Earlier today, GM sent communication to its Chevrolet dealers that 2021 Corvette sold orders will no longer be accepted due to dealers giving customer false hope
A short time ago, GM issued the following announcement to its Chevrolet dealer network:
Due to continued overwhelming response to the 2021 Corvette and to avoid false customer expectations, it will be necessary to suspend the ability to create a sold order (SRE) beginning March 26, 2021. This does not prevent you from processing existing sold orders (SRE) within allocation, nor creating and processing a normal stock order (TRE). Unplanned downtime has impacted the overall 2021 Model Year Corvette production schedule. We are suspending SRE’s now in an effort to avoid cancelling orders that will not be built within the current schedule and disappointing customers in the process. We anticipate you will be able to submit orders for 2022MY Corvettes in early July.
What Does This Mean?
Basically what’s been happening is that Chevrolet dealers trying to cash in on high demand for a 2021 Corvette are taking deposits and placing sold orders for 2021 Corvettes in GM’s Order Work Bench when that dealer has very little to no allocation for the car.
The number of orders being placed by Chevrolet dealers far exceeds what the Bowling Green Corvette Assembly Plant can churn out for the 2021 model year. In the process those dealers are giving false hope to customers letting them think that they’ll get a 2021 Corvette.
If your dealer has already placed your order in GM’s system and it’s sitting at 1100 – there’s still a chance it could be built – but it’s not written in stone. In order to prevent any more orders from being submitted, GM will no longer accept anymore 2021 Corvette sold orders being submitted starting tomorrow.
How To Order a New Corvette and Understand The Process
Dealer Transparency
In summary: there’s a lot of dealers out there that are promising something to customers that they either no they can’t deliver, or stand little chance of delivering upon.
At this point – if you walk into your local Chevy dealer and they accept your deposit and tell you you’ll get a 2021 Corvette and they’ll submit your order – that’s simply not true.
They can accept a deposit for a 2022 Corvette and put you on a waiting list. Right now, you cannot build a 2022 Corvette in GM’s system and pricing has not been released.
According to the last sentence in GM’s statement, it looks like they’ll start accepting orders sometime in July.