order vehicles that way. My buddy ordered a Ram limited with 8.4" screen instead of the standard 12", that truck is probably 1 of 1.

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