Dealer Transfering?

Tsmith · May 19, 2009

What exactly is involved when my local dealer is trying to get the truck I want from a dealer that's approx. 150 miles away? We've arrived at a deal on the truck and they said they could get it but now their trying to tell me that that dealer has a contract pending on the truck. My dealer has this truck in inventory, just not in the color I'm wanting. The truck in question is still showing up as available in that dealers inventory and there have been no CarFax inquires reported.

I feel I'll give them till Wednesday then just contact the dealer that has the truck and deal with them. Cost me some gas to go get it but that's no big deal. If it is still available, its been for over 4 weeks now ...

cerbomark · May 19, 2009

if they won t help you go get it yourself and deal with the other dealer. My dealer loacted mine over 100 miles away too. My dealer wouldn t tell me who had it. You are in the drivers seat if you know. See who gives a better deal.

Tsmith · May 19, 2009

if they won t help you go get it yourself and deal with the other dealer. My dealer loacted mine over 100 miles away too. My dealer wouldn t tell me who had it. You are in the drivers seat if you know. See who gives a better deal.

Yeah I found the truck via the internet the same day they did so there's no doubting its the truck. They even confirmed that much by the VIN #.

Z45 · May 19, 2009

They can either sell the vehicle to your dealer outright or do a trade +cash etc, trade a truck or some other vehicle in his inventory for the vehicle in their inventory. Dealers are not under any obligation to trade with another dealer. All depends on the dealer who has what you want and what he will accept to give it to you. Also, dealer don't always want to give up some vehicles if they are good sellers. When they traded for my 2004 GMC the dealer wanted an Envoy as he had over 100 trucks and Envoy were big sellers. There is usually one person at the dealer who is responsible for dealer trades.

Don't worry about the truck showing in his inventory, that won't go away right away. When they dealer traded for my 2004 I had the truck almost 2 weeks before the inventory changed. Just as much paper is involved in a dealer trade as in a regular sale, the truck is sold to the dealer. GM does not own them.

Reason they won't tell you who has it is fear you could go there and get a better deal on it.

stadt11 · May 19, 2009

+ they may charge you to go get it (gas mileage, etc). Usually the dealer you're getting the vehicle from has to need/want a vehicle that your current dealer has in inventory (kind of like a trade).

That's what happened to me, my dealer wouldn't go down to Atlanta (from Des Moines, IA) to get my truck (for the price they were selling it on the lot), so I just bought a plane ticket & got it myself.

C. Charles Hahn · May 19, 2009

if they won t help you go get it yourself and deal with the other dealer. My dealer loacted mine over 100 miles away too. My dealer wouldn t tell me who had it. You are in the drivers seat if you know. See who gives a better deal.

It really depends on who you deal with at the dealer. That's why I personally ALWAYS deal directly with the Internet Manager and General Sales Manager when I go in to buy a vehicle. I've done a LOT of dealer trades over the past few years both for myself and for other people I helped with negotiations. I sit down with them at the dealer and we just start going through Dealerworld looking for trucks with the exact options we want, and fax BARS sheets to the other dealers asking if the vehicles are available.

My experience has been that 80-90% of the time trading is no problem. Either the dealers will trade one vehicle for another, or sometimes will just sell the vehicle into the other dealer's floorplan. If your dealer is straight-up with you, he should have no problem handing you the BARS reprint that has all the numbers on it including what dealership the vehicle is coming from, supplier/GMS/Invoice pricing, VIN, and build sheet. I'd say the majority of Internet sales people work that way, at least when it comes to the ones I've dealt with.

FadedSierra · May 19, 2009

Sort of on topic...

My dealer is closing as many are, hows does it work out with GM, as in, does my dealer transfer my info etc to another nearby dealer?

Z45 · May 19, 2009

What info would he transfer? Are you waiting on ordered vehicle? If so then you better talk with the dealer and see what going to happen with that, no telling what they will do in that case.

I know when a dealer here went belly up the banks holding the business sold all the new vehicles back to GM who in turn offered them to other dealers. They said vehicles on order were rerouted to other dealers who would accept them. I surmise the zone office sent out notices to dealer advising them of special vehicles for sale. Car carriers came and moved the vehicles to those dealers. I guess GM has always done that, buy back new unsold inventory. They also took back some parts to a limit and charged a restocking fee.

You are on your own to seek out another dealer for service, that's no big deal as they have to provide warranty to service.

68haywagon · May 19, 2009

All my dealer records went to another dealer in my area when the one I bought at closed. I keep getting letters and coupons from the new dealer.

Mike

Tsmith · May 20, 2009

Thanks a bunch for the input on this guys. I had made my mind up that if I didn't hear something my noon time I was going to contact the other dealer and verify if there truly was an offer pending on the truck at their dealership. But my local dealer called at 9:30am and said they had worked out a vehicle trade for the truck and are sending a driver tomorrow to do the exchange. So I should take deliver on Thursday.